Ildebrando Pizzetti's Concerto dell'estate of 1928 (really a three-movement symphony) is one of the most attractive of all early 20th-century Italian orchestral works. It hasn't been recorded since Gardelli did it for Decca some 40 years ago, and this new version is most welcome. While Myron Michailidis chooses virtually identical tempos in the outer movements, the central nocturne runs a bit slower (but not duller) than the earlier version, at some gain in atmosphere. The recording balances, which place the woodwinds and harps relatively forward, also suit the work very well. It's a beautiful performance, well played and atmospheric.

I have a sentimental attachment to the Oedipus Rex Symphonic Preludes: this was the very first work that I played as a percussionist with the Johns Hopkins Symphony Orchestra in my undergraduate days, and it introduced me to Pizzetti. To be honest, the cymbal part didn't give me much to do, but it did offer me the opportunity to simply listen to a very beautiful piece that, like the Concerto dell'estate, deserves far greater currency than it enjoys. It was recorded relatively recently by Vänskä for Hyperion, quite well too, but this version is just as good, with confident horn playing and powerful climaxes.

The remaining two works receive their recording premieres. Pizzetti was basically a gentle, lyrical composer, but he could get his dander up quite effectively: witness the five-minute prelude to Clitennestra. Composed in the 1960s just before his death, you'd never know it from the harmonic style--it's just as attractive and approachable as the Oedipus Rex music of some 60 years earlier. La Feste delle Panatenee is another tryptich that, like the work just mentioned, takes ancient Greece as its inspiration. Less somber than its predecessor, it concludes with an imposing procession that could use a touch more heft from the brass and a less prominent snare drum--but as with all of these performances conductor Michailidis and the Thessaloniki State Symphony certainly do the music justice. Strongly recommended.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com