Nino Rota (1911-1979)
Piano Music Volume 2
Eleanor Hodgkinson (piano)
rec. 2017/23, Steinway recording, Fulbeck, UK
Grand Piano GP828 [73]
Nino Rota composed in many fields including eleven operas, a host of choral and vocal works, fifteen concertos for various instruments and chamber music but he is perhaps best known as a composer of film scores, amassing over 170 in his lifetime; The Godfather parts I and II, La Dolce Vita, Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet, Fellini’s Casanova and Death on the Nile are just some of the better known from a long list. The list also includes the 1949 feature The Glass Mountain whichmay not be that familiar but his short piano and orchestra piece the Legend of the Glass Mountain based on the score is probably one of his most famous works. Hodgkinson includes a selection from two of his films, the solo piano version of the Legend of the Glass Mountain and the suite from Casanova di Federico Fellini from 1976. The former, happily sitting in the same category as Addinsell’s Warsaw Concerto or Charles Williams’ the Dream of Olwen needs no introduction with its dramatic opening and operatic duet theme, sung in the film by Elena Rizzieri and Tito Gobbi. The music for Casanova is a very different. All seems straightforward; a barcarolle O Venezia, Venaga, Venusia, the lively waltz of L’uccello magico, magic bird, a cradle song for both Intermezzo della mantida religiosa , praying mantis’ intermezzo and the Great Mouna and the slow waltz of La Poupée automate but they all inhabit a chill surreal place where serenity and humour walk side by side with the dark, creeping influence of malevolence and deceit. Rota’s use of cataclysmic and remorselessly dissonant chords in the Duke of Württemberg seems like the only genuine emotion in Casanova’s world of deception and lies. A year before this Rota had written the two brief waltzes, the circus waltz and valse carillon, whichbecamesketches for the film music and whose themes are combined in L’uccello magico.
From the same period comes music for stage. The ballet Le Molière Imaginaire was written in 1976 and describes the life and times of playwright Jean Baptiste Poquelin, better known as Molière. From its seven sections Hodgkinson chooses a romantically bittersweet slow waltz. The suite Ogni anno punto e da capo was written for a 1931 play that was revived in 1971. One of Rota’s teachers was Alfredo Casselaand he had evidently inherited his sense of comedy, admitedly dark in Casanova but rather slapstick here. The four pieces have a kind of silent movie presence from can-can and gavotte to waltz and neapolitan song; all are rather quirky and very engaging.
So far the music has been suites arranged for the piano; the other works were conceived as piano solos.The earliest work here is Ippolito Gioca, a piece to celebrate the 50th birthday of his teacher Ildebrando Pizzetti just before Rota began studies at the Curtiss Institute in Philadelphia. It is named for Pizzetti’s son and is playful and contrapuntal. Villanotta’s dance was another birthday gift, this time for his Aunt and has a bucolic feel that sounds vaguely Scottish at the outset. The 1941 bagatelle contrasts yearning lyrical music with brief sections of lively tarantelle; they find a common mood at the end. The valzer from 1945 is a sultry and langorous affair with a lively middle section that has echoes of Chopin.
For me the heart of this recital and something of an attractive discovery is the Variations and fugue on twelve tones on the name of Bach. Rota uses the notes that make up the name Bach which correspond to the notes B flat, A C and B natural but rather than retain that order he uses various anagrams of the name. A broad prélude in which Rota sets improvisatory figures over each of the notes in order leads to twelve variations and a four part fugue. Rota was clearly a pianist of distinction and understood the capabilities of the instrument and though written in 1950 the language is firmly tonal. Stylistically the variations range from brooding and mysterious, variation seven for example, a shimmering ninth, simple grace in variations four or two with its fluttering decoration to the virtuosity of the third variation gigue or running triplets of variation ten. The complex fugue has echoes of Busoni in his contrapuntal works and seems to contain the most modern writing in the piece. Here the focus is definitely on the name B.A.C.H. a theme that gradually quickens in tempo as a the fugue progresses to its grand conclusion. I have not heard volume one of Rota’s piano music (Grand Piano Records GP827) but based on this CD it has got to be worth exploring. Hodgkinson has a fine grasp of the technical and emotional demands of this music and she is given a fine recorded sound for this second and final disc.
Rob Challinor
Contents
Molière dal Balletto ‘Le Molière Imaginaire’ (1976)
Variations and fugue on twelve tones on the name of Bach (1950)
Ballo Della Villanotta in Erba (1931)
Ippolito Gioca (1930)
The Legend of the Glass Mountain version for piano (1949)
Suite on Federico Fellini’s Casanova (1976)
Bagatella (1941)
Valzer (1945)
Ogni anno punto e da capo suite for piano (1971)
Due valzer sul nome Bach (1975)
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