Nino Rota - Chamber Music (Ensemble Nino Rota)

Information

Composer: Nino Rota

• (01-03) Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano
• (04-06) Sonata for Viola and Piano
• (07-09) Trio for Flute, Violin and Piano
• (10-12) Sonata for Violin and Piano

Ensemble Nino Rota
Paolo Ferrigato, flute
Paolo Beltramini, clarinet
Suela Mullaj, violin & viola
Cecilia Radic, cello
Massimo Palumbo, piano

Date: 2000
Label: Chandos
https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%209832

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Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 9

Nino Rota (1911-79) will probably always be known as the composer of music to The Godfather (1971) and to the earlier Italian film masterpiece, La dolce vita (1963). That will be a shame because, as this disc demonstrates, Rota was highly inventive and actually had mastered all the “schools” of 20th century music, from neoromanticism to postmodernism–particularly the trends that infected Italian composers (everyone except Respighi). You’ll find much evidence of the easy-going romantic in these chamber works, with hints here and there of Rota’s grasp of non-traditional modes of expression bordering on atonality. One such work is the wonderful Trio for Flute, Violin, and Piano (1958), a playful piece that pushes the flute into realms previously trod only by Toru Takemitsu. In fact, while all the works on this release have traditional trio and sonata structures that pre-date Mozart, Rota always conjures a 20th century uneasiness as well as moments of extreme beauty where a solo instrument will simply “sing” on its own, as the viola does in the Sonata for Viola and Piano of 1935. The Ensemble Nino Rota has clearly mastered the music of its namesake and the Chandos sound has never sounded fuller or more intimate.

-- ClassicsToday

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Giovanni "Nino" Rota (3 December 1911 – 10 April 1979) was an Italian composer, pianist, conductor and academic who is best known for his film scores. During his long career Rota was an extraordinarily prolific composer, especially of music for the cinema. He wrote more than 150 scores for Italian and international productions from the 1930s until his death in 1979, and was awarded the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Godfather Part II (1974). Alongside this great body of film work, he composed ten operas, five ballets and dozens of other orchestral, choral and chamber works, the best known being his string concerto.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nino_Rota

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Massimo Palumbo (born December 21, 1965 in Milan, Italy) is an Italian pianist, conductor and composer. He started studying music at the age of eight with Alberto Mozzati and then studied under Anita Porrini, graduating with top marks at the G. Verdi Conservatory in Milan. He has won numerous International Competitions, including: Unicef 1983, Policroma 1989, The German Musical Spring Festival of Munich 1992. Palumbo pursues an active concert career both in Italy and abroad. Since 2000 he has performed over 1000 concerts in Italy and abroad. His discography includes 56 CDs for RCA, Sony BMG, Chandos, etc.
http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Palumbo-Massimo.htm
https://www.massimopalumbo.com/

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