Joanna Klisowska / Andrea Noferini / Roberto Plano PIATTI Music for Cello and Piano - 2 Songs

Born in Bergamo in 1822, Carlo Alfredo Piatti was to the cello what Nicolò Paganini was to the violin: a musician who extended the possibilities of his instrument in performance and who inspired countless composers to do the same in writing for it. His remarkable talent was immediately evident, to the extent that by 1843 he was already travelling throughout Europe on concert tours, accompanied by his father. It was Franz Liszt who described him as ‘a Paganini of the Cello’, presenting him with an Amati instrument as a token of his admiration.
Piatti’s concert-tours culminated in a visit to London, where he settled in 1846. In the mid-1800s, musical life in the British capital was full of energy and opportunity. When Verdi learnt that it would be Piatti leading the cellos in the first performances of his new opera, I Masnadieri, he wrote a Prelude consisting of a cello solo with an orchestral accompaniment, which he dedicated to the great cellist.
In his own compositions Piatti reconciled virtuoso figurations with a highly lyrical approach to melody which is on show here in two of the songs he wrote for English audiences: O Swallow, Swallow (to a text by Alfred, Lord Tennyson) and La Sera (‘I love the hour of the dying day’), an evening-time, sentimental ballad incorporating a cello solo clearly modelled on the opening of Rossini’s William Tell Overture and astutely calculated to tug at the heartstrings of his well-to-do patrons, who would also want to perform such songs themselves.
However, the bulk of Piatti’s music was designed to show his own skill as a cellist to best advantage. This he triumphantly did with the stupendously virtuosic Capriccio Op.22 on a theme from Pacini’s Niobe. The better-known Capricci Op.25 are not included here; instead, the opportunity has been taken by Andrea Noferini to record some of Piatti’s lesser-known, standalone pieces such as the attractive Op.1 L’abbandono, and Notturno Op.20. Andrea Noferini’s previous recordings include a well-received set of cello duets by Offenbach, released on Brilliant Classics (BC94475). 

Alfredo Piatti was the “Paganini of the Cello”, as his admirer Franz Liszt called him, having given him a valuable Amati cello. Piatti was born in 1822 in Bergamo. His talent was soon evident, and he became a famous cellist, traveling all over Europe, meeting influential artists like Mendelssohn, Joachim, Grieg, Clara Schumann and Liszt. In 1846 he settled in London where he was appointed First Cello in Her Majesty’s Theatre and Covent Garden.
Piatti’s cello works are high quality salon pieces, of a great melodic invention and stunning and ground-breaking virtuosity.
Italian cellist Andrea Noferini and pianist Roberto Plano deliver exciting performances of these highly attractive works. Noferini already recorded several successful Brilliant Classics albums with works by Sgambati, Martucci and Offenbach (Duos with Giovanni Sollima).

Joanna Klisowska / Giulio Tampalini CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO The Divan of Moses Ibn Ezra

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968) wrote his song cycle “The Divan of Moses Ibn Ezra” in the last years of his life, a work of reflection on the human condition. Moses Ibn Ezra (1055-1138) was a Jewish poet who took refuge in Spain after the conquest of his land by the Berber Almoravids, an obvious and deep inspiration for the Jew Castelnuovo-Tedesco who experienced the same fate of exile when moving in 1939 to the USA, fleeing the Nazi threat.

The song cycle “Divan of Moses Ibn Ezra” is in English, a translation of the original Hebrew poetry. The work is divided in 5 parts, and describes the stages of human life and its fate: “Songs of Wandering”, “Songs of Friendship”, “Wine and the delights of Sons of Men”, “the World and its Vicissitudes” and “the Transience of the World”. The musical tone is elegiac, sometimes melancholy, a bittersweet reflection on a long life full of glory and despair.

A beautiful interpretation by soprano Joanna Klisowska, specialist in Early Music and 20th century repertoire, and master guitarist Giulio Tampalini.

The booklet contains excellent liner notes written by the famous composer Angelo Gilardino, in both English and Italian.

Collegium 1704 / Collegium Vocale 1704 / Václav Luks JAN DISMAS ZELENKA Responsoria pro hebdomada sancta - Lamentatio Ieremiae Prophetae

The music here was written for performance during Holy Week at the splendid Catholic court of Dresden in 1722. The example of Dresden stirred Johann Sebastian Bach to some of his most Italianate flights of opera-like music, and the composer of the Holy Week responsories heard here, the Bohemian-born Jan Dismas Zelenka (whom Bach himself admired), had an experimental, progressive spirit in much of his music. All the more of a surprise, then, to find that these pieces are written in an almost antique style. Each of the three Matins services is divided into three Nocturns, each of which is provided with three pairs of readings or lessons (given in chant) and three responsories, polyphonically set for a small choir (the two-singers-to-a-part forces heard here were apparently typical), with orchestral strings mostly doubling the vocal lines. The first of these is replaced here by one of Zelenka's settings of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, ZWV 53, a magnificent solo cantata for bass. After that, the entire two CDs' worth of music consists of the alternation between chant and chorus. The interest of the music, low-key indeed compared with something like the St. Matthew Passion but still displaying considerable skill and emotion, lies in the variety Zelenka achieves within this rather strict framework. The choral sections consist of similar elements: homophonic declamation, slow free polyphony, fugal passages, perhaps a short passage for solo voices. But each one has its own structure and flavor, evolving along with the story they tell. The Czech historical-performance groups Collegium 1704 and Collegium Vocale 1704 under Václav Luks do very well here, with a warmly blended yet precise sound from the singers that fits the music very well. This is not the place to start with Zelenka's choral music; one place might be the odd I Penitenti al Sepolchro del Redentore, ZWV 63. But it's a beautiful performance that will impress the composer's growing legion of fans. (James Manheim)