PASC064:
Rare Italian Baroque & Classical Music - Virtuosi di Roma
MP3
price
Virtuosi
di Roma
Director: Renato Fasano
Recorded
in 1954, released as US Decca 9674
Download ID: 250766
(Duration
37'58")
Sonata
for Violin, Cello and Double Bass
(Rossini)
Concerto
in C minor for Oboe and Strings
(Marcello)
Renato
Zanfini, oboe
Concerto
in G major for Piano and Strings
(Cambini)
Ornella
Puliti Santoliquido, piano
Recitative
for Violin and Strings
(Bonporti)
Guido
Mozzato, violin
Play
sample movement:
Of the
four composers represented in this remarkable collection, only Rossini
(1792-1868) can be considered well known, and for this we have
his operas to thank. Of the rest, we find a handful of renditions of the
Marcello (1684-1750) in the catalogue, one of the Cambini (1746-1825),
and nothing tha resembles the Bonporti (1672-1749). However, in
its arrangement by the composer Alfredo Casella for small chamber orchestra,
in this case the fourteen members of Virtuosi di Roma, we have a particularly
rare rendition of Rossini's Sonata, rendered in at times quite piercing
near-Baroque style.
Rare though
the music may be, and obscure some of these composers, there is music
of real beauty to be found in this collection. It was the recordings of
Trio Santoliquido which drew me first to Virtuosi di Roma - all
three members of that Trio also appear on this recording. The ensemble
was the vision of composer, pianist, musicologist and conductor, Renato
Fasano, who assembled what he regarded as the finest Italian instrumentalists
of the day, and "fired them with what was then still a dream",
according to the LP's sleevenotes. "After a long period of discussion,
rehearsal, and endless sifting of musical masterworks, the group finally
made its debut, and the dream was realised even beyond Maestro Fasano's
expectations."
Sleevenote
hyperbole, maybe, but these recordings were certainly very well received
- of the four represented in the 1955 edition of The Record Guide,
three LPs (including this) receive the ultimate double-star accolade,
with the fourth receiving a single star. Referring to the latter LP, of
18th century music for strings, the guide comments: "The Virtuosi
di Roma specialise in this sort of thing, and do it very well."
Perhaps with their star system they didn't feel the need to state that
on this disc they did it even better...
Find
out more:
Concerto
for Oboe & Strings (Marcello) 1st Movement - Allegro
