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Margola: Music for Mandolin & Other Chamber Music
Brilliant Classics

Margola: Music for Mandolin & Other Chamber Music

$13.99

Details

Composer
MARGOLA, FRANCO
Artist
Ragione, Zanetti, Richiedei, Ferrari
Format
CD
Label
Brilliant Classics
Released
Jan 03, 2020
Catalog #
BRI96037
UPC
5028421960371

About

An exact contemporary of Olivier Messiaen (1908-92), Franco Margola was a Brescian musician born and bred, growing up within the culture of the city’s historic industry of string-instrument making. He composed in all the major classical genres but his music has been little heard outside Italy: a situation which this engaging new collection of his chamber music should remedy. Though he composed operas and symphonies, Margola was most at home in the world of miniatures such as we find on this album. He had a ready fund of quirky, memorable melodies which spring from the neoclassical Italian idiom honed by composers of the 1920s and 30s such as Respighi and Casella. While still a student, he met Alfredo Casella, and showed him a recently composed song. Casella was impressed and asked for more, so Margola an instrumental trio which Casella proceeded to perform with his own ensemble throughout Italy and farther. These precociously mature student years are represented on this album by the Piccola Sonata for violin and piano, composed in 1929. There are three sections within its concise five-minute span, largely elegiac in character and flavored not only with late-Romantic harmonies but the unmistakable influence of Maurice Ravel. At the other end of his life, Margola began to write for mandolin as a professor at the conservatoire in Parma. He treats the instrument like a lute, as if transcribing Renaissance dances in the style of Respighi, but the harmonies remain richly Romantic. One particular highlight is the Romanza senza parole, a song without words with an airy theme that alternates between the piano and the mandolin in a lyrical mood that naturally brings Mendelssohn and the world of Lieder to mind. Made in the composer’s home city of Brescia, these recordings are led by the mandolin player Raffaelle lo Ragione, an experienced soloist in music of the Baroque and Romantic eras, with a previous Brilliant Classics album of neglected Neapolitan music to his credit, ‘Serenata Napoletana’.

 

REVIEW:

 

There is some wonderful music on this disc, especially the lovely Picccola Suonata, a work clearly wedded to the Romantic Era. Occasionally one can hear a harmonic reference that is a bit adventurous, but those moments are fleeting. This is music of great charm and eloquence, coupled with wonderful melodic invention. It is simple, without being simplistic. All of the performers on the disc serve the music well. Their performances are sympathetic and sincere in their expression. The recorded sound is very good.

 

– Fanfare

Tracklist 15 tracks

  1. 1 Grande Sonata 05:54
    Track
    1
    Title
    Grande Sonata
    Duration
    05:54
    Composer
    Franco Margola
    Performer
    Raffaele La Ragione, Gabriele Zanetti
  2. 2 Piccola Sonata 05:28
    Track
    2
    Title
    Piccola Sonata
    Duration
    05:28
    Composer
    Franco Margola
    Performer
    Daniele Richiedei, Giacomo Ferrari
  3. 3 Allegro 04:54
    Track
    3
    Title
    Allegro
    Duration
    04:54
    Composer
    Franco Margola
    Performer
    Daniele Richiedei, Gabriele Zanetti
  4. 4 Moderato 04:24
    Track
    4
    Title
    Moderato
    Duration
    04:24
    Composer
    Franco Margola
    Performer
    Raffaele La Ragione, Giacomo Ferrari
  5. 5 Fantasia 09:29
    Track
    5
    Title
    Fantasia
    Duration
    09:29
    Composer
    Franco Margola
    Performer
    Gabriele Zanetti, Giacomo Ferrari
  6. 6 Adagio 00:55
    Track
    6
    Title
    Adagio
    Duration
    00:55
    Composer
    Franco Margola
    Performer
    Raffaele La Ragione, Giacomo Ferrari
  7. 7 I. Allegro 02:40
    Track
    7
    Title
    I. Allegro
    Duration
    02:40
    Composer
    Franco Margola
    Performer
    Daniele Richiedei, Gabriele Zanetti
  8. 8 II. Adagio 03:30
    Track
    8
    Title
    II. Adagio
    Duration
    03:30
    Composer
    Franco Margola
    Performer
    Daniele Richiedei, Gabriele Zanetti
  9. 9 III. Vivace 01:01
    Track
    9
    Title
    III. Vivace
    Duration
    01:01
    Composer
    Franco Margola
    Performer
    Daniele Richiedei, Gabriele Zanetti
  10. 10 No. 1. Allegro 00:48
    Track
    10
    Title
    No. 1. Allegro
    Duration
    00:48
    Composer
    Franco Margola
    Performer
    Raffaele La Ragione, Giacomo Ferrari
  11. 11 No. 2. Adagio 01:17
    Track
    11
    Title
    No. 2. Adagio
    Duration
    01:17
    Composer
    Franco Margola
    Performer
    Raffaele La Ragione, Giacomo Ferrari
  12. 12 No. 3. Finale 01:01
    Track
    12
    Title
    No. 3. Finale
    Duration
    01:01
    Composer
    Franco Margola
    Performer
    Raffaele La Ragione, Giacomo Ferrari
  13. 13 Improvviso (arr. for guitar and piano) 02:51
    Track
    13
    Title
    Improvviso (arr. for guitar and piano)
    Duration
    02:51
    Composer
    Franco Margola
    Performer
    Gabriele Zanetti, Giacomo Ferrari
  14. 14 Romanza senza parole 03:03
    Track
    14
    Title
    Romanza senza parole
    Duration
    03:03
    Composer
    Franco Margola
    Performer
    Raffaele La Ragione, Giacomo Ferrari
  15. 15 Minimal Choro (after F. Margola's Adagio dC 263) 02:49
    Track
    15
    Title
    Minimal Choro (after F. Margola's Adagio dC 263)
    Duration
    02:49
    Composer
    Daniele Richiedei
    Performer
    Daniele Richiedei, Raffaele La Ragione, Gabriele Zanetti, Giacomo Ferrari