Carrara: The Devil’s Bridge (Naxos) - MusicWeb International

Cristian Carrara (b. 1977)
The Devil’s Bridge (2021)
Eveline (2016)
Flower in the Desert (2021)
Four Emotions (2021)
Erica Piccotti (cello), Massimo Mercelli (flute)
Sonia Prina (contralto)
FVG Orchestra/Nir Kabaretti
rec. 2021, Fondazione Luigi Bon, Colugna, Italy
Text included
Reviewed from download
First Recordings
Naxos 8.579167 [63}

The Devils Bridge is a four- piece album from the hand of the contemporary Italian composer Cristian Carrara. It boasts an Italian composer, an Italian orchestra and three Italian soloists. The CD brochure tells us, “This album presents the world premiere recordings of four works which were composed between 2016 and 2021 and which, with the exception of Eveline, focus on the dialogue between a solo instrument, or voice, and the orchestra. All four are narrative in character – that is, their aim is to tell a story or convey a particular impression.”

The Devil’s Bridge which is the first work on the album was commissioned by Mittelfest in 2021, and dedicated to Cividale, an ancient city in Friuli, the north-eastern region of Italy in which Carrara was born. It sets to music an ancient legend about the people of Cividale and the Natisone river connected by a famously high bridge. So incredible a feat of engineering was this structure, that the legend grew up that the Devil himself had built it, completing it in a single night in exchange for the soul of the first being to walk across it. The cunning townsfolk, however, cheated him by sending an old dog over the bridge first, and he had to keep his bargain and take its soul instead of a human one.

The soloist Erica Piccotti who was named Young Artist of the Year at the 2020 International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) is a cellist who has performed extensively both in Italy and abroad. The orchestra for all the pieces on the CD is The FVG Orchestra which was established in 2019 at the behest of the Italian region Friuli Venezia Giulia. Their conductor for all four pieces is Nir Kabaretti an Israeli who was mentored by Zubin Mehta.

The Devil’s Bridge is full of melodic and rhythmic ideas and uses a rich palette of instrumental colours, notably bringing out the huge timbral versatility of the cello, which is elevated to the role of narrative voice, expressing itself through an eloquent and beguiling melodic line. The pace gradually quickens before a moment of silence after which we return to the feel of the music from the beginning of the piece. It’s full of lovely motifs yet includes dramatic and comic music woven in expertly. I really like it.

Eveline was composed in 2016 to a commission from the Teatro Lirico in Trieste, this work is a tribute to the great Irish writer James Joyce, who lived in Trieste for many years and fell in love with the beauty of the city. His short story Eveline is one of the fifteen that make up Dubliners, and is a tale in which the sound and flow of the words become musical. The piece starts with a single repeated piano note as a melody grows around it slowly, dramatically but then subsides to music with an eerie, haunting, desperate feel. It becomes more urgent and tense but maintains a strong sense of rhythm. The percussive rhythm heard at a certain point in the score, underpinned by pizzicato playing in the strings, conveys despair as if confronting an inescapable fate. It’s a very atmospheric and well-orchestrated piece.

Flower in the Desert – Four Love Songs from Isaiah was commissioned in 2021 by the Israel Sinfonietta and the Pordenone International Festival of Sacred Music. It is a collection of four songs for alto and orchestra setting texts from the book of Isaiah (62:1-3; 61:10-11; 60:1-5; 51:1-3). All four biblical excerpts relate to the joy experienced when the desert is transformed into a beautiful garden. Each song is in a different language: Hebrew, Italian, Latin and English. The work as a whole speaks of love without borders, whether between peoples, nations, or individuals. The alto voice, representing that of Isaiah, engages in a dialogue with the world, as represented by the orchestra. Quoting from the CD brochure “Flower in the Desert is also a metaphor for hope, for the chance we all have to wait patiently for a late-blooming flower. It’s the smile of someone who has waited a long time and finally sees the buds open.” The CD brochure contains text of the words sung in the language in which they occur. The soloist is Sonia Prina, an Italian operatic contralto who has had an active career in concerts and operas since the mid-1990s.

The first movement is Mevakscei Adonai – Those who seek God, a gentle melodic piece with a perfect balance between the orchestra and Prina’s voice. It has the feeling of a conversation that somehow is not quite resolved. The second movement is Viene la tua luce – which is Italian for “Your Light Comes”; it’s another melodic lyrical movement with a little more inherent tension than the first. Exultabit anima mea – Latin for “Exultant my Soul” – is the third movement starts with a haunting tune from the soloist who is then supported by the orchestra. The eerie feeling is maintained throughout with a good use of mystic sounding wind instruments complementing the mood – it’s an atmospheric yet soothing piece. The final movement Your Land will be Marriedis sung in English and is slow, peaceful and reflective; there’s a great sense of harmony between the oboe and Prina’s voice.

Four Emotions,the final work on the album, was also commissioned in 2021 by the International Piano Festival of Brescia and Bergamo. Written for flute and strings, and cast in three movements, its aim is to reveal how music’s central quality is that of rousing our emotions. The composer tells us “Far from simple sentimentality, I wanted to show how music can strike strange chords within us and conjure, for example, a sense of mystery – as in the first movement here – or of playfulness – as in the second movement. I tried to create a close dialogue between the soft colours of the flute and those of the string ensemble, whose music is sometimes lyrical, sometimes rhythmic and mercurial”.

The flautist is Massimo Mercelli, surprisingly, perhaps, the emotions are not given names as the movements are simply labelled with numbers. The flute is a perfect instrument to create a sense of the mystic in a piece and this certainly is the case in the first movement called I. As is the case with all Carrara’s music on this CD, the soloist has the lead with the orchestra supporting. It is followed by a short lively movement that’s full of fun and virtuosic playing by Mercelli. In the final movement III. we hear lots of short fragments of music that change frequently before the music settles down and the flute once again takes the lead; the mystical sense remains throughout the movement which slowly fades away.

Listening to this album has been a real delight; I had not heard any of Carrara’s works before but I sincerely hope that this won’t be the last CD of his music that is released. The FVG orchestra, the soloists and the conductor are all to be complimented on their splendid performances.

Ken Talbot

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