Nino Rota - Symphony No. 3; etc. (Gianandrea Noseda)

Information

Composer: Nino Rota

• Concerto soirée
• Divertimento concertante
• Symphony No. 3 in C major

Filarmonica '900 del Teatro Regio di Torino

Gianandrea Noseda, conductor

Date: 2011

Label: Chandos

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Review

If you only know the music of Nino Rota from his masterly contributions to a whole string of classic movies (among them Fellini’s La strada, La dolce vita and 8, Visconti’s The Leopard and Coppola’s The Godfather), then Chandos’s ongoing exlporation of his concert works may well come as something of a revelation. The Concerto soirée for piano and orchestra, completed in 1961 and first performed in September of the following year with the composer himself as soloist, comprises a wonderfully entertaining sequence of five dance movements, all couched in a gratifyingly approachable, tuneful idiom and containing two actual quotations from Rota’s scores for La strada and 8 in the ravishing central “Romanza” and perky concluding “Can-can” respectively. Written between 1968 and 1973, the Divertimento concertante (effectively a concerto for double bass and orchestra) proves another readily assimilable and rewarding offering, the solo instrument’s nonchalant acrobatics never failing to raise a grin. At the same time, there’s no missing the depth of feeling underpinning the slow-movement “Aria”, whose songful main theme eventually blossoms to gorgeous effect (beam to 4'22" to hear what I mean).

Best of all, however, is the Third Symphony (1956‑57), an immaculately crafted four-movement essay in the form with not one wasted note throughout its 18-minute duration, and (once again) boasting a slow movement of genuinely touching eloquence. It’s a captivating score which I’ve already replayed a number of times and surely merits programming as a refreshing alternative to, say, Prokofiev’s indestructible Classical Symphony, whose elegant demeanour and freewheeling spirit it perhaps most closely resembles.

Gianandrea Noseda secures a highly sympathetic set of performances, his Turin forces responding in consistently heartwarming and agreeably spick-and-span fashion. Both soloists, too, acquit themselves with distinction, and the sound has the natural presence, bloom and transparency we have come to expect from Chandos. Cordially recommended.

— Andrew Achenbach

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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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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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