Ildebrando Pizzetti - Orchestral Music (Osmo Vänskä)

Information

Composer: Ildebrando Pizzetti

• Rondò veneziano
• Preludio a un altro giorno
• Tre Preludii Sinfonici per L'Edipo Re di Sofocle
• La Pisanella. Suite

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Osmo Vänskä, conductor

Date: 1998 / 2009

Label: Hyperion

-----------------------------------------------------------

Review

The pieces on this disc are not played in chronological order: we leap from middle-period Pizzetti to relatively late and then back to his earlier works. But Hyperion knows what it's about: the longest piece here begins the programme, and I can think of no better way of winning converts to Pizzetti than with the opening of his Rondo Veneziano. The very first sound, a lapping string texture, is entrancing, and when it's joined by wonderfully fresh and lyrical melody your attention is immediately seized. Within a page you've discovered that Pizzetti was a capital melodist with a great gift for orchestral colour, and by the end of that expansive rondo you'll have learned that he seldom puts a foot wrong in either of those areas. Maybe the 'Forlane' melody of the final section is a touch banal, possibly the score contains a climax or two too many, but what richness!

The excellent notes, by Robert Matthew-Walker, speculate about some 'extramusical impetus' lending urgency to the next work, the Preludio a un altro giorno ('Prelude to another day'). Just before beginning it, in fact, Pizzetti had received a pitiful letter from his revered teacher Giovanni Tebaldini, now 87 and praying for death after a succession of strokes had confined him to his chair, terrified to stand for fear of falling. At all events the gravely sombre opening and fatefully dramatic close reveal another side to Pizzetti, one that's heard again in two of the much earlier Preludes to Oedipus Rex, one with two fine tragic themes used with great economy, the other darkly dramatic. The incidental music to d'Annunzio's La pisanella is lighter in weight, with a good deal of quasi-oriental local colour, but some of its most effective pages are darker ones and there is a delightful movement for strings alone, with exquisitely varied textures combining solo lines with concerted ones.

A major composer? Not, for my taste, as boldly imaginative as Malipiero or as assured a master of the orchestra as Respighi, but an immensely entertaining one. This disc suggests his variety as well as his accomplishment, and these brilliantly colourful performances make one hope that Vanska, together with the BBC Scottish orchestra and Hyperion, will continue to investigate him. The recordings are rich but lucid.

— Michael Oliver

-----------------------------------------------------------

Ildebrando Pizzetti (20 September 1880 – 13 February 1968) was an Italian composer. Born in Parma, he studied at the Parma Musical Conservatoire from 1895 to 1901. After graduation, Pizzetti dedicated his life to composing, teaching and writing about music, with a focus on theatrical works. His style blended late-Romantic lyricism, early Italian structural clarity, and tonal flexibility. A respected educator, he served as director of the Florence Conservatory (1917–23), Milan Conservatory (1923–36), and succeeded Respighi at St Cecilia (1936–58). Among his notable students was Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.

***

Osmo Vänskä (born 28 February 1953) is a Finnish conductor, clarinetist and composer. He started his musical career as an orchestral clarinetist with the Turku Philharmonic and the Helsinki Philharmonic. During this time he studied conducting with Jorma Panula at the Sibelius Academy. Vänskä was chief conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra (1988–2008), the Iceland Symphony Orchestra (1993–1996), the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (1996–2002), the Minnesota Orchestra (2003–2022), and the Seoul Philharmonic (2020–2022). He is recognized for his compelling interpretations and energetic presence on the podium.

-----------------------------------------------------------