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Santorsola: Music for Violin/Viola & Piano / Gran Duo Italiano
Brilliant Classics

Santorsola: Music for Violin/Viola & Piano / Gran Duo Italiano

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Details

Composer
Guido Santorsola
Artist
Mauro Tortorelli, Angela Meluso
Format
CD
Label
Brilliant Classics
Released
Oct 27, 2023
Catalog #
BRI96492
UPC
5028421964928

About

Guido Santorsóla (1904–1994) began his musical studies at the age of five, taught by his father, a sculptor, trumpeter and double bassist who moved from Southern Italy to São Paulo, Brazil in 1909, with the rest of the family joining him the following year. He enrolled at the São Paulo Conservatory of Music, then travelled to Naples to hone his violin technique and later London, where he studied at the Trinity College of Music under Alfred Mistowsky. His eventual return to Brazil coincided with a visit from Pietro Mascagni.

At a concert in the great composer’s honour Santorsóla, accompanied at the piano by Mascagni himself, performed his own compositions for violin and piano for the first time. Santórsola’s final compositional period began at the age of 58, in 1962. He devised a very personal 12-tone technique free from conventional rules, and not to be confused with Schoenberg’s. His language is rooted in the golden age of Florentine counterpoint through to Bach. The novel instrument used on this recording – the gran violino a 5 corde (great five-string violin) – originated from an idea by violinist Mauro Tortorelli, who commissioned the luthiers Vincenzo and Marco Corrado – based in Montegiordano, in southern Italy – to build a special instrument covering both the violin and viola registers by adding the viola’s low C string to the usual four of the violin. This ingenious solution allows the performer to switch between violin and viola repertoire on the same instrument.

The Sonata for violin and piano, composed in São Paulo in 1928, undoubtedly belongs to Santórsola’s early compositional period. Divided into three movements – Con sofferenza, Andante espressivo, Deciso – it is based on classical sonata form but with typically post-romantic expressive, passionate themes, enriched with original South America-inspired harmonies. Saudade, a nostalgic piece for violin and piano dedicated to Santórsola’s mother, was composed in 1931. The violin has a binary rhythm in 2/2, while the piano plays groups of five notes in 10/8, the two overlapping to create a sort of atmosphere of unresolved suspense, evoking a feeling of pleasant melancholy in the listener.

Choro No.2 for violin and piano, composed in Montevideo, Uruguay in 1952, is a bright and highly rhythmic piece in Brazilian style that belongs to Santórsola’s middle compositional period. The Danza brasileira and Canção triste, both composed in 1934, written in an ABA lieder form and scored for violin or viola and piano, also belong to the composer’s middle period. Valsa chorosa for piano, written in Montevideo in 1971, and therefore dating from Santórsola’s final compositional period, clearly recalls his first period in the nostalgic way it is written.

Tracklist 8 tracks

  1. 1 I. Con sofferenza 09:08
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Con sofferenza
    Duration
    09:08
    Composer
    Guido Santórsola
    Ensemble
    Gran Duo Italiano
  2. 2 II. Andante espressivo 05:43
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Andante espressivo
    Duration
    05:43
    Composer
    Guido Santórsola
    Ensemble
    Gran Duo Italiano
  3. 3 III. Deciso 06:47
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Deciso
    Duration
    06:47
    Composer
    Guido Santórsola
    Ensemble
    Gran Duo Italiano
  4. 4 Saudade 05:25
    Track
    4
    Title
    Saudade
    Duration
    05:25
    Composer
    Guido Santórsola
    Ensemble
    Gran Duo Italiano
  5. 5 Danza Brasileira 03:14
    Track
    5
    Title
    Danza Brasileira
    Duration
    03:14
    Composer
    Guido Santórsola
    Ensemble
    Gran Duo Italiano
  6. 6 Canção triste 04:04
    Track
    6
    Title
    Canção triste
    Duration
    04:04
    Composer
    Guido Santórsola
    Ensemble
    Gran Duo Italiano
  7. 7 4 Piezas latinoamericanas: No. 2. Valsa chorosa (version for piano) 04:46
    Track
    7
    Title
    4 Piezas latinoamericanas: No. 2. Valsa chorosa (version for piano)
    Duration
    04:46
    Composer
    Guido Santórsola
    Performer
    Angela Meluso
  8. 8 Chôro No. 2 13:20
    Track
    8
    Title
    Chôro No. 2
    Duration
    13:20
    Composer
    Guido Santórsola
    Ensemble
    Gran Duo Italiano