Classical Music

On this release, Bach's lute Suites are entrusted to four emerging talents of the guitar, all of whom have been taught at the Conservatorio "Arrigo Pedrollo" of Vicenza. An important corpus of music is thus presented in four interpretations that are different and, in a sense, complementary; what they share, however, is a degree of artistic maturity that - at such an early stage of one's professional parable - certainly constitutes an extraordinary accomplishment.

Classical Music

Classical Music

ROTA Improvviso : in C (“A sentimental devil”); in d. Violin Sonata in G. Legend of the Glass Mountain . Intermezzo in b. Viola Sonatas: in C; in G • Francesco d’Orazio (vn, va); Giampaolo Nuti (pn) • STRADIVARIUS 33934 (62:23)


This disc claims to contain Rota’s complete works for violin or viola and piano, a statement I have no reason to dispute. In fact, the contents of this disc are identical to those of another “complete” collection (Arts 47718-8) except for Legend of the Glass Mountain , a short work for violin and piano which was adapted from the film of the same name. In other words, the Stradivarius CD under review here is more complete, if you will, than the Arts SACD, which features violinist/violist Marco Fornaciari and pianist Gabriele Baldocci.


Most of these works are fairly early, ranging from the Viola Sonata in G (1934) to Legend of the Glass Mountain (1948). The exception is the violin Improvviso in C, which was composed in 1969. The meaning of the subtitle “A sentimental devil” is not certain, although the work is in what might be called Rota’s “circus” style, as it is reminiscent of his music from La Strada . (This is the style that Danny Elfman cleverly duplicated in his score for Pee Wee’s Big Adventure .) The rest of the music on this CD was composed in a style less familiar to those who know Rota’s music only through his work in film, although the other violin Improvviso , the one in D Minor, originated in the film Amanti senza amore (Lovers Without Love), itself an adaptation of Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata . It is a brief work in gypsy style.


The meat of this CD comes in the three sonatas. The Violin Sonata, composed in between the two viola sonatas, is very attractive, and more reminiscent of French music than Italian. The first movement is richly melodic, and at times it even sounds like Franck on a Mediterranean holiday. The second movement is dignified, but mounts in emotional intensity. The last movement opens with yet another Franck- or Fauré-like melody, although it becomes more playful. This sonata would be welcome on almost any recital. The Viola Sonata in G was written for William Primrose. This is a concise work—together, its three movements last less than 10 minutes—yet Rota packs plenty of melody into it. The flowing and somewhat folksy theme of the first movement might allude to Primrose’s Scottish background, although perhaps I am just imagining it! The succeeding Adagio also has a folk-like simplicity, although there is a bit of Impressionism as well. The closing Allegro returns to the atmosphere of the first movement, although there is more pensive contrasting material. The Viola Sonata in C (1945) was adapted from Rota’s Clarinet Sonata in D. As in the other sonatas, melody plays a starring role, but here, Rota’s voice is more distinctive. The first movement is thoughtful, verging on the melancholy, and the mood turns almost tearful in the central Andante sostenuto . The finale, like the first movement, is marked Allegro scorrevole (flowing), and also like the first movement, eschews brilliance in favor of a rather Brahmsian mellowness until it comes to a sudden close.


The chief difference between the Stradivarius CD and the Arts SACD is recording quality. D’Orazio and Nuti were recorded in a much less resonant space than Fornaciari and Baldocci, and thus there is a dryness to their sound that some might find unappealing. All of the performers have a good handle on the music, and interpretively, there really is little to distinguish the performances on the two discs from each other. Perhaps D’Orazio and Nuti are a little more imaginative than Fornaciari and Baldocci, but that might have more to do with how close they are to the microphones. I don’t think you would be unhappy with either recording. If you want SACD and warmer sound, then go for Fornaciari and Baldocci, but if you want the extra work, go for D’Orazio and Nuti.


FANFARE: Raymond Tuttle

Kumi Uchimoto began studying piano at the age of four. She went on to study with Chieko Hara de Cassado and Ryoko Fukazawa before continuing her studies in Italy with Nunzio Mantanari, Martha Del Vecchio, and Michele Campanella. She received her diploma summa cum laude from the Conservatorio 'C. Monteverdi' in Bolzano and specialized at the Accademia Pianistica di Imola, receiving her diploma as a soloist. On her new release for Stradivarius she presents 24 Piano Preludes that come from her home country of Japan. The composers, including Akiko Yamane, Tomoko Fukui, Motoharu Kawashima, and others, utilize an engaging and intriguing combination of Western classical music techniques and Japanese folk ideals.

Tender or troubled, dark or starlit, the night has long been a source of artistic creativity. Whether it is simple music to help children fall asleep, or broader forms inspired by the nocturnal theme, this recording suggests some of the many facets of an essentially romantic element, dictated by the unconscious. Twentieth-century France was certainly one of the countries that developed this theme most, proposing a poetic content with an extensive panorama, ranging from melancholy and mystery, to pure and enchanting melody, passing through the instantaneous description of a scene or a painting, the aim of each composer being to exploit a flexible structure, favoring the alternation between highly expressive lyrical passages and other more or less animated moments.

Far from the clamor of the media, Patricia Pagny has for years made a name for herself in the world of music by following an atypical path marked by important tours abroad. Her frequent appearances in Asia and Europe, the masterclasses she holds in various music centers, her position as Professor at the Hochschule der Künste in Bern, her presence on the juries of international competitions, her commitment to the promotion of the new generation of musicians, within the framework of the “Tasti’Era-Projects” program of which she is artistic director, as well as a rich and varied discography, are all evidence of her intense activity.

Ryoanji, composed by John Cage for the Ensemble Alternance and the double bass player Joëlle Léandre, is one of the founding works of the Ensemble. Since then, the Ensemble Alternance's attention to contemporary American music has been constant through the revival of works by leading composers such as Ives, Crumb, Carter, Brown... but also creations by David Lang, Jason Eckardt... This new generation of composers is the heir to the pioneering spirit of John Cage. It is also emblematic of a melting pot society open to cultures from around the world. Although expressing themselves in resolutely different styles, the four composers featured on this recording: Alex Mincek, Eric Wubbels, Ashkan Behzadi and Mario Diaz de Leon, have two things in common. The first is a high level of instrumental practice: one is a saxophonist, the other a pianist or an electric guitarist... evolving in a vast field of expression (from experimental, alternative and electronic music to rock or jazz). The second is Columbia University (New York), where they acquired knowhow and in depth knowledge of music writing and where, in turn, some of them have taught or still teach.

This program stems from the desire to plunge into a succession of short and idiomatic musical forms that can “evoke” the expressive nuances of the protagonists of the Spanish national school, which developed between the XIX and the XX century. The deep voice of the cello and the brightness of the guitar perfectly blend in this repertoire to recall the taste, the cultural world, and the expressive spirit that originated it and that underlies, in every page, the stories and the weaves of its protagonists. The first pioneers of this Iberian impressionism were the renowned pianists and composers Isaac Albéniz (18601909) and Enrique Granados (18971966). Catalans and spokesmen of a national music filtered through a more European outlook, born from their Parisian stays and the rich cultural excitement of the Barcelona of that era. Both, through their pianos, manage to render a Spain seen from the outside. The popular pieces for piano (or for voice and piano, like in Elegia Eterna) collected here, evoke colors and sounds that transcend the instrument; they recall the dances, the folk songs, the nightly atmospheres, the cante jondo and the voice of the guitar itself to such an extent that the following vibrant transcriptions of guitarists like Tarrega, Llobet and Segovia sparked the popular false belief that these pieces were created for the guitar in the first place. Therefore the guitar presents itself as the ideal instrument for this repertoire since its conception, but the expressive intensity of the cello, not only perfectly marries with the tone of the six strings, but also seems to infuse the singing with a fluidity, a richness, and a narrative intensity that no transcription for solo guitar could ever fully support.

Luca Fiorentini and Jakub Tchorzewski’s concert was recorded on September 25, 2014 at the Oratorio San Filippo Neri in Bologna as part of the “Il Nuovo l’Antico” section of the XXXIII edition of the Bologna Festival. “Il Nuovo l’Antico” was in turn divided into two cycles: “Delizie e Tenebre” and “La Triade Polacca: Chopin-Szymanowski-Lutoslawski”, conceived by the artistic director of the Festival, the Venetian musicologist Prof. Mario Messinis – former artistic director of the Biennale Musica in Venice and of the RAI Orchestras of Turin and Milan, as well as superintendent of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice -, to whom this recording is dedicated. The duo Fiorentini-Tchorzewski presented a repertoire that spans more than a century, adding to the “triad” the living Polish composer Krzysztof Meyer. The cycle “La Triade Polacca: Chopin-Szymanowski-Lutoslawski” was organized in collaboration with the Polish Institute of Rome.

Laura Catrani writes: “My first concert for the unaccompanied voice was Vox in Femina (2010), in which I brought together some of the great twentieth-century and contemporary composers. Vox in Bestia is a natural progression of that work. The idea came about in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic. I was thinking about a new project for a solo voice when I came across the universe of fantastical animals and medieval bestiaries. I was also thinking about Dante’s upcoming anniversary. And that is when the idea came to me: I could create a Dante-esque bestiary, a sort of exploration of the real and fantastical animals found in The Divine Comedy, observed and perceived through the prism of my voice. I brought together the composers Fabrizio De Rossi Re, Matteo Franceschini and Alessandro Solbiati, asking each of them to compose five short pieces for a solo voice inspired by Dante’s tercets that talk about animals. They were to compose in their own style, based on their individual personalities and sensibilities. A narrative line by a distinguished voice of contemporary Italian literature would be interwoven alongside them. I felt that Tiziano Scarpa was the perfect writer – he is imaginative and at the same time rooted and concrete – so I asked him to write a sort of literary commentary to Dante’s verses.”

Ceci n’est pas une flûte is a Magritte-like calembour, representing the desire, with this release, to propose a synesthetic listening experience within a game of sound mirages, illusions and allusions. We pursued this intriguing goal from the project’s conception, starting from the idea that an album recording implies the added value of being a sort of music microscopy, by using a rich and accurate miking together with a fine sound processing, where both the electronic tracks and the ambience itself could be treated as chamber music partners of the flute. The recording session was meant to deliver the composition with a surgical rendition that would have been impossible in a live performance, within an aesthetical frame that is not an end in itself but wants to deliver the polysemy of the contemporary language at its best, where nothing is ever as it seems. In fact, while deconstructing every convention about music, the fantasy of contemporary composers throughout the last century has taken over the sound of the flute, giving it a brand new creative and syncretic power. Breaking the chronological limits and reconnecting the timeline extremities, the flute is once again a magic stick recovering a shamanic allure from the dawn of time, now steeped in the expressive and technological possibilities of modern times.

"The Tres temas de recuerdos are inspired chapters of memory that Jaume Pahissa (1880-1969) composed for guitar in 1938 in Argentina, evoking nostalgia for his distant Catalan homeland that he was forced to leave in 1937 owing to the Spanish civil war. Besides their meditative beauty, these pieces also offer us the inspiration for the title of this release, similarly prompted by 'recollections'. This is expressed, in fact, through a programme that to a great extent embodies the special role played by 'memory', thanks to various pieces that engender emotional reference within the collective imaginary. Pieces that are deeply rooted in the conscience of those who love the guitar and it's close association with it's most representative historical figures. Alongside these pieces inspired by memory, their composers and their arrangers, and the symbolic reality that each of them reveals, I have added other works, perhaps less familiar to the public at large. These are instead linked - more or less openly - to my more personal references, associated with the passing of my own experience; so these too, on account of their individual peculiarity, are included as part of the Temas de recuerdos that I am proposing here, in the hope that they can also become such for the listener. That is, I attempt to understand the reason for this more personal association in certain pieces that are particularly suitable for the purpose, by exploring them from within: like reflecting oneself in one's own reiterated sonic presence, almost wishing to find a secret account of the steps of one's own story. The hope is to unveil within the identity of these themes the birth of an unforeseen source of affection for our own life." (Stefano Grondona)

Robert HP Platz, composer and conductor, was born in Baden-Baden in 1951. He studied composition with Wolfgang Fortner and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Robert HP Platz sees his entire work as a global architecture in constant evolution. He has composed for music theater, orchestral works, ensemble music, chamber music, children’s music and solo pieces, often including electronic sounds. His friendship with visual artists and authors, his affinity for Italian and French culture, which goes back to his childhood, and his fascination for Japanese culture are further inspiration for his multi-faceted musical world. This album is dedicated to his compositions for flute, written between 1993 and 2018, and presents an important facet of his artistic work, presenting different aspects of his poetics in the 11 tracks. These expressive pieces, composed with deep technical knowledge of the flute, form a special context in this compilation and thus present a unique musical language. The unifying factors are motivation, choice of instruments and the organization of tonal centers that form bridges from work to work.

People who are passionate about music will soon have to carry out careful investigations in the ancient districts of the Austrian musical baroque, because these indeed seem to present themselves today as parts of a land rich in forgotten music. But we want to be quite close to them. With this recording we in fact enter again the period of the late 17th and early 18th centuries and our initiative is particularly interesting with regard to the graceful paths of Austrian violinism. Many have already come to love an important author of that time such as the great von Biber (1644-1704) quoted in the previous album (Austrian Baroque for violin solo) with sequence of his Rosary. But then we proceeded to the discovery of Johann Vilsmayr, who endowed us with his crystal-clear music, which rises towards high horizons. Also underlined by the outstanding interpretation of the violinist Liliana Bernardi, in this second release, under the auspices and support of the Associazione Nazionale Italia-Austria. In the present recording we turn to the second part of Vilsmay’s “partite” and of course our interest grows, if we only think of the great surprise stirred up in us by the Salzburg Master on the previous album. After all, to understand him we just dispose of his musical soul, because so little is known about his life. However, there is no wavering: we are confronted with a great musician, who makes use of a pure speech, full of curiosity for life.