In Memoriam for strings [8.18]
Kojiki for harp and strings (2013) [14.11]
Concerto for violin and strings [18.22]
Una breve vacanza for viola and strings (1973) [3.49]
Filmusic for piano and strings [15.04]
Il giardino dei Finzi Contini * (1970) [18.48]
Floraleda Sacchi (harp); Maristella Patuzzi (violin); Anna Serova (viola); Michelangelo Carbonara (piano); Marco Attura * (orchestral piano)
Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini/Flavio Emilio Scogna
rec. Centro di Produzione Musicale della Filarmonica Toscanini, Parma, Italy, 27-28 May 2013
BRILLIANT CLASSICS 94905 [79.10]
Manuel De Sica, son of the famous Italian film director and actor, Vittorio
De Sica, has been responsible for some eighty film scores, composed between
1968 and 2012. He describes his early influences as “Bruno Maderna
and Henry Mancini” but also “two other outstanding figures
of 20th century music: Alban Berg and Béla Bartók.”
Bernard Herrmann’s ‘hand’ is felt too in a number of
places on this album.
In Memoriam is a brief piece dedicated to the victims of the Abruzzo
and Emilia earthquakes in 2009 and 2012. This ‘ode of remembrance’
chorale, as De Sica describes it, is a minimalist composition supposedly
inspired by the compositions of Bernard Herrmann. Echoes of that composer’s
Psycho and Vertigo scores are apparent.
Kojiki is a most attractive, accessible concerto for harp and strings,
sentimentally romantic and atmospheric, nodding slightly towards Japanese
ethnicity. It has some gorgeous writing for the soloist. The work’s
inspiration was the bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941. The narrative of
Kojiki tells of the childhood, adolescence and death of a kamikaze
pilot who might have participated in the bombing. The opening Prelude
possesses an iridescent beauty. The central Epitaph is mournful
and darkly tragic while the concluding consoling Dance “describes
his ascent to the empyrean world of his ancestors”
The deeply-felt, meditative Violin Concerto’s first Adagio, quasi
andante is elegiac and a little reminiscent of Vaughan Williams’s
The Lark Ascending. The Mosso misterioso movement
that follows is agitated and mournful and is followed by a Meditavio,
con intensità movement that can be said to be emotionally linked
to its predecessor. It begins with an extended cadenza which the composer
describes as a commemoration dedicated to the victims of war in the Middle
East. The work is rounded off with another Adagio very much in the mood
of the opening movement.
Manuel De Sica describes his little piece for viola and strings, the theme
for his father’s 1973 film, Una breve vacanza, as “probably
the most beautiful melody I have ever written for the movies.” Indeed
as performed here by Anna Serova it does touch the heart.
On a lighter note, Filmusic for piano and orchestra is delightful.
Its sparkling opening movement is Russian-inspired and it finishes with
a gleeful whirling tarantella true to the composer’s father’s
Neapolitan origins. In between is a brief romantic meditation, delicate
and quite lovely, and for me the best thing on this CD. Carbonara and
the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini clearly relish this work.
Finally the Oscar-nominated film music for the Il giardino dei Finzi
Contini, written when the composer was in his early twenties. It was
directed by his father. It tells of a Jewish family living in Ferrara,
enjoying tennis in contentment in their secluded garden as the tide of
fascism rises around them ultimately to engulf them. All this and a torpid
atmosphere pervade this score. The influence of Henry Mancini is strongly
felt.
An interesting, lovingly performed programme of film and concert music
by a contemporary Italian composer.
Ian Lace
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