Classical Music

Classical Music

After the opera omnia for piano (tc.901380) and the concert and chamber production (tc.901390), the record production dedicated to Franco Margola continues with this cd including works for cello. A particularly interesting figure in the panorama of the musical history of the twentieth century, Margola is a direct descendant of that neoclassical movement to which the "generation of the Eighties" belonged, in which he was able to express his talent more fully and to which he remained faithful even after a period of dodecaphonic experimentations. The protagonists of this recording are Jacopo Francini on solo cello, accompanied by Alessandro Deljavan on piano and by the Orchestra of the Teatro Verdi in Trieste, directed by Paolo Longo, with the participation of Giovanni Sollima in the duets for two cellos. At the end of the cd, the famous adagio with variations by Ottorino Respighi, one of the most loved and performed pages of the cello repertoire, thanks to its great lyrical inspiration.

Robert Schumann considered Peter Joseph von Lindpaintner the most promising operatic composer in the country, yet despite his 21 operas he has been almost forgotten. Like most leading German composers of his time he took Meyerbeer's historical grand operas, conceived in Paris, as his model. Set in Sicily at the dawn of the 1848 revolution, 'Il vespro siciliano' ('Die sizilianische Vesper'/ 'The Sicilian Vespers') is a dramatic four-act opera that reveals why he was held in such esteem by Schumann, Spohr and Mendelssohn: expressive harmonies, folksong-like strophic songs, rich orchestration, the use of the latest stylistic devices, and tuneful bel canto melodies that point to the work's Franco-Italian lineage. This world premiere recording is directed by Federico Longo.

Angelo Berardi (1636–94) maintained in his day that modern music had reached “greater perfection compared to the past” and that the practice of music was more important than theory; he asserted, moreover, that a good composition should also elevate the soul to virtuous thoughts. In terms of his stylistic profile, Berardi shows great richness of inspiration, so much so that this, his only work assigned to the violin, seems to cover the entirety of the instrument’s abilities and expressive variety.