…these performances are emotionally charged. There’s an enthusiasm tempered with attention to rhythmic and dynamic detail that gives this forgotten music a new lease on life.

…the recordings are quite consistent and project a moderately wide but deep soundstage in a reverberant acoustic that will appeal to those liking wetter sonics. The orchestral timbre is generally musical… © 2013 Classical Lost and Found Read complete review

The disk pairs the Symphony No. 1 with the overture “Cola di Rienzo.” The latter is a 20-minute piece of great color and grandeur, beautifully orchestrated, showing some Wagnerian influences in the overall sound but thematic originality and a sure hand.

The Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 16, follows. Five movements of contrast and epic splendor, I suppose you could say, fill out the disk. It’s a work with all the depth of a well-conceived symphony of the era, played with enthusiasm and elan by the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma under Francesco La Vecchia.

Containing five movements arranged in a perfect “arch” form…there’s nothing that sounds quite like it in the entire 19th century literature. The scoring, for standard forces plus two harps, piccolo, but no extra percussion or other exotica, is pellucidly clear and “alive”…the outer movements really move; they have no dead spots and no single movement outstays its welcome.

Sample…the gorgeous melody from the second movement (Andante mesto) for strings…and harps. Here is true Italian lyricism in a symphonic context—just lovely.

Suitably solemn and dramatic, the overture is well structured and fits its subject matter well…The orchestration of the scherzo of the five-movement symphony is particularly impressive, showing Wagnerian influence but transcending it through Sgambati’s own emotional imprint. The finale, which sums up the work both structurally (using techniques of elaboration and variation) and emotionally (with intensity plus warmth), is an effective capstone to a piece that fits firmly into the Romantic era but clearly takes its own approach to the music of its time. Francesco La Vecchia…once again shows himself here to be a committed and sensitive interpreter of music that has more to say than its comparative obscurity would indicate. © 2012 Infodad.com href="http://transcentury.blogspot.com/2012/12/what-early-works-show.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Read complete review

A fantastic performance by the 10-year-old Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma under Francesco La Vecchi brings this harmonically rich, thematically astute, expansive music to brilliant life.

Something new and wonderful appears in the score with each new listen.

I’ve been impressed most by the sense of carefully measured, seamless progression in the overall narrative…

The music has opened a door to what turns out to be a fascinating figure in Italian musical history. © 2012 Musical Toronto Read complete review

The Romanticism of Sgambati owes a lot to Liszt and Wagner’s harmonic innovations of the period. It does have an Italianate lyricism that appears even in the somewhat Wagnerian overture Cola di Rienzo. This is a massive 18-minute orchestral work of rich harmony and soaring musical ideas with great brass writing particularly interesting to hear. It is a simply wonderful example of mid-century Romanticism certainly informed by its Germanic models but with great dramatic narrative sense. Certainly well worth further performances.