Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968)
Piano Quintet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 69 (1932)
Piano Quintet No. 2, Op. 155, “Memories of the Tuscan Countryside” (1951)
Alessandro Marangoni (piano)
Quartetto Adorno
rec. 2024, Almo Collegio Borromeo, Pavia, Italy
Naxos 8.574692 [62]
These two four-movement piano quintets were written, one before and one after, the composer’s emigration from Italy to the USA in 1939.
Castelnuovo-Tedesco was born in Florence, Italy. The tempests and hatreds of the 20th century world events forced the transatlantic move. In the New World he principally plied his trade writing film scores for Hollywood. The admirably clear liner-notes by Frank K DeWald tell us that Castelnuovo-Tedesco wrote more than 200 of these, although none of them spring to mind. For that matter, arbitrary or not, Castelnuovo-Tedesco did not feature in any of the Charles Gerhardt flagship film music LPs of the 1970s.
Like Korngold and Alwyn, Castelnuovo-Tedesco produced compelling concert works in abundance in parallel with his prolific stream of the work for the Silver Screen. Concertos came forth for Heifetz and Piatigorsky; in fact I first saw this composer’s name through the Heifetz RCA recording of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Second Violin Concerto.
Jaded by the piano quintets of the Greats? Allow some space on your shelves and some listening time to Castelnuovo-Tedesco in these, at times unruly and at other times expansive, romantic works. The First is sumptuously upholstered both in ideas and in textures. After the upheavals of the first movement the second is calmer and seems to suggest a delectable Shangri-la. The Scherzo (III) is turbulent and insistent. The final Vivo is a retrospect of the first movement in its tempest and hard-won victory. How easy it is to categorise the post-War Second as a nostalgic dream-pedlar’s indulgence. Each movement carries a title (Hills, Cypresses, Procession in the month of Mary, Harvest) presumably giving away the composer’s illustrative inspiration. Delightfully varied stuff, it’s worthy of remark that the second movement has that same centred glow to be found in the equivalent movement of the First quintet. The Allegretto (III) is lively and poetic in much the same way as the movements/segments of Respighi’s Roman poems and Falla’s Gardens. The sweeping Harvest finale snatches both victory and bardic introspection as in the ‘bookend’ movements of the First quintet.
The recording is good in warmly conveying the venue’s breadth and depth. The playing is spirited, even if the violins can, at times when the pressure is on, take on an emery edge. Marangoni is an emotional dynamo: impressively mercurial and responsive to the scene-suggestions, especially in the case of the pastoral variety of the 1951 work.
Naxos have not been abstemious about reviving this composer’s music. A quick search of the site will reassure you if you have any doubts.
Rob Barnett
Other review: Stephen Barber
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