Paolo Ugoletti (b.1956)
Concerto for soprano saxophone, piano and string orchestra (2013)
Concerto for violin and string orchestra (2009)
Concerto Festivo for bass trombone and string orchestra (2014)
Gianni Alberti (saxophone); Jozsef Örmeny (piano); Marko Komonko (violin); Serhiy Katsaval (trombone)
Strings of the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra/Ferdinando Nazzaro
rec. 2015, Lviv, Ukraine
Brilliant Classics 95406 [70]
In 2014, the year before the sessions for this present disc, Brilliant Classics’ first CD of music by Paolo Ugoletti was reviewed by Lucy Jeffery. That review lodged in my mind. When I saw this, the second of that label’s Ugoletti shelf, I had no reluctance about giving it a hearing. That first CD ‘married’ a song-cycle (Emily Dickinson) and a concerto while this one proffers three three-movement concertos. They are from the first two decades of what we once called the “new century” and each runs to 20-25 minutes.
The use of the string orchestra in all three concertos might induce fear of severity. In fact the concerto for saxophone and piano with its singing quicksilver sax and the tintinnabulation of the piano abjures such thoughts. More richly caparisoned than the output of a valued minimalist such as Canadian Marjan Mozetich, there is more than one echo of that composer’s music. That said, such is the close weave of peeling Debussian lines that I also thought of Valentin Silvestrov in his Fifth Symphony. Another work with which this score touches base is Michael Nyman’s intoxicating Where the Bee Dances. Ugoletti easily and irresistibly searches out a furious and urgently assertive beauty. The work ends with a gesture of eloquently accomplished sensitivity.
The Violin Concerto has its Tippett-like moments (the Corelli Fantasia-Concertante). Unlike the Saxophone/Piano Concerto, it is more open to Korngold-like lines of eloquence from the string orchestra. It is no shock, then, to read that the composer has a soft spot for film music. Often touching, and yearning in the middle movement, there are even sultry Mediterranean notes of Walton’s concerto for the same instrument. The finale is a blazing collision of Vivaldi and Tippett.
The Trombone Concerto is the shortest work (20 minutes). It melds often busy-wispy strings with long, eloquent, melodious lines from the trombone. Termed Concerto Festivo, it lays a more relaxed grip on the same mood and style territory as the other two concertos here. Its ending is perfunctory, which implies a momentary lack of conviction after all that has gone before. Otherwise it would pair well with Vaughan Williams’ Tuba Concerto.
The soloists, apart from the Italian saxophonist, are Ukrainian; all of them appear to be utterly at one with the music. They voice Ugoletti’s work with every appearance of a rapture in which listeners may be caught up. Brilliant Classics may be a ‘budget’ label but the work of the audio engineer shines very effectively. The notes are serviceable if regrettably short on hard information and dates.
To sum up: vividly realised music, verging on the cinematic but always moving and easy to both like and respect.
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Rob Barnett
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