Rota: Concerto for strings

Appearing on CD for the first time, Lamberto Gardelli's Pizzetti recording has been one of the most venerated in the Decca catalogue, not only because the music is comparatively rare, but because the recording is true state-of-the-art. The music has Gallic charm and a Stravinskian sense of razor-sharp wit, not to mention a fascinating storyline in which the heroine in the incidental music for La Pisanella, Sainte Aletis (a courtesan) is killed at the end of the play by being smothered by a downpour of rose petals! The couplings return to the catalogue two other Italian orchestral works, Heltay's energetic Botticelli Pictures and the little-known and utterly charming Concerto for Strings by a composer otherwise exclusively known for his soundtracks to films, Nino Rota.

The rediscovery in recent years of the enormous catalogue of Nino Rota’s music held by the Cini Foundation in Venice is perhaps finally inverting an inversely proportional trend between the composer’s popularity as author of film music and as classical music composer. This recording presents his Concerto per violoncello with Enrico Bronzi, one of the greatest and most sensitive musicians of the new generation, playing the solo part and leading the excellent Musici di Parma also in the undisputedly neoclassic Concerto per Archi (presented here in the revised version from 1977). In the Trio con clarinetto of 1973, the magic sound of Alessandro Carbonare blends together with that of Bronzi and Miodini (who play together in the Trio di Parma).

For Michala Petri, being able to perform on her 50th birthday in Tivoli Concert Hall was very special occasion. It was in that very hall that she had her debut more than four decades earlier, as well as having performed on both her 30th and 40th birthday celebration concerts.

The choice of repertoire was Michala’s own and was made based both on what would make an attractive and varied program as well as being representative of her artistry and artistic concerns. Here, the music looks back as well as ahead, and includes the works of the Baroque masters Vivaldi and Albinoni, two exciting contemporary scores composed especially for her (Vassilie’s Valere Iubere and Chen Yi’s Ancient Chinese Beauty), and at the concert’s mid-point, a beautiful Andante by Mozart.

For the remainder of the program, the ensemble of virtuosi known as the Kremerata Baltica take centre stage in the performance of two works – Nino Rota’s delightful Neo-Baroque Concerto for Strings and the enchanting Variations on Happy Birthday by Peter Heidrich.

“Petri makes the recorder sound so right in Mozart - delightful!” Gramophone