Gian Francesco Malipiero - Violin Concertos; Per una favola cavalleresca (Paolo Chiavacci)

Information

Composer: Gian Francesco Malipiero

• Violin Concerto No. 1
• Per una favola cavalleresca
• Violin Concerto No. 2

Paolo Chiavacci, violin

Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma

Francesco La Vecchia, conductor

Date: 2022

Label: Naxos

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Review

Malipiero often appears to be a chameleon, as Naxos’s fine recordings of his work over recent years have demonstrated, but he is no less so than Stravinsky. His personality is constant and audible in all of his stylistic phases, as David Gallagher makes clear in his excellent booklet note. A violinist by training himself, Malipiero knew how to write extremely idiomatically for the instrument, and the First Concerto, dating from 1932, shows this perfectly. It’s a work that, while its orchestral colouring shows an interest in Stravinskian neoclassicism and an affinity for a somewhat English-sounding modalism, is essentially a melodic tour de force. Paolo Chiavacci grasps this perfectly, and his luminous tone is exactly what is needed for this music to grip the listener from the very first. The third movement is deeply impressive, constructed around a meditative but powerful violin solo. Moments from the first section startlingly suggest the Arvo Pärt of Tabula rasa, and the final section is really a peroration, of great beauty. Competition is provided by Domenico Nordio on Sony, but his version is coupled with the Busoni Concerto and Chiavacci is, I would say, even more engaged with the music. All of which leads me to ask why this concerto is not performed more often.

Per una favola cavalleresca (1914 15, rev c1920) is, as the composer himself said, a collection of bits and pieces from sketches for a chivalric opera, thought to have been destroyed until the discovery of the score by the scholar John Waterhouse. One would think perhaps that it would be difficult to guess what the opera would be like from a few fragments, but in fact there is a heraldic quality to the music (one can imagine Elgar’s nobilmente marking being useful in a number of passages) and the music is beautifully scored. I am particularly impressed by the mysterious Lento.

The Second Violin Concerto (1963) is a very different work, though as Gallagher points out, it is almost as though we are hearing the First Concerto again, refracted through the angular vocabulary of the time. It remains lyrical – this is the essence of Malipiero – but it is an altogether darker, more searching piece. Again the slow music (of the central movement) impresses me most, but a Bergian sense of tragedy and lament looms over the whole work. Deeply impressive, with a recording to match.

— Ivan Moody

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Gian Francesco Malipiero (18 March 1882 – 1 August 1973) was an Italian composer and music scholar. Educated in Vienna, Venice and Bologna, he was later influenced by modernist trends in Paris. A key figure in 20th-century Italian music alongside Alfredo Casella, Malipiero rejected verismo and revived interest in pre-Romantic Italian music. His major works include operas, symphonies, chamber music and cantatas. As a scholar, he edited the complete works of Monteverdi and contributed to editions of Vivaldi, Corelli and Frescobaldi, significantly shaping the modern understanding of early Italian music.

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Paolo Chiavacci (born 26 July 1962 in Florence) is an Italian violinist. He studied under Sandro Materassi and graduated from the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini in Florence. Chiavacci is the first violin and founder member of the Quartetto Fonè, with which he has given concerts at leading venues in Italy, including La Scala, Santa Cecilia and La Fenice. As a soloist, he has collaborated with ensembles such as the Orchestra d'archi Italiana and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma. Chiavacci teaches violin and chamber music at the Bruno Maderna Conservatory in Cesena and has led masterclasses in Italy and Japan.

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