Nino Rota (1911-1979)
Guerra e pace – Film Music Suite (1956)
Castel del Monte – ballata per corno e orchestra (1974)
Concerto per Archi (1964-65)
Concerto per Arpa e Orchestra (1947)
Prova d’orchestra – film music excerpts (1978)
Marcel Sobol (horn), Esther Peristerakis (harp)
WDR Funkhausorchester Köln/Felix Bender, Michael Seal
rec. 2019, WDR Köln, Klaus-von-Bismarck-Saal
Capriccio C5494 [84]
Nino Rota was one of those blessed composers able to write idiomatic, effective and appealing music across a range of genres and styles. The current disc is a good example of this with two very different films scores alongside two contrasting concertante works with a pithy Concerto for Strings thrown in for good measure. The curse of such fluency is that listeners, players and promoters do not always quite know where to ‘place’ Rota.
But as a sampler of this range and the effectiveness of the music he wrote, this new Capriccio disc is excellent. The WDR Funkhausorchester Köln – who seem to fulfil a similarly flexible and skilled role as the BBC’s Concert Orchestra or the ORF Wien Orchester – play this presumably unfamiliar music with great skill and real flair and they are aided by a very immediate and lush recording by the Capriccio engineers. Add a total playing time of 83:51 for this single disc and the appeal is clear.
The disc is book-ended by a pair of film scores. First there is an eleven movement/28:33 suite from the 1956 King Vidor production of Guerra e pace [War and Peace]. This film received three Oscar nominations in 1957 but won none. Rota’s score did win the “Best Score” award at the 1957 Nastro d’Argento awards in Italy. Although well played and attractive I must admit this is the work on this disc I enjoyed least. The suite is presented as autonomous cues which range from the atmospheric The retreat of the Great Army [track 8] to functional within the film – providing dance music for a Ball – Waltz and Polonaise [tracks 3 and 4]. Fairly predictably Rota employs leitmotifs for the various characters and these have that unmistakeable melodic shape and hint of lyrical melancholy that seems to be a characteristic of his most enduring themes. Conversely the use of the Marsellaise feels both rather predictable and unimaginative. I canunderstand that in the context of the film the music is very effective but for whatever reason in isolation I found the cues rather fragmented although the actual performances here are very fine – excitingly vibrant and dynamic. The three brief excerpts that are taken from the Prova d’Orchestra [the Orchestra Rehearsal] are to my ear considerably more successful – these are conducted with flair and energy by Michael Seal. Certainly this is Rota the musical chameleon with the style here strikingly reminiscent of Shostakovich in his zany Ballet Suites or film-music mode. Even the titles remind one of the Soviet works with a queasy waltz and riotous galop two of the three sections. Riccardo Muti recorded a more extended selection from this film with the Orchestra of La Scala but it has to be said that the WDR Funkhausorchester Köln play with far more energy and musical wit than the too urbane and rather straight-faced Italian orchestra. In fact that whole Muti disc suffers from a rather monochrome approach – well played but under-engaging.
Returning to this new disc there are two works titled “Concerto”. Both pieces explore what could be termed the neo-Classical Rota. First is the Concerto per Archi written in 1964-65 for the great Italian chamber orchestra I Musici. This is a concise work with its four movements totalling just 15:29. I wonder why Rota chose “concerto” rather than “symphony” as a title? The work’s layout is in traditional symphonic form with the central movements a scherzofollowed by an aria with an exciting tarantella-esque finale bringing the work to a rousing conclusion. Within movements principal players are given solo opportunities but this is in no way a concertante work. Given the brilliance of the commissioning ensemble its no surprise that Rota writes demandingly for the entire string group and again great credit to the strings of the WDR Funkhausorchester Köln who play this presumably unfamiliar music with such élan. Likewise conductor Felix Bender directs with energy and insight. My only concern with both this and the following Harp Concerto is the engineering choices. The up front and ‘big’ soundstage which works well in the film scores feels just a bit too present for these neo-classical works. Even when Rota writes with the acerbity of a Stravinsky or Prokofiev I feel the sound should be more of a rapier than a broadsword. Allowing the instruments to be sat back a little further in a dryer acoustic might well have served these scores even better. Neither of these concertante works are slavishly neo-Classical but they exhibit a similar lightness of touch technically and emotionally as music by the likes of Jean Françaix and so I think they would benefit from a recording that matched that spirit. There are several other recordings including one by I Musici and another from Muti and La Scala on a different disc from the one previously mentioned. I have not heard any of the alternative versions.
For the two works given here that do feature soloists, the concertante parts are taken by principal players from within the orchestra. First is the Castel del Monte – Ballata per corno e orchestra written in 1974. This is written in one continuous movement lasting 11:32 albeit within that framework there are several distinct and contrasting sections. Many of Rota’s most characteristic musical fingerprints are audible in this work. Again the lyrical sections have a nostalgic mood and gently pained yearning that is very appealing. Likewise his harmony has that kind of shimmering dissonance that is very beautiful. The playing here by Marcel Sobol is ideal – warmly lyrical or nimbly agile as required. Rota packs a lot of musical incident into this comparatively short framework but all credit to composer and performers that it is as satisfying as here. The brief ‘hunting-horn’ passage near the beginning is very appealing but it is the opening and closing pages which again capture a sun-drenched languor that linger longest in the memory.
The disc is completed by the earliest work – the 1947 Concerto per Arpa e Orchestra which was written for the harpist Clelia Gatti Aldrovandi. This concerto is written in the typical fast-slow-fast three movements and again it is in a broadly neo-classical style. Rota deploys a moderately sized orchestra – again perhaps this recording could have been made a little dryer. But that said the soloist Esther Peristerakis is well-balanced in the overall mix just the overall sound is a little too resonant and tubby for this type of music. The playing throughout is again excellent with more memorable melodies especially in the central Andante. Rota had written a sonata for the same player some years before this concerto so he was clearly comfortable writing effectively for this tricky instrument. Certainly the writing sounds idiomatic and attractive. The liner does not suggest there is any programme but Rota writes some passages for orchestral horn and trumpet that have the air of a valedictory ‘last post’ with tolling timpani adding to the sense of memorialising. The closing allegro again requires nimble and playful performing – both qualities clearly present here. Given the attractiveness and easy appeal of the work I am not surprised that it has also received several recordings but again I do know any other versions. But in isolation this performance strikes me as very well played, musically sensitive and stylish.
I would encourage curious collectors to seek out more of Rota’s orchestral and symphonic works. For all the qualities of his film scores he is much more than just the composer of music for Fellini or The Godfather. This disc provides a valuable overview of his range and style – excitingly played and boldly recorded.
Nick Barnard
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