Published Reviews
By Andrew Achenbach
Gramophone
01-Aug-2011
Chandos’s latest Rota anthology serves up a cornucopia of delights
If you only know the music of Nino Rota from his masterly contributions to a whole string of classic movies (among them Fellini’s La strada, La dolce vita and 8 , Visconti’s The Leopard and Coppola’s The Godfather), then Chandos’s ongoing exlporation of his concert works may well come as something of a revelation. The Concerto soirée for piano and orchestra, completed in 1961 and first performed in September of the following year with the composer himself as soloist, comprises a wonderfully entertaining sequence of five dance movements, all couched in a gratifyingly approachable, tuneful idiom and containing two actual quotations from Rota’s scores for La strada and 8 1/2 in the ravishing central “Romanza” and perky concluding “Can-can” respectively. Written between 1968 and 1973, the Divertimento concertante (effectively a concerto for double bass and orchestra) proves another readily assimilable and rewarding offering, the solo instrument’s nonchalant acrobatics never failing to raise a grin. At the same time, there’s no missing the depth of feeling underpinning the slow-movement “Aria”, whose songful main theme eventually blossoms to gorgeous effect (beam to 4’22” to hear what I mean).
Best of all, however, is the Third Symphony (1956–57), an immaculately crafted four-movement essay in the form with not one wasted note throughout its 18-minute duration, and (once again) boasting a slow movement of genuinely touching eloquence. It’s a captivating score which I’ve already replayed a number of times and surely merits programming as a refreshing alternative to, say, Prokofiev’s indestructible Classical Symphony, whose elegant demeanour and freewheeling spirit it perhaps most closely resembles.
Gianandrea Noseda secures a highly sympathetic set of performances, his Turin forces responding in consistently heartwarming and agreeably spick-and-span fashion. Both soloists, too, acquit themselves with distinction, and the sound has the natural presence, bloom and transparency we have come to expect from Chandos. Cordially recommended.
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