Giovanni SGAMBATI (1841-1914)
Piano Quintet No.1 in F minor, Op.4
Two Pieces* for violin and piano,
Op.24
Gondoliera* for violin and piano,
Op.29
Romanza†for cello and piano,
Op.23.
Francesco Caramiello
(piano)
Ex Novo Quartet: Carlo Lazari* (violin); Annamaria Pellegrino (violin)
Mario Paladin (viola) Carlo Teodoro†
(cello)
ASV CD DCA 1029
[67:21]
(This recording was released in
1998)
Crotchet
Sir Edward Elgar was in Rome early in 1907, and again as that year turned
into 1908. Whilst he was there he was befriended by one of the leading figures
of secular music in Italy - Giovanni Sgambati. Sgambati gave a reception
for the Elgars on their earlier visit and, during their later stay, proposed
that Elgar conduct an all-Elgar concert in a series that had already included
personal appearances by Debussy, Sibelius and Strauss. But the hall was cavernous
and full of echo, so Elgar declined. Nevertheless, Sgambati and Elgar remained
on friendly terms until the Italian composer died in 1914. Sgambati symbolised
a struggle to free Italian music from a complete dominance of opera in favour
of instrumental, chamber and orchestral music. He was an early link in the
chain of late 19th/early 20th century Italian music
that included the, perhaps, more familiar name, Martucci (who frankly wrote
stronger works), down to Martucci's student Ottorino Respighi.
I mention all this because the thing that struck me forcibly was how
Elgarian at least one of the Sgambati miniatures
on this album sounds - the Andante cantabile for piano and violin
which is the most substantial of the Two Pieces for violin and piano. Sgambati
tended to be inspired by Northern European music, notably Liszt, Wagner,
Schumann and Brahms. These are discernible in all the works in this collection
and, especially in the charming miniatures, there is also the sun and warmth
of Italy. Indeed in the Gondoliera, you have a sense of gently moving
waters beneath a gondola gliding along a moonlit Venetia canal carrying lovers
oblivious to everything but themselves.
The main work on the disc is Sgambati's Piano Quintet which was admired by
both Liszt and Wagner. It was composed in 1866, and one cannot help wondering,
judging by its heroic nature - in many places it's as though one was listening
to a fully-fledged, bravura Late Romantic piano concerto - wondering whether
the turbulence of the events in Rome during the Risorgimento (Rome was embraced
into the new Italy, last, in 1870) had in any way inspired its drama. There
is plenty of restless energy in the powerful first movement, while the
vivacissimo second movement is just that; contrasted with amiable
reflective strolling material. The andante sostenuto movement that
follows is intimate, quiet and quaintly lyrical with passages of passionate
intensity. The final movement moves from a belligerent march to coyness with
many moods in between.
Francesco Caramiello and the Ex Novo Quartet give sparkling committed
performances.
Ian Lace
