Gian Francesco Malipiero (1882-1973)
Violin Concerto No 1 (1932)
Per una favola cavalleresca (1914/15 rev. 1920)
Violin Concerto No 2 (1963)
Paolo Chiavacci (violin)
Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma/Francesco La Vecchia
rec. 2012/13, Auditorium Conciliazione & OSR Studios, Rome
NAXOS 8.573075 [69]
I have several recordings of Malipiero’s orchestral music on Naxos. I welcome their commitment to previously neglected works. Indeed, where would we be without Naxos and the likes of Hyperion, Chandos, CPO, Toccata Classics and Dutton?
I have a reservation regarding Malipiero: his themes are just not very memorable. When one also considers the dramatic change in his compositional style as he matured, it becomes difficult to relate his works across time. He appears to have started as a proponent of impressionism, then moved to his own style of neo-classicism, and finally adopted an acerbic and dissonant atonality.
The earliest work here is the four-movement tone poem Per una favola cavalleresca. These are orchestral excerpts from Malipiero’s never-performed opera, based on Lancelot and Guinevere’s story and speculatively named Lancellotto del lago. The orchestration is somewhat opaque, as befits its impressionistic roots, though just occasionally I noticed Stravinsky peeping through. The second movement briefly pits low brass against high strings before becoming Frenchified again. The third movement Lento has an unmemorable melodic line that just meanders. I found the whole work unsatisfying, and even after a least half-a-dozen hearings, none of it lingers in my memory.
The First Violin Concerto from some eighteen years later is easily the most attractive piece here. It sounds nothing like that tone poem. It invests in a degree of neo-classicism, and that gives it more impetus and more differentiation in the thematic matter. The most noteworthy part is the opening, later repeated, of the Lento second movement. Just occasionally I was reminded of Vaughan Williams, possibly because of the modal harmonies employed. The first movement launches joyfully. The impulse pervades not just the solo line but the orchestral fabric; the soloist often dialogues with just two or three instruments, but never the full orchestra. The last movement incorporates a four-minute cadenza followed by a lingering passage that is quite beautiful.
I will not be returning to the Second Violin Concerto. It is atonal but not, it seems, strictly dodecaphonic, which redeems it somewhat, I suppose. I really cannot pretend to find anything about it that would make me want to hear it again.
The recorded quality of the entire disc is good. The conductor guides the orchestra well, though I wonder whether a more galvanic approach might have enhanced the effect of the impressionistic Per una favola cavalleresca: the sheer sound of it is quite beguiling. The violinist is excellent. He copes admirably with the drastically different styles of the two concerti.
The booklet, in English only, is very full, with biographic detail and analysis of the works.
Jim Westhead
Previous reviews: Rob Barnett ~ Steve Arloff
