Nino Rota - Film Music on Piano (Massimo Palumbo)

Information

Composer: Nino Rota

• The Godfather
• The Glass Mountain
• Fanciulle di Lusso
• Death on the Nile
• Romeo and Juliet
• Fantasmi a Roma
• Obsession
• Otto e mezzo (Valzer lento)
• Il gattopardo
• Giulietta degli spiriti
• The Taming of the Shrew
• Quel bandito sono io: Neapolitan Samba

Massimo Palumbo, piano

Date: 1999

Label: Chandos

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Review

It was his music for a British film, The Glass Mountain (1948), that brought Nino Rota his first international success. Its theme, heard as a movie concerto but also sung by Tito Gobbi, was a more or less permanent fixture on light music selections for the next decade. The piano transcriptions played here by Massimo Palumbo were made by Rota himself. ‘As a man, how can one be happy in the midst of the unhappiness of others?’ he asked. This is a question his music constantly addresses in the scenes from some of his most celebrated collaborations with Fellini, for instance the extraordinary finale of Notte di Cabiria, when the heroine finds that life still has some promise, even when her whole world has collapsed.

The well-known tunes from The Godfather, Death on the Nile and The Leopard all sound as fresh and effective as they were when new. Most of all, though, enthusiasts for Rota’s music will be interested in the arrangements of his scores for some little-known films, Fanciulle di lusso, Quel bandito sono io and Fantasmi a Roma. The last is represented by a four-part selection, with typically nostalgic Rota waltz-theme and a jokey finale, ‘The ghost-knight and the nurses’ (Il cavaliere e la bambinai).

Palumbo plays all the scores with a delicious feel for that mixture of gaiety and melancholy which distinguished so many of Rota’s film-scores. (Piermarco di Santi, in his essay recalling his friendship with Rota, describes it as ‘the alternation between sustained melody and bursts of evocative circus style.’) Even those who do not normally go for movie music might find this an enjoyable surprise.

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Nino Rota (3 December 1911 – 10 April 1979) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor and educator, internationally acclaimed for his film scores. He is best known for his collaborations with Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti, as well as for scoring The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, the latter earning him an Academy Award. Over a 46-year career, Rota composed more than 150 film scores, in addition to operas, ballets, orchestral and chamber works, including a notable concerto for strings. He also wrote music for theatre and served for nearly three decades as director of the Liceo Musicale in Bari.

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Massimo Palumbo (born 21 December 1965 in Milan) is an Italian pianist and conductor. He graduated from the G. Verdi Conservatory in Milan, and later pursued composition and conducting, including studies with Charles Mackerras in London. He refined his artistry with renowned musicians such as Martha Argerich and won several international competitions. Palumbo has performed and conducted with major European orchestras and has served as Artistic Director of the United Europe Chamber Orchestra since 2000. He has recorded over 60 albums and received multiple national awards from Italian music critics.

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