Nino ROTA (1911-1979)
Symphony No. 3 in C major (1956-57) [18:23]
Concerto soirée for piano and orchestra (1961) [19:24]
Divertimento concertante for double bass and orchestra (1968-73) [23:47]
Davide Botto (double-bass); Barry Douglas (piano)
Filarmonica ’900 del Teatro Regio, Turin/Gianandrea Noseda
rec. Sala Regia, Teatro Regio, Turin, 28-30 May 2010
CHANDOS CHAN 10669 [61:50]
Nino Rota’s quirky, eccentric Concerto soirée was
written shortly after his film score for La dolce vita. Unsurprisingly
the music is reminiscent of Rota’s comedy film scores. In fact the music
of the concluding Can-can was used later in the film 8½.
Gerald Larner, who contributes the notes to this album succinctly describes
it as “a piano concerto written in the spirit of Rossini’s Soirée
musicales”. Clearly this is not a Late-Romantic Concerto played
in the grand manner but an informal playful work constructed as if it were
almost an extemporisation. The opening movement marked, Valser-Fantasia
is a waltz with Chopinesque figuration but lampooned by the orchestra. The
central Romanza meanders introspectively with some Arabian-style woodwinds
before the piano turns skittish; it’s all as if some sad clown is wandering
across the musical landscape. A slapstick Quadrille follows and the
music here reminds one of the insouciance of Poulenc. The Can-can taken
at the gallop concludes this entertaining romp. Rota presents his interpreters
challenges of sudden changes of mood, harmonic twists and rhythms all of which
are surmounted with enthusiastic dexterity by Barry Douglas and the orchestra.
The quirky mood of the Concerto soirée is sustained, in the
main, in Rota’s Divertimento concertante for double-bass and
orchestra. Rota makes full expressive use of the instrument’s wide range
covering nearly four octaves with harmonics extending its upper range even
further. The opening movement is capricious in character now solemn, now asinine.
The clowning continues into a comedic march that is the second movement with
the soloist pompously trying to impose some sort of dignity on the surrounding
chaos. The more serious central Andante has a calming influence with
the double-bass in a more lyrical mood; the central section is reminiscent
of a Tchaikovsky ballet. The concluding movement is back in sprightly, quirkiness
again with a tussle between soloist and taunting woodwind.
Rota’s brief Third Symphony is less serious than its two predecessors.
Its lighter character is set in a neo-classical style. The opening Allegro
is a brisk ‘open-air’ frolic. Written in the mid-1950s it is again
reminiscent of film music although in this first movement one might detect
a hint of Hitchcock in sardonic mood as well as broader hints of Italian film
humour. The Adagio is altogether more serious and treads a rather darker
path in personal introspection - possibly alluding to a personal loss? There
is stormy passion and a depth of feeling here we have not encountered so far
in this sunlit album. The third movement scherzo is cast in neo-classical
style and lilts happily along to a lovely poignant Trio melody. A Vivace
con spirito finale rounds off this symphony in comic style once more.
Quirkily entertaining, here is Rota the clown on display with effervescent
lampooning music.
Ian Lace
Quirkily entertaining, here is Rota the clown on display with effervescent
lampooning music.