Berlioz's Harold in Italy, Tchaikovsky's Capriccio italien, Strauss's Aus Italien – where's the Italian celebration of Italy in music? Why, here, in Alfredo Casella's rhapsody Italia, written using Sicilian and Neapolitan melodies in 1909, when its composer was "burning with enthusiasm for Albéniz, and . . . determined to achieve something similar for Italy". I can't imagine a 21st-century audience easily resisting its atmosphere and colours. The Introduzione, Corale e Marcia, for woodwind, brass, timpani, percussion, piano and double basses (1931-5), and Third Symphony (1939-40) are the work of a musically chameleon-like figure who had gone on to embrace neo-classicism. The striding energy of the symphony is well caught by Noseda and his Manchester players. url.ie/f1f2