Nino Rota - Chamber Music (Various Artists)

Information

Composer: Nino Rota

• (01) Trio for Flute, Violin and Piano
• (04) Valzer sul nome Bach
• (06) Piccola offerta musicale
• (07) Nonetto
• (12) Trio for Cello, Clarinet and Piano
• (15) Prelude XIII. Andante cantabile
• (16) Prelude II. Allegro, ma espressivo e delicato

Daishin Kashimoto, violin

Joaquín Riquelme García, viola

Claudio Bohórquez, cello

Aurélien Pascal, cello

Emmanuel Pahud, flute

Paul Meyer, clarinet

François Meyer, oboe

Gilbert Audin, bassoon

Benoît de Barsony, horn

Olivier Thiery, double bass

Éric Le Sage, piano

Date: 2021

Label: Alpha

https://outhere-music.com/en/albums/nino-rota-chamber-music

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

Review

In addition to his many film scores, Nino Rota also composed numerous concert and stage works as well as working as a faculty member and later director of the Liceo Musicale in Bari for much of his adult life. The chamber works on this album come from the middle and later parts of his composing career. Piccola offerta musicale, composed for wind quintet in 1943 when Rota was 32, was dedicated to Alfredo Casella on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Its pastoral warmth, lyrical freshness and deft scoring make a strong impression despite its duration of only four minutes. Both the Trio for flute, violin and piano of 1958 and the Trio for clarinet, cello and piano from 15 years later are compact works formed of two faster outer movements and a slower central one. The former is notable for the pungency of its opening movement and the seriousness and depth of its Andante, the latter for its quirky humour and melancholic expressiveness.

The longest work in this collection is the Nonetto, which was commissioned in 1957 but not completed until the mid-1970s. Its five movements encompass a variety of styles and moods, and frequently find Rota’s invention striking off in unexpected and rewarding directions. Particularly enjoyable is the third-movement Allegro con spirito, with its ear-catching and haunting Trio section. The collection also includes a small sample of Rota’s writing for piano. The two items from the 15 Preludes of 1964 both convey feelings of mystery and nostalgia, and are among the most cinematic pieces here, although it was in fact the lively and characterful pair of Waltzes on the Name Bach of 1975 that Rota would later put to use in a film soundtrack, namely that of Fellini’s Casanova (1976).

All of the performances here by Alpha’s distinguished line-up of musicians are as involving as they are virtuoso, and the recording is clear and well balanced. If the programme appeals, don’t hesitate.

-- Christian Hoskins, Gramophone

More reviews:
MusicWeb International  RECORDING OF THE MONTH

https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/chamber/rota-chamber-music/

https://www.amazon.com/Chamber-Music-Emmanuel-Pahud/dp/B0955B5THS

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

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

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

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!