Nino Rota is, of course, best remembered for
his film scores composed for some of the most celebrated directors
of the second half of the 20th century including
Fellini, Visconti and Coppola. Indeed, all three works in this
compilation have a film music genesis. But Rota also composed an appreciable number of works unconnected with the
cinema including operas, ballets and other theatre music, choral
music, four symphonies, a Concerto festivo for orchestra,
a concerto for strings, a string quartet and a variety of chamber
and piano pieces.
One
of the composer’s ballets was developed from his film score
for Fellini’s 1954 film, La Strada. Rota’s
ballet, in twelve tableaux, was staged, twelve years later,
at La Scala, Milan. Subsequently, from it, Rota developed the symphonic suite that is
recorded here. The music has all the circus/carnival bombast,
comedy and glamour one associates with so many Fellini films
contrasted with music of pathos and vulnerability for the pathetic
clown Gelsomina and blacker material for the hot-tempered, cruel
yet ultimately remorseful Zampanó. Rota’s magical, ‘technicolor’
score includes the film’s well-known romantically plaintive
melody first announced most expressively by a solo violin before
it is crushed by heavy Stravinsky-like staccato chords (very
reminiscent of The Rite of Spring). Later the lovely
theme is recapitulated almost in a bugle Last-Post-like dirge
as tragedy overtakes. In addition, there are brass band processional
figures (with some impressive fast tonguing) and sensual, swaggering
Latin-inflected big band jazz figures to enjoy with the Orquesta
cuidad de Granada
entering into the spirit of the music with great enthusiasm.
There have been a number of recordings of this heartfelt La
Strada music but, for this reviewer, none more moving than
this.
Rota’s Concerto Soirée was premiered at the Teatro Olimpico in Vincenza
in September 1962 with the composer as soloist. It contains
two deliberate quotations from Rota’s
film music: the ‘Romanza’ (third movement) has a main theme
from La Strada while the opening of the concluding
‘Can-Can’ is taken from music for Fellini’s 8? The first
movement is in waltz-time, the novel piano writing alternating
between a percussive staccato and elusive impalpable arabesques.
The movement pitches the abrasive against the delicate, the
poignant rubbing shoulders with the grotesque; and there is
a nod towards the spectres of Ravel’s La Valse. The
second movement is enchantment; it has the innocent appeal of
childhood - a Ballo figurato with a ‘Scotch snap’ dotted
rhythm. The third Romanza movement glitters; beautifully orchestrated,
it is, for the most part, lyrical and tenderly plaintive and
slightly Arabic/oriental in atmosphere. The fourth movement
is so Fellini-like with those funny, cheeky little marches and
figures again boldly orchestrated. The Can-Can has tonal ambiguity
that adds atmosphere to what the author of the intelligent programme
notes, Dinko Fabris, suggests might be musical associations
with childhood fantasies such as Peter and the Wolf.
This appealing and brilliantly coloured concerto is delivered
with dash and élan.
Admirers
of Visconti’s masterpiece, Il gattopardo based on the
remarkable novel about the stoicism of a Sicilian noble during
the transforming events of the 19th Century Italian
Risorgimento (in particular during and after the invasion by
Garibaldi and his Red Shirts) by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa,
will remember the long, impressive ball sequence towards the
end of the film. This collection includes sparkling performances
of the seven enchanting dances used in that brilliantly photographed
sequence. They are 1) the beautiful lilting Valzer (written
by Verdi, orchestrated by Rota), 2) a proud yet perky Mazurka, 3) a delicate, romantic Balleto.
Allegro sostenuto; 4)a bright quick-stepping Polka,
5) a merry high-spirited Quadriglia. Allegro; 6) an enthusiastic
Galop one guesses for only the youngest most agile dancers,
Allegro molto; 7) and a final tenderly romantic Valzer
del Commiato.
Sparkling
performances of Rota
magic. Recommended.
Ian Lace
Benedetto Lupo (piano)
