There's anybody wishing to get fun from a work titled "Concerto for orchestra in C major"?
Try the very, very tuneful and cheerful Concerto for Orchestra (1932) by the short lived Mario Pilati (1903-1938): three movements lasting 25' 51".
So don't expect at all an earlier Bartok or Lutoslavsky (whom I greatly admire, mostly the former).
By the way Pilati's Concerto was premiered by no-less than Mitropoulos and almost immediately later conducted by Weingartner : evidently those Old Maestros were capable of having fun.
Pilati's Concerto we can listen on Naxos 8.570873 (formerly MP, recordings of 2000-2001, Slovakian Radio Symph., Bratislava)
conducted by that infaticable champion of the unsung, and enigmatic, Adriano, who also writes the exhaustive booklet.
Fine (to me) also the Three pieces for orchestra (1929) and "By the cradle" (1938).
Slightly paler the earlier Suite for strings and piano (1925).
Thanks, Alberto, for your appreciation ::)
My second CD with music by Pilati has just been published on the Inedita label and a review can be read on the MusicWeb.
The fact that an artist uses only his first name does not make him "enigmatic".
Is Madonna enigmatic to you?
How about Midori and Solomon, just to stay within the domain of classical music?
Of course, prostitutes, clowns and dressmakers also use first names only 8)
I do so because I found that my parents did not deserve have their name associated with mine: they opposed against everything I was doing, so I preferred doing this all by myself.
Have a nice Summer!
adriano
Welcome Adriano! I still treasure my LP of the Raff Piano Quintet played by the Zurich Quintet which I bought in Musik Hug on Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich in 1981 or 82.
Quote from: alberto on Friday 22 April 2011, 18:07
conducted by that infaticable champion of the unsung, and enigmatic, Adriano
Welcome Adriano!
Maybe it's because English is not my first language but I think alberto wanted to say that you are a 'champion of the unsung and enigmatic'? :-\
But perhaps I am wrong. Anyway, all those artists you mentioned are of the glamorous sort. One is used to relate first-name-only artists with excentric appearence.
So it is surprising to meet an artist as unpretentious as you using only his first name. ;)
I think Midori is her family name. I could be mistaken. However, single name artists aren't limited to given names. Take Kennedy, for example. In pop music, think Dion, Donovan, Prince and quite a few others, I would think (I have Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man playing on the TWC Solid Gold Oldies Channel right now. Another thing I've gotten into recently - music from my first decade of life).
P.S. Actually I don't think Prince was his real name either.
Quote from: JimL on Saturday 09 July 2011, 20:15
P.S. Actually I don't think Prince was his real name either.
Actually, Prince
is his real name - Prince Rogers Nelson.
Fascinating. About Solomon, wasn't that his surname? Maybe I'll just Google him.
...Nope. Full name Solomon Cutner.
Anyway, Adriano, welcome and visit often and soon. There's a lot of projects being bandied about here that could use your advocacy.
I sent my post before reading on the web two interviews by Adriano. Anyway, with or without interviews, I would have never used the word "enigmatic" if that could trouble in some way Adriano.
I thank "our" "infaticable champion of the unsung" and hope strongly he will fulfill as many as possible between his ever stimulating projects.
I share hope he will write here.
Hi everybody ;)
In any case, there are more important things about artists than the way they want to be named.
Now, a new CD with two more Symphonies by Swiss composer Fritz Brun has been released on the Guild label. I am on the way of recording all his Symphonies (10 - and all completed) and orchestra works:
http://www.guildmusic.com/shop/wbc.php?sid=6278701e237&tpl=suche.html&q=adriano
The Third Symphony has been relesed on the Sterling label, which I have left for various reasons.
In July there was the first performance of my string quartet arrangement of Hugo Wolf's "Michelangelo Songs" - in Trinidad and Tobago, by the excellent German baritone Christian Immler. What an honour for me!
If you consult my homepage m(www.adrianomusic.com), you'll find a lot of crazy arrangements I have done for various chamber groups, including a very successful one of Debussy's "Prelude à l'après-midi d'un faune" for flute, clarinet, harp and string quartet, which you can hear on flutist's Andrea Kollé's homepage http://www.andreakolle.com/recordings.php
In November there will be a première in Krefeld (Germany) of my wind quintet "digest" arrangement of Dvorak's opera "Rusalka", which is the second arrangement of this piece I have done. Its first (for the same ensemble as the Debussy) will be premiered next year at the Prague Children's Theatre and also performed in Austria and Switzerland.
I've also finised composing an "Impertinent Concertino" for harspichord and strings, which should be premièred next year. Other works of mine can be heard on the Italian CD
http://www.ineditacd.com/asp/Dettaglio.asp?ID=PI2743
That is all for now, hope it does not sound too pretentious :-)
To all of you kindest regards from Switzerland
Adriano
Dear Adriano,
...and thanks for recording the Brun symphonies - it's 'big' music that I am pursuing with new fascination at present.
Hi Mark Thomas
Hi eschiss
Nice to hear that you still have/remember the Raff LP! Alas, my own label is dead since a long time, but, if you are interested, I can send you Respighi's piano works which were published on the same label on CD of which I still have a considerable stock.
Of all these LP's I have made nice private CD transfers.
You can write me and send me your address.
Kindest regards
Adriano
This was the complete catalogue of Adriano Records:
LPs
ADR 1 (1977) JOACHIM RAFF (Stereo)
Grand Quintuor (Piano Quintet, op.l07)*
Zürich Piano Quintet
ADR 2 (1977) OTTORINO RESPIGHI (Stereo)
Violin Sonata - 11 pieces for violin and piano*
Robert Kunz & Rudolf am Bach
ADR M3 (1978) JACK TROMMER (Historical Mono)
Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe (Original Soundtrack)*
Swiss Studio Orchestra, Dolf Zinsstag
ADR 4 (1983) OTTORINO RESPIGHI (Stereo)
String Quartet in D* - Doric String Quartet
I Virtuosi Elvetici
ADR E5 (1979) OTTORINO RESPIGHI (Historical Mono)
5 Songs and 2 Italian Folksongs*
Elsa & Ottorino Respighi performing (coupled with historical recordings of other singers)
(Partly reissued on CD in 2005 on Pierian 0024)
ADR 6 (1982) JULIUS REUBKE (Stereo)
Sonata B flat major - Mazurka and Scherzt
OTTO REUBKE 4 Pieces'
Rudolf am Bach
ADR 7 (1983) ERNST PFIFFNER (Stereo)
Hafiz-Zyklus - Polyhymnia - Suite for Violin, Piano Pieces
Various Swiss Artists
ADR 8 (1988) GIOVANNI PALESTRINA (Stereo) Missa brevis
GREGORIO ALLEGRI Miserere
A-cappella-Chor Zürich, Piergiuseppe Snozzi
(Reissued on CD in 2007)
ADR E9 (1985) FRANZ SCHREKER (Historical, 78s transfers)
Der Schatzgräber (Interlude)* Die Gezeichneten (Prelude Act III)
EDWARD GRIEG Peer Gynt, Suite No. 1 GEORGES BIZET L'Arlésienne (Suites 1 & 2)
Philharmonisches Orchester Berlin, Franz Schreker
CDs
ADR 10 (1991) OTTORINO RESPIGHI (Digital Stereo)
Tre preludi sopra melodie gregoriane - 6 piano pieces -
6 little pieces (4-hands)
Rudolf am Bach (with Evelyn am Bach)
ADR E11-12 (1993) Enrico Egano, Violoncello (Analog Stereo)
Works by SCHUMANN, BRAHMS, MENDELSSOHN, KODALY & SHOSTAKOVICH
(Live recordings 1979-1983)
ADR 13 (1994) The Zürich String Trio (Digital Stereo)
BEETHOVEN: Serenade D Major - DOHNANYI: Serenade C Major - REGER: Trio A Minor (Live recording)
ADR 14/15 BEETHOVEN (Digital Stereo) Complete String Trios
The Zürich String Trio
(Reissued in 2002 on CD on Brilliant Classics 92292)
ADR 16 (2002) The Zürich String Trio (Digital Strereo)
Works by DOHNANYI, REGER & SCHNITTKE
Hi everybody :-)
Just read the following American Record Guide review of my new Pilati CD on the Inedita label. Those primadonna critics should sometimes seriously think over their "profession's" credo and tasks. I think Mr. Hecht deserves this answer of mine, which I publish at the bottom.
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PILATI: Preludio, Aria, & Tarantella; Italian
Folk Songs; Bagatelles; Divertimento
Moscow Symphony/ Adriano/ Inedita 2757 (53 minutes)
Italian composer Mario Pilati (1903-38) was born in Naples, where he studied with Antonia Savasta. After moving to Milan, he worked for Ricordi as an arranger and taught pupils, among them Gianandrea Gavazzeni. Pilati achieved some success as a composer before dying at age 35. His pieces were performed for a while afterwards but eventually suffered the same post-war neglect that met several Italian composers active in the Fascist period. Pilati's discovery has been a project of Adriano, who previously directed a Marco Polo disc (Naxos reissue) of more serious Pilati works. In terms of style, the works here are mainly neoclassical and somewhat steeped in folk music and Italian opera.
This is the first review of Pilati's music in ARG. It is from the dark side, but first, full disclosure. I do not like "light" or "pops" music of any nationality. Nor do I care for music that lacks depth or bite, neither challenges nor engages me, and gives me nothing interesting to listen to. Worst of all is music that lacks inspiration. The works on this program meet all these criteria. They are simple, innocent to the point of unsophistication and perhaps even crudeness, repetitious, blocky in texture, and square in form (literally and figuratively). No flair for harmony is apparent, and the melodies say little.
Preludio, Aria e Tarantella begins with a lively solo violin. Parts of the harmony in Preludio (and elsewhere) sound like low-grade Mascagni but most is ordinary. Similar comments apply to the Aria, which, despite touches of Italian devices and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, sounds square. Tarantella is blocky, too long, and in this heavy performance, uncomfortably Russian.
Pilati's treatment of the Italian Folksongs is "by the numbers" and repetitious. In the Bagatelles, I hear a touch of Prokofieff, a cute bassoon solo, and the influence of the American music and movie scores that Pilati admired, but most sound like pieces for children or music hall fluff.
The Divertimentos for brass are a little better. It may be a stretch, but one or two might interest a brass ensemble looking for something a little raw that sounds like Italian street bands.
The workaday performances do not help. A good Italian orchestra and conductor steeped in the idiom might make more of the orchestral pieces, but I'm not sure how much more. The brass works fare better because the players put them forward with more enthusiasm and flair. Even so, a group that pays closer attention to neat tone quality and ensemble might make a better case for them.
HECHT
American Record Guite 09/27/2011
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Dear Mr. Hecht
Concerning your review of my Inedita CD with music by Mario Pilati:
1) It's always an awkward thing to learn from a reviewer what he personally likes or not, even though this does and should not interest the reader, nor will end up into the annals of music history compared to all the work real musicians do.
A reviewer is here to criticise the music and the performance from an objective, expert's and specialist's point of view, in order that potential buyers of a CD still have some room to decide and not have to observe that the reviewer has a problem with the pieces he listened. American Record Guide is one of those Magazines like Fanfare which sometimes reveals more on the personalities of their writers than on the composers they write on, but this same pervert attitude occurs also over here in Europe.
You seem to have no idea about Italian folk music, and before you write some silly sentences as, for example, that Pilati's pieces lack inspiration, you may consider that folksong-based music is just inspired by the folk tunes, which are used/arranged and nothing more. With the same criteria you also may not like folksong arrangements by Bartok or Kodaly, being also just skilful orchestrations and arrangements - with no further "inspiration".
But, if you don't like all this kind of music, why do you review it and not hand it over to an expert colleague?
2) That Pilati had "no flair for harmony" is absolute nonsense, the more so you do not explain exactly where and why. Pilati uses and plays with harmony in a most sophisticated and humorous way, as did his contemporaries Respighi and Casella, with a twinkle in the eye. You seem not to have a flair for (Italian?) humour at all.
3) Pilati's teacher was not a woman: you spell "Antonia" instead of "Antonio" Savasta.
4) The Title of "Divertimento" is not "Divertimentos" in plural.
5) What exactly does the expression "uncomfortably Russian" mean??
6) What exactly does the expression "the melodies say little" mean?
7) What does the expression "sounds square" mean?
Adriano, conductor
Zurich/Switzerland
to nitpick point 4, in English, yes, it is. That's why on IMSLP and Wikipedia for instance one's encouraged strongly to use Concertos, not Concerti, etc.
The question of which reviewers are chosen by the editors of music magazines to review particular cds is a very interesting issue.
I have repeatedly queried why Professor Arnold Whittall of King's College, London reviews almost every new cd of the music of Penderecki when he, self-admittedly, has very little time for the post-1980 Pendereckian neo-romanticism/post-romanticism of the music. The answer I got was that he volunteers to do so. This I find....shall I just say, 'interesting'.
I still subscribe to Fanfare, and usually flip through Gramophone and, on the rare occasions I can find it here in the United States, International Record Review. But I gave up on the American Record Guide many years ago, when I saw it mutating into the mouthpiece for its editor, a dyspeptic right-winger who would publish long editorials (his own, of couse) that had nothing whatsoever to do with recordings (or even music) but ranted on about other people's bad manners and the general degeneration of the human race. His reviewers all tended to be similarly grumpy old men who took obvious delight in disdaining most of the recordings they were assigned to review. As for Mr. Hecht, his self-regarding priggishness speaks for itself. I don't know, Adriano, if ARG publishes letters to the editor (they never used to), but I'm very glad you offered us your response. For what it's worth, I admire your conducting and appreciate the breadth of your repertoire.
I am sorry that you were given such harsh treatment, Adriano. Fortunately, there are many people 'out there' who know better and have the courage to pursue their interests in the teeth of this sort of destructive and generally unhelpful criticism.
Carry on regardless, I say!
BTW, some lovely samples from Adriano's latest CD are available here:
http://www.ineditacd.com/asp/Dettaglio.asp?ID=PI2757 (http://www.ineditacd.com/asp/Dettaglio.asp?ID=PI2757)
Hi eschiss1 and hi dafrieze
Thanks for your feedback :-)
It is not question of correctly pluralizing an exotic word: Pilati's composition is called "Divertimento" in singular and the reviewer has not even read it correctly and calls it "Divertimentos". It's a question of reading/spelling/quoting correctly!
Incidentally, in the same issue of ARG, reviewer BYELICK calls my Organ-and-strings piece entitled "Obscure Saraband" (please sit down!) "Obscene Saraband" - even though the review is a good one :-)
So I have a double frustration with this Magazine.
On my letters, they answered saying "We do not publish letters like this".
These American Magazines seem to employ dilettantes and to be badly in need of money.
Hav you already haerd that FANFARE even offers reviews for cash? They send letters to artists and CD companies offering various categories of such kind of "subscriptions".
Read this shocking link:
http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2011/10/how-to-buy-a-record-review.html
Regards from Switzerland
Adriano
Thanks Alan!
You and all other respondings to my contributions made my day :-)
Leaving on Saturday for the North German town of Krefeld, whose Opera House is premiering my Wind Quintet (!!) "digest" arrangement of Dvorak's "Rusalka" in a production for the Youth. They will give 31 performances! Of this same opera I have done a much more interesting and luscious "digest" arrangement for flute, clarinet, harp and string quartet, which I hope will be performed soon. I agree that "Rusalka" needs a harp and a few strings :-), but they wanted a wind quintet...
This better version could also be performed in a chamber concert with a narrator in-betwwenn the muscival numbers.
I love the ensemble flute-clarinet.harp and string quartet, which Ravel uses so masterfully in his "Introduction et allegro".
One of my most successful arrangement for this group is Debussy's "Afternoo of a Faun", which you can hear on this link:
http://www.andreakolle.com/recordings.php
And samples of my latest Brun CD (Symphonies 6 and 7) can be heart on:
http://www.guildmusic.com/shop/wbc.php?sid=920780a80da&tpl=produktdetail.html&pid=13357&rid=280&recno=1
I've had issues enough with ARG for years even on just occasional acquaintance - subscribed to Fanfare and gained much from it but even in the foreground (and increasingly, with many of its- well, in my opinion ...! - best reviewers leaving... ) - it.. erm. :(
QuoteThese American Magazines seem to employ dilettantes and to be badly in need of money.
I haven't read either magazine in several years, but I've rarely taken offense at Fanfare. ARG is a different story, though. While I know a couple of the reviewers personally, and know them to be serious,and knowledgeable, the magazine's editor is another matter. For example: he has stated in his editorials that he has "convictions," not "opinions." Therefore, once he forms his view on something, he is absolutely inflexible. He also berates readers who disagree with him. I have a friend who does not write for ARG but knows the editor, and has argued with him in the past on musical matters. When he tried to renew a subscription to ARG, the editor refused his renewal out of spite! I gave up reading ARG a few years ago when I just couldn't take this man's attitude in his editorials and reviews any longer.
Sadly, I would not take much of what is in this magazine very seriously.
I have an acquaintance who reviews for ARG and it's fair to say that he has "issues" with the editor too. I only ever buy the magazine if I see it in Barnes & Noble when I'm in the US and then often regret the money I've spent.
Hrm- as to Fanfare employing dilettantes, that may be mainly so now, I don't know. Wasn't true when I subscribed (though as I struck up some really good email conversations with people who I often first found out about because of their reviews there, and found out about some composers and music likewise more often than from Gramophone or ARG because of the then-detailed, comparative, thought-provoking and generally interesting reviews..., I'm not the person to ask or to give an opinion- too biased... and self-contradictory, obviously... :) )
Is that JB you're talking about Mark?
No, Jim, it isn't. I'd forgotten that he used to review for them too.
Wish he were back on here, sometimes. :(
I suspect that he lurks... ;)
Dear Forum Members
Happy New Year :D
Yesterday, Roger Hecht of ARG has answered to my earlier reaction to his review as follows:
Maestro Adriano,
I have enjoyed your recordings for years, e.g., the Strong discs, Herrmann's score to Jane Eyre, Honegger's to Les Miserables, film scores by Ibert and Bliss, the lesser known Respighi, and the Fritz Brun symphonies. I expected something really good from your new Pilati disc and was shocked to find the music so uninteresting. I would never have associated it with you. I might have passed it to a "specialist" if it were well known and its quality needed no comment from a reviewer, or if its light music genre were all that was at issue, but neither was the case. My "problem with the [Pilati] pieces" was the music and the conducting. It didn't require a specialist to hear that, so I alerted the reader to my tastes and perspectives, noted there were positive reviews elsewhere, and reviewed it.
As for your comment about "Italian folk music", etc., I was not writing about folk song arrangements. I was reviewing orchestral music that used folk songs or folk style songs as thematic material--like Bartok's Dance Symphony, Kodaly's Hary Janos, Martinu's symphonies, works by Vaughan Williams, Chavez, Villa Lobos, etc. One does not have to be an ethnomusicologist to appreciate what Copland did with `Good Bye Old Paint' in Billy the Kid, what Mahler did with `Frere Jacques' in his First Symphony, or the questions surrounding `Goin' Home' in Dvorak's Ninth. Nor must one analyze a major scale to marvel at what Tchaikovsky created in the `Grand Pas de Deux' from Nutcracker. Knowing those things adds to appreciation, but final judgment rests on the piece as a whole, and that is where I found Pilati wanting. As for his harmonies, let's just say that those of Respighi and Casella are far more sophisticated and interesting.
My proofreading missed the errors of "Antonia" and "Divertimento" (which I at least got right in the heading), and I apologize. "Uncomfortably Russian" referred to the Tarantella, which sounds more Russian than Italian and feels out of place. "Melodies say little" means they are not interesting, compelling, or particularly beautiful. "Sounds square" means, dull, bland, not particularly inventive, routine. Perhaps I should have said those things in the first place. I stand by my review and would advise people to look into your other, far more interesting discs now and into the future.
Sincerely,
Roger Hecht
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Dear Mr. Hecht
Thanks for your explanations.
About the conducting, you should comment such things only by comparing with the scores, to see what exactly I have done with them.
All the best for 2012.
Adriano
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Has anybody ever seen a critic not standing by one of his reviews? The problem Mr. Hecht has with what he calls an apparent Russian inflection of the Tarantella is really strange. Pilati uses there the same devices as Respighi and other Italian composers who orchestrated Napolitain Tarantellas for large orchestra. These devices include exotic intervals and harmonic changes who are traditional. Incidentally. I do not find that this piece feels "out of place" at all; on the contrary, it completes and concludes this Suite effectfully. All three pieces are Neo-Baroque renderings of ancient Napolitain themes. They are, incidentally, the composer's orchestrations of his own three pieces for violin and piano of 1929-1930.
Hecht still admits in his explantions that he "alerted the reader" to his "tastes and perspectives"; which, in my opinion, is just what a reviewer should not do. Reviewer's personal opinions should not be the subject of a review. Reviews should be written by professional musicologists, who are trained to objectivity.
At least, Hecht admits not to like these pieces, but just this is of no interest.
A real pity he still does not (or cannot) explain in detail why he finds my conducting not good enough. Of course I realize not to be a revelation, but I am aware of doing a respectful and sincere job.
Remember Bernard Herrmann's statement about criticism, saying that he would accept judgements only from his peers and not from his inferiors?
Best regards from Zurich/Switzerland
Adriano