Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco - Evangélion (Alessandro Marangoni)

Information

Composer: Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco

• Evangélion, Pt. I The Infancy
• Evangélion, Pt. II The Life
• Evangélion, Pt. III The Words
• Evangélion, Pt. IV The Passion

Alessandro Marangoni, piano

Date: 2014

Label: Naxos

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

Review

Alessandro Marangoni follows his disc of the two piano concertos (9/12) with a first complete recording of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Evangélion (‘The Story of Jesus’), music of an introspection in marked contrast to the all-the-fun-of-the-fair flamboyance of the concertos. Willing, like Villa-Lobos, to try his hand at anything, Castelnuovo-Tedesco was scarcely less prolific, his output during his Hollywood years encompassing virtually every imaginable genre.

Though he was Jewish, much of his music is centred on New Testament texts and the present 28-piece cycle takes us from ‘The Infancy’ to ‘The Passion’. There is a pronounced Spanish flavour (possibly deriving from the composer’s association with Segovia), though to claim that the writing is ‘dramatically virtuosic’ when not ‘profoundly introspective’ is stretching things. Slight when not periodically charming and engaging, there is little to compare with, say, Mompou’s religious distillation (his Música callada) or the opulent religious masterpieces of Liszt and Messiaen. ‘The Three Kings’ plod along in comically unceremonial style (though no comedy is intended); and although ‘The Woman of Samaria’ gives us an attractive forlane, there is too little to delight and surprise those looking for unusual encores. ‘Gethsemane’ is more lengthy than moving and a final burst of hymn-like joy in ‘The Resurrection’ comes too late to redeem music that fails to match or conjure its biblical inspiration. The performance is, however, suitably poised and devotional, and Naxos’s sound is excellent.

— Bryce Morrison

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

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (3 April 1895 — 15 March 1968) was an Italian composer. A student of Ildebrando Pizzetti, he gained recognition in the 1920s but was forced to emigrate to the U.S. in 1939 due to Mussolini's anti-Semitic laws. Settling in Hollywood, he composed concertos for piano, violin, cello and guitar, and wrote overtures for 12 Shakespeare plays. He also set Shakespeare's poems and sonnets to music and composed two Shakespearean operas. Castelnuovo-Tedesco's chamber and piano works are noted for their symphonic scope, while his vocal music reflects the melodic tradition of the Italian school.

***

Alessandro Marangoni (born 1979) is an Italian classical pianist who studied under Marco Vincenzi and Maria Tipo. A recipient of prestigious awards like the International Classical Music Award and the Franco Abbiati Prize, Marangoni has performed across Europe, the Americas and China, collaborating with notable artists such as Daniel Barenboim and Enrico Dindo. He is artistic director at Almo Collegio Borromeo in Pavia and teaches piano at the Conservatorio Guido Cantelli in Novara. His extensive discography includes works by Rossini, Clementi, Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Victor de Sabata, mostly on Naxos Records.

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