Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco - Piano Quintets (Massimo Giuseppe Bianchi; Aron Quartett)

Information

Composer: Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco

• (01-04) Piano Quintet No. 1, Op. 69
• (05-08) Piano Quintet No. 2 'Ricordi della campagna toscana', Op. 155

Massimo Giuseppe Bianchi, piano
&
Aron Quartett
Ludwig Müller, violin
Barna Kobori, violin
Georg Hamann, viola
Christophe Pantillon, cello

Date: 2015
Label: cpo

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Review

The story of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco is tragically familiar. Hailed as a bright young modernist in the 1920s, only to be forced into exile when Mussolini brought Italy’s anti-Semitic laws into line with Hitler’s, he found refuge – like so many of his generation – in Hollywood. Eventually he took US citizenship, but to read the names of his American pupils – John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Henry Mancini – merely emphasises how completely (guitarists apart) we’ve forgotten his own warmly attractive music.

So this recording of his two piano quintets is overdue; in fact, although it isn’t advertised as such, this appears to be the first time the Second Quintet has appeared on disc. They’re big-hearted, expansive works, written in an idiom that Bax would have called brazenly romantic. The First dates from 1932 and is the more conventional in form, by turns tender and ardently lyrical. The Second, subtitled Memories of the Tuscan Countryside, is a product of the composer’s post-war exile in Beverley Hills. It’s nostalgic, yes, but vibrantly alive: there’s real imagination and colour, with echoes of modal harmony that might remind you of Respighi – plus a deliciously zesty folk-dance scherzo.

I wish I could be more enthusiastic about this recording. The Aron Quartet play
with a commitment and sympathy that compensate for occasional roughness, and pianist Massimo Giuseppe Bianchi unleashes great cascades of tone at Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s more grandiloquent climaxes. The problem is the boomy, fuzzy sound, which aggressively highlights the music’s foreground while reducing the middles of textures to an undifferentiated mush. At times it sounds almost as if piano and strings are in different rooms. Add one of those CPO booklet-notes that reads like an MA thesis that has been fed through translation software, and this isn’t perhaps the ideal introduction to two works that certainly deserve to be better known. But for now, at least, it’s the only one.

-- Richard Bratby, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2016/Feb/CastelnuovoT_quintets_7779612.htm
https://www.amazon.fr/Mario-Castelnuovo-Tedesco-Quintettes-Bianchi-Quatuor/dp/B018GRNZMS

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Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (3 April 1895 in Florence – 16 March 1968 in Beverly Hills, California) was an Italian composer, pianist and writer. He was known as one of the foremost guitar composers in the twentieth century with almost one hundred compositions for that instrument. In 1939 he immigrated to the United States and became a composer for some 200 Hollywood movies for the next fifteen years. As a teacher, Castelnuovo-Tedesco had a significant influence on other major film composers, such as Henry Mancini, Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams. He also wrote concertos for Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Castelnuovo-Tedesco

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After studying at the Conservatory, Massimo Giuseppe Bianchi continued his studies under Bruno Canino’s guidance and specialised in chamber repertoire with Franco Rossi, Maureen Jones, the Trio di Trieste and the Trio di Milano. He studied composition with Vittorio Fellegara and Bruno Zanolini, and attended a masterclass held by György Ligeti. As a pianist he is a guest of numerous musical institutions and prestigious festivals.In his concerts he often tackles works which are rarely performed and which require outstanding virtuosity. Bianchi is also a versatile improviser and often collaborates with other jazz artists.
http://www.massimogiuseppebianchi.com/

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The Aron Quartet was founded in 1998 in Vienna by Ludwig Müller, Barna Kobori, Georg Hamann and Christophe Pantillon. The quartet's original intention is to dedicate itself to the classical Viennese literature for string quartet and the works of the Second Viennese School. Since its debut in Vienna, the quartet has developed a broad repertoire and cooperated with artists such as Heinz Holliger, Heinrich Schiff, as well as members of the Amadeus, LaSalle and Alban Berg Quartet. Its recordings include works by Schubert, Schoenberg, Mozart, as well as music of Dvorak, Franck, Korngold, Ravel, Shostakovich, etc.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aron_quartett
http://www.aronquartett.at/

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