Luigi Dallapiccola - Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 (Gianandrea Noseda)

Information

Composer: Luigi Dallapiccola

• Tartiniana
• 2 Pezzi
• Frammenti sinfonici dal balletto Marsia
• Variazioni per Orchestra

James Ehnes, violin

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

Gianandrea Noseda, conductor

Date: 2004

Label: Chandos

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Review

These pieces from Luigi Dallapiccola’s prime have a glittering, caressing beauty that masks an extraordinary musical mind. Dallapiccola (1904-75) arguably was the most remarkable of an important group of 20th-century Italian composers (Malipiero, Casella, Rieti, Petrassi, Ghedini, among others) who emphasized instrumental rather than operatic work. Ironically, in Dallapiccola’s case he was to become most famous for his moving opera, Il Prigioniero, written after he had escaped the Nazis by hiding in the woods; but it may be that free of the demands and limits of the theater, his instrumental and choral pieces have more individuality and power. He was the first Italian to master the 12-tone technique of Schoenberg, with some notions of his own. But like Alban Berg, Dallapiccola often wrote in a lyrical style that seemed to suggest a more songful quality than many other serialists wanted in their work. Though he is careful and rigorous technically, the overall sound of his work is gorgeous, and he is an inventor of fugitive but haunting melody.

The most imposing work here is the Variations for Orchestra (1952). Dallapiccola is quite strict in using serial techniques, starting with a carefully managed tone row. However, now and then he breaks the row to spell out the name B-A-C-H, in honor of J.S. Bach, one of the greatest masters of variation technique. Dallapiccola’s counterpoint is breathtaking in its effortless complexity, yet the segments have a wide expressive range. In both the Variations and Piccola Musica Notturna (from 1954, the title is a tribute to Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik) Dallapiccola is paying homage to his friend, Anton Webern. His sound world, however, is his own, and the ability to allow sighing, sweet melodies to arise and subside into a beautiful well of soft but fascinating harmonic and instrumental gestures is hypnotic.

In Due Pezzi (1947), Dallapiccola demonstrates that serial music can be utterly alluring, but, as is often true in his music, there is a subtle glance backward at the late Renaissance—Carlo Gesualdo with his spiky chromatic harmonies haunts this piece. The Fragments from the ballet Marsia (1947) are reminiscent of a much younger Dallapiccola’s adulation of Debussy. The five movements are almost a lexicon of expressive choices, from caressing to ferocious, that a 20th-century composer can make, held together by subtle motifs, varied, juggled, turned upside down.

Tartiniana (1951) superficially seems to be in the style of Stravinsky’s Pulcinella. (Dallapiccola’s older contemporary, Casella, in his Paganiniana and Scarlattiana uses a more obviously Stravinskian style). This is a “freely” tonal work—the actual key of a given section is mysterious right up until the final, sometimes unexpected chord. From that tension, Dallapiccola derives a piece that combines the melodic sweetness of the selected Tartini tunes for violin (made more fascinating through artful fragmentation) with arresting, sometimes thorny, sometimes lovely harmonic procedures. It is evocatively scored for chamber orchestra without violins for maximum contrast with the solo violin line, skillfully played here by James Ehnes.

The BBC Philharmonic plays with virtuosity, and although Gianandrea Noseda is rather careful, his work is admirable for detail and harmonic insight. The sound is spectacular.

— Albert Innaurato

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Luigi Dallapiccola (3 February 1904 – 19 February 1975) was a prominent Italian composer known for for his lyrical twelve-tone compositions. Raised in Trieste and interned in Austria during World War I, he was influenced early by Verdi and Wagner. He studied and later taught at the Florence Conservatory. Dallapiccola began exploring 12-tone music in the late 1930s, with Canti di prigionia marking his mature style and serving as a protest against Fascism. His works blend emotional depth with technical complexity. He taught in the U.S. during the 1950s–60s, influencing many, including composer Luciano Berio.

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Gianandrea Noseda (born 23 April 1964) is an Italian conductor. He graduated from the Milan Conservatory and furthered his conducting studies with Donato Renzetti, Myung-Whun Chung and Valery Gergiev. Noseda is currently the music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C.; Generalmusikdirektor of Zurich Opera; principal guest conductor of the London Symphony; and the music director of the Tsinandali Festival in Georgia. He was also Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic from 2002 to 2011, and has conducted many recordings for the Chandos label.

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