Gian Francesco Malipiero; Alfredo Casella - Violin Concertos (André Gertler)

Information

Composer: Gian Francesco Malipiero; Alfredo Casella

• (01) Malipiero - Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
• (04) Casella - Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A minor

André Gertler, violin

Prague Symphony Orchestra

Václav Smetáček, conductor

Date: 2007

Label: Supraphon

https://www.supraphon.com/album/1419-malipiero-casella-violin-concertos

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Review

ARTISTIC QUALITY: 9 / SOUND QUALITY: 8

What a lovely bit of buried treasure this disc turns out to be! It’s always nice to hear André Gertler, a fine violinist with a distinguished discography, and the uniqueness of the repertoire makes this first-time-on-CD reissue doubly welcome. Malipiero’s concerto is a Stravinskian, neo-classical essay whose propulsive rhythms and sometimes spiky harmonies always seem ready to blossom into lyricism. The finale, with its quiet ending, is particularly poetic. Casella’s concerto is a bigger work, more obviously indebted to the Romantic virtuoso tradition, with a higher level of obvious passion and color. Why it’s so neglected, like virtually everything by this excellent composer, is a mystery, but at least we have this excellent performance to keep the flame alive until the rest of the world catches on. Gertler’s estimable musicianship receives reliable and sympathetic support from Smetácek and the orchestra, and Supraphon’s sonics fall gratefully on the ear. A very pleasant surprise.

-- David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday

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Gian Francesco Malipiero (18 March 1882 – 1 August 1973) was an Italian composer, musicologist, music teacher and editor. Malipiero studied mostly with Marco Enrico Bossi. In 1913, Malipiero moved to Paris, where he attended the première of Stravinsky's Le Sacre du Printemps, and after that, repudiated almost all the compositions he had written up to that time. Malipiero had an ambivalent attitude towards the Austro-German musical tradition, and was strongly critical of sonata form. His orchestral works include seventeen compositions he called symphonies, of which however only eleven are numbered.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gian_Francesco_Malipiero

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Alfredo Casella (25 July 1883 in Turin – 5 March 1947 in Rome) was an Italian composer, pianist and conductor. He entered the Paris Conservatoiry in 1896 to study piano under Louis Diémer and composition under Gabriel Fauré. In this period, Casella developed a deep admiration for Debussy's output, but pursued a more romantic vein in his own writing. His work on Italian Baroque composers put him at the centre of the early 20th Century Neoclassical revival and also deeply influenced his own compositions. The resurrection of Vivaldi's works in the 20th century is mostly thanks to the efforts of Casella.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfredo_Casella

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André Gertler (26 July 1907 – 23 July 1998) was a Hungarian classical violinist and teacher. He was born in Budapest and graduated from the Franz Liszt Academy of Music where his teachers were József Bloch, Oszkár Studer, Jenő Hubay, Leo Weiner and Zoltán Kodály. Gertler was Professor at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels (1940–1977), Professor at the Cologne Academy of Music (1954–1957), Professor at the College of Music in Hannover (1964), founder and leader of the Gertler Quartet. He was a great admirer of Béla Bartók and recorded the complete violin works of the composer for the Supraphon label.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/André_Gertler

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