Alfonso Rendano (1853-1931)
Piano Concerto (1878-81)
Allegro in A Minor for 2 pianos
Daniela Roma (piano)
Oldenburg State Orchestra/Vito Cristofaro
rec. live, 2 February 2025, Oldenburg Staatstheater, Germany
Dynamic CDS8081 [57]

I am always happy to have the opportunity to hear a new romantic piano concerto though it is not often that one comes from an Italian composer. There are examples of course and fine ones at that. Busoni’s monumental concerto comes to mind as well as concertos by Giovanni Sgambati, Giuseppe Martucci, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and even the early example by Ottorino Respighi. I hope that someone will resurrect the concertante works by Riccardo Pick-Mangiagalli including his 1930 Concerto. For now however Alfonso Rendano enters the arena. He was born in Cosenza and studied at conservatoires in Naples, Paris and Leipzig. His piano pedigree was excellent with tuition from Chopin pupil Georges Mathias and Sigismond Thalberg, one-time rival to Liszt who had settled in Naples in 1858, retiring there in 1863. Rendano had a successful career as a pianist and was acclaimed by Rossini and Liszt amongst others; Liszt indeed played through the first movement of the present concert with Rendano on two pianos and gave it high praise. In later life he settled in Naples before returning to his birth town where he taught and composed, finishing his only opera Consuelo. His other works include some seventy piano solos as well as this concerto and a piano quintet, many of which were unpublished during Rendano’s lifetime.

Daniela Roma has a special interest in Rendano and has recorded many of the piano work, the piano quintet and a two piano version of the piano concerto with pianist Rudolfo Rubini, echoing Liszt’s introduction to the work. This performance, a live recording according to the booklet – I was not aware of any audience noise whatsoever – was given at the Oldenburg Staatstheater and has plenty of richness to the sound. The manuscript was prepared by the conductor here, Vito Cristofaro, who seems to share Roma’s enthusiasm for the concerto. It is certainly a grand work, full of romantic gestures and with a demanding piano part. Liszt wrote that it is a vigorous, original, remarkable work and I greatly appreciate it. I can imagine he liked the boldness of the writing and the rhapsodic style of the piece but I am finding it a hard piece to come to grips with. The main problem I find is the lack of a cohesive structure and any memorable themes. It seems that Rendano put in all the requisite drama and “concerto” elements, big climaxes, virtuosic piano writing – a scalic passage in double thirds played just as I write this sentence – but failed to provide a sense of direction or arrival. Passages build to a climax where one would expect the theme to play or at least a recognisable motif but each time there is just generic orchestral writing. I have tried; is that short chromatic rising passage a motif or maybe the repeated note with an octave drop? If so neither are distinctive enough to carry a 21 minute movement and while rhapsodic is very acceptable as Liszt, Gershwin and others have ably demonstrated, they were successful because they crammed the form with distinctive and memorable motifs and themes while managing to still convey a musical roadmap in the mind of the listener.

The slow movement is a little more successful with its rather improvisatory long piano introduction but there is at least a melody, slowly unfolding and wreathed in arpeggio figuration as well as some quite attractive chromatic writing. The orchestra takes this on and the movement continues with some byplay between soloist and orchestra, the tranquil mood maintained to attractive effect. Attractive but again multiple listenings leave me unable to recall anything much beyond a pleasing sound. The finale improves matters a little with a whirling waltz that does have more melodic shape than other parts of the concerto. With some exciting writing and a cadenza that takes over a third of the movement this is more what we expect from a concerto.

The manuscript of the Allegro in A minor for two pianos was rediscovered in 1969 by the Vollatto Perrino Duo who went on to produce a modern performing edition of the piece. The insistent repeated note motif that accounts for much of the discourse has echoes of the doom motif of Beethoven’s C minor symphony though here it continues as a driving motoric rhythm. The second theme has an unusual accompaniment in that Rendano brings a different harmonic colour to each of its phrases, almost suggesting a modulation though each time settling back in the home key, quite an unusual and interesting touch. It seems a little long for the material but the extended development section and some nice side steps of harmony in the coda, adding a bleak touch to the mood makes up for that. Conductor Cristofaro ably joins Roma for this performance.

I really wanted to enjoy this disc more; certainly this is no fault of the performers who play with commitment, enthusiasm and passion; clearly they want to show the concerto in its best light and they achieve that with knobs on, evidently finding something I am missing.

Rob Challinor

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