Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco - Piano Concertos (Alessandro Marangoni)

Information

Composer: Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco

• Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 46
• Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 92
• Four Dances from 'Love's Labour's Lost', Op. 167

Alessandro Marangoni, piano

Malmö Symphony Orchestra

Andrew Mogrelia, conductor

Date: 2012

Label: Naxos

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

Review

The beginning of the CD has a surprise in store. The back cover tells me the first piece is Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Piano Concerto No 1, in G minor. But it’s not in G minor: it’s a bubbly, frothy piece all the way through, like so many breezy puffy clouds floating overhead. The first movement has many charming touches, such as the piano’s entrance and a brief cello solo, but two-thirds of the way through I felt it had satisfied its narrative potential and could move on already. This is the story of the disc: the romanza in the first concerto didn’t need its emotionally empty cadenza or the faux drama which follows, and the ponderous beginning of the vivace (here rather non-vivant) in the second concerto heralds an eleven-minute movement in which basically nothing happens. The first concerto ends with a tarantella, but Castelnuovo-Tedesco saps it of momentum with a reflective central episode and a false-starting piano solo at 6:40 before, in the final 100 seconds, we finally get to have a little bit of fun. The finale of the second offers some harmonic spice and an appealingly exotic flute line at around 5:10, although the booklet’s claim of “bleak moods of sombre agitation” is trumped-up.

 

Pianist Alessandro Marangoni must be considered the foremost expert in this music: he assembled a performing edition of the second concerto and of the four dances from Love’s Labour’s Lost, based on the composer’s manuscripts. He certainly plays well throughout, and one admires his honesty in not making this music out to be more dramatic or emotionally vital than it really is. Especially in the case of the four dull Shakespeare dances - not helped by conductor Andrew Mogrelia; the gavotte and Spanish dance could be a lot more fun at a breezier pace - one also feels a little bad that he put so much effort into this. It’s fun, peppy music, with a constant smile, but I don’t know if I will want to listen to this again.

 

Most of the orchestra is captured well, although the first violins sound weirdly recessed. The Malmö Symphony falters slightly on occasion, lacking the polish and conviction I’ve heard from them in the past - say, in their outstanding Grieg albums. Not much else to say about this unfortunate effort other than that the cover is quite a bit more attractive than the contents.

 

— Brian Reinhart

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

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.

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