Nino Rota - Film Music (Massimo Palumbo)

Information

Composer: Nino Rota

1. The Godfather: Loves Theme
2. The Godfather: Waltz
3. The Godfather: Michael's Theme
4. The Glass Mountain: Theme
5. The Glass Mountain: Slow Waltz
6. Fanciulle di Lusso: Verso il collegio
7. Fanciulle di Lusso: Lezioni al collegio
8. Fanciulle di Lusso: La mattina dopo
9. Fanciulle di Lusso: Lezioni di ballo
10. Fanciulle di Lusso: La Tirolese
11. Death on the Nile
12. Romeo and Juliet
13. Fantasmi a Roma: Incontro di fantasmi
14. Fantasmi a Roma: Vita notturna
15. Fantasmi a Roma: Il vecchio palazzo
16. Fantasmi a Roma: Il cavaliere fantasma e le bambinaie
17. Obsession
18. Otto e mezzo (Valzer lento)
19. Il gattopardo
20. Giulietta degli spiriti: Rugiada sui ranocchi
21. Giulietta degli spiriti: Teatrino delle suore
22. The Taming of the Shrew: Marca Columbia
23. The Taming of the Shrew: Dolce Italia
24. The Taming of the Shrew: Amore in Padova
25. Quel bandito sono io: Neapolitan Samba

Massimo Palumbo, piano

Date: 1999

Label: Chandos

https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%209771

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Review

Discover some lesser-known scores alongside old favourites, played here with a first-rate idiomatic feeling for Rota’s music

It was his music for a British film, The Glass Mountain (1948), that brought Nino Rota his first international success. Its theme, heard as a movie concerto but also sung by Tito Gobbi, was a more or less permanent fixture on light music selections for the next decade. The piano transcriptions played here by Massimo Palumbo were made by Rota himself. ‘As a man, how can one be happy in the midst of the unhappiness of others?’ he asked. This is a question his music constantly addresses in the scenes from some of his most celebrated collaborations with Fellini, for instance the extraordinary finale of Notte di Cabiria, when the heroine finds that life still has some promise, even when her whole world has collapsed.

The well-known tunes from The Godfather, Death on the Nile and The Leopard all sound as fresh and effective as they were when new. Most of all, though, enthusiasts for Rota’s music will be interested in the arrangements of his scores for some little-known films, Fanciulle di lusso, Quel bandito sono io and Fantasmi a Roma. The last is represented by a four-part selection, with typically nostalgic Rota waltz-theme and a jokey finale, ‘The ghost-knight and the nurses’ (Il cavaliere e la bambinai).

Palumbo plays all the scores with a delicious feel for that mixture of gaiety and melancholy which distinguished so many of Rota’s film-scores. (Piermarco di Santi, in his essay recalling his friendship with Rota, describes it as ‘the alternation between sustained melody and bursts of evocative circus style.’) Even those who do not normally go for movie music might find this an enjoyable surprise.

-- Gramophone

More reviews:

http://www.musicweb-international.com/film/2000/jan00/rota.htm

https://www.allmusic.com/album/film-music-of-nino-rota-original-soundtrack-collection--mw0001106997

https://www.amazon.com/Film-Music-Nino-Rota/dp/B000038I6T

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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

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