Goffredo Petrassi - Magnificat; Salmo IX (Gianandrea Noseda)

Information

Composer: Goffredo Petrassi

• (01-12) Magnificat, for Soprano leggero, Chorus, and Orchestra
• (14-29) Salmo IX, in Two Parts for Chorus, String Orchestra, Brass, Percussion, and Two Pianos

Sabina Cvilak, soprano (1-12)
Orchestra e Coro Teatro Regio Torino
Gianandrea Noseda, conductor

Date: 2013
Label: Chandos
https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%2010750

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

Early works from Italian follower of Stravinsky

Goffredo Petrassi’s range as a composer was far wider than his eight Concertos for Orchestra (8/05) might suggest, encompassing opera, ballet, solo concertos, chamber and instrumental pieces. His substantial body of vocal and choral music contains some of his finest inspirations, not least the classic Coro di morte (at one time available from Adès).

Psalm IX (1934-36) and the Magnificat (1939-40) are relatively early, still betraying Stravinsky’s influence, but between them one can hear Petrassi’s own voice emerging. In Psalm IX – scored for chorus, string orchestra, brass, percussion and two pianos, and begun just after the First Orchestral Concerto – the impact of the then still very new Oedipus Rex and Symphony of Psalms is palpable, particularly in the hieratic choral writing. Not quite, perhaps, the sum of its parts, it packs quite a punch nevertheless. The Magnificat is altogether slicker and freer stylistically, its opening orchestral episode having a spring in its step redolent of top-quality Martin≤ with more characteristic choral writing.

The performances by the forces of Teatro Regio, Turin, are committed and persuasive, though both works sound like they need a little more ‘living with’. Soprano Sabina Cvilak is taxed at times by Petrassi’s tough, high vocal lines but otherwise hers is a gutsy account. Excellent sound makes this a thoroughly recommendable release and I hope Chandos and Noseda go on to give us more choral Petrassi, such as Coro di morte and the late Orationes Christi.

-- Guy Rickards, Gramophone

More reviews:
BBC Music Magazine  PERFORMANCE: ***** / RECORDING: *****
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2013/Mar13/Petrassi_Magnificat_CHAN10750.htm
https://www.allmusic.com/album/goffredo-petrassi-magnificat-salmo-ix-mw0002462002

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Goffredo Petrassi (16 July 1904 – 3 March 2003) was an Italian composer of modern classical music, conductor, and teacher. He is considered one of the most influential Italian composers of the twentieth century. Petrassi studied organ and composition at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory in Rome. His early works were characteristically neoclassical in style. In later years, Petrassi's open musical mind and acute personality led him to experiment with a wide range of influences and materials. Petrassi taught composition at the Santa Cecilia Conservatory and at the Salzburg Mozarteum, and had many famous students.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goffredo_Petrassi

***

Gianandrea Noseda (born 23 April 1964) is an Italian conductor. He studied piano, composition and conducting in Milan and furthered his conducting studies with Donato Renzetti, Myung-Whun Chung and Valery Gergiev. Noseda was Principal Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic from 2002 to 2011 and now has the title of conductor laureate. In January 2016, Noseda was appointed music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C. In February, 2016, he was also appointed one of the two "principal guest conductors" of the London Symphony Orchestra.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gianandrea_Noseda
http://www.gianandreanoseda.com/home_e.aspx

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!