Goffredo Petrassi (1904-2003)
Settimo Concerto per orchestra (1961-1964)
Ottavo Concerto per orchestra (1970-1972)
Sonata da camera, per clavicembalo e dieci strumenti (1948)
Mario Stefano Tonda (harpsichord)
Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma/Francesco La Vecchia
rec. 2012-2013, Rome, Italy
Naxos 8.573718 [56]
Goffredo Petrassi’s career as a composer ran from the late 1920s until the mid-1980s, when failing eyesight made it impossible for him to continue composing. It was varied and marked by many changes of style. Some of his earliest works are often neo-classical in ways which reflect the example of Stravinsky; so, for example, the First Concerto for Orchestra (1934) owes something to Stravinsky, though one can also detect Petrassi’s interest in the music of both Hindemith and Bartok. By the time of the Third Concerto for Orchestra (1953) there are clear indications that Petrassi had been studying twelve-tone music. In the Seventh Concerto for Orchestra (1965), which can be heard on the present disc, the manner and mannerisms of the 1960s avant-garde are very evident – at least, that is how it seems to me, but it is worth quoting an Italian view as expressed by the violinist Alessandro Cazzato in the booklet essay accompanying a disc of Petrassi’s works for unaccompanied solo instruments – violin, guitar, harp, flute, piano and viola (Tactus TC901603): “The compositional journey of Goffredo Petrassi […] does not follow predefined paths but is a slow and tormented evolution of musical thoughts. With full lucidity, he moves between the musical memories of Italian and European tradition, “like an inner monologue of which we can only appreciate the admirable surface” (Franco Donatoni).
Petrassi, as the above makes apparent, was undoubtedly eclectic and eager to try a number of different musical idioms. It is difficult to find the ‘real’ Petrassi among (behind?) all this variety – but in most of his music a characteristically Italianate lyricism is never absent for very long – especially in a number of works for the stage written in the 1940s, such as his ballet music – La folia di Orlando (1942-3) and Ritratto di Don Chisciotte (1945), as well as his one act opera Il Cordovano (1948); or in sacred works such as his cantata Noche oscura (1950-51) or Orationes Christi (1975). I am particularly fond of the Due liriche di Saffo (1941-2), for female voice and 11 instruments – and an especially interesting essay on this striking work was published a few years ago, ‘Le Due Liriche di Saffo di Goffredo Petrassi. L’Antica Modernitá del Canto’, Ricogniziani: Rivista di Lingue e Letterature, 6:11, 2019.
There are brief passages of such lyrical writing in the Eighth Concerto for Orchestra and the Sonata da Camera, but unfortunately the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma, directed by Francesco La Vecchia doesn’t make the most of them. I have to agree with comments made by Nick Barnard in his review of another disc of Petrassi by the same forces: “they are acceptable without being top drawer technically or musically […] I have found the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma to lack individual and collective brilliance and the performances to feel a rehearsal or two short of the confidence and insights that time alone can bring”.
Although I cannot recommend this disc wholeheartedly, it would be a shame to end on an entirely negative note. Some slight redemption comes in the performance of the Sonata da camera, which closes the disc, which is articulate and has a certain charm and some attractive interplay between the harpsichord and the orchestra. It is good to have a satisfactory performance of this interesting, but rarely recorded work.
Glyn Pursglove
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