Mauro Tortorelli - Le Quattro Stagioni - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Recent scholarship on Luis Misón (Mataró, 1727-Madrid, 1766) demonstrates the growing interest among the musicological community in studying the life and work of one who is an essential composer in the history of Spanish music. Musical historiography has extolled Misón's contribution to the genre of the tonadilla escénica, a genre widely appreciated in his time and which must have had a notable influence on his instrumental music, about which less is known. His talent as a flautist was appreciated within the noble circle of the House of Alba, where musical academies were held in which Misón actively participated and for which he composed 12 sonatas for transverse flute and bass dedicated to the Duke of Alba. These pieces were located in the archives of the House of Alba and described in 1927 by José Subirá (1882-1980), but unfortunately they disappeared during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39). The discovery of the five hitherto unknown Sonatas for Flute and Bass by Misón represents a substantial contribution to the Spanish chamber music repertoire of the second third of the 18th century for this instrument, given the scarcity of pieces written by Hispanic composers contemporary to Misón in which the flute is definitely the real protagonist. Moreover, they are sonatas which, from a technical point of view, pose interesting challenges to the flautist, something that highlights Misón's mastery of the flute, in accordance with surviving documentation of the period. Ortega explains that José Teixidor (c.1751-c.1811), vice-master of the Royal Chapel from 1778, considered his works to be no lesser than those of the best-known foreign composers and said of him that he was an unequalled performer on the transverse flute. The sonatas are found in five musical manuscripts preserved in the Lebrija Palace in Seville, a stately home dating from the 16th century, which in 1901 became

Roffredo Caetani (1871-1961) prince of Bassiano, last duke of Sermoneta, composer and patron of the arts, developed a marked musical talent from an early age. A decisive factor in this respect was certainly the influence of his father, a close friend of Franz Liszt, who in turn would be an exceptional godfather and, later, teacher to Roffredo. Caetani completed his Sonata for Violin and Piano in 1898, and the work was first performed by the great Turinese violinist Teresina Tua and pianist Francesco Bajardi. The Sonata's three movements are decidedly broad and there is a particular evocation of the Baroque in the Adagio and Finale, as in Ferruccio Busoni's Second Sonata for violin and piano in E minor, Op.36. The first movement begins with a brief, slow and expressive introduction, almost enigmatic, somewhat reminiscent of the great Sonatas of the classical period (such as Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata), and then it gives way, in an almost impetuous manner, to the Allegro, full of themes following one on another, urged on by a pressing rhythm. In the Adagio, counterpoint is much more than a technique, it becomes an expressive tool. Written in ABA ternary form, the central part of which has a faster tempo (Più andante), the second movement consists of a combination of elegiac chants entrusted to the violin with chromatic counterpoint to the piano. The Finale of the Sonata is a three-voice fugue whose theme is developed from the very first notes of the movement and whose character is incisive and brilliant.Guido Alberto Fano (1875-1961) was an Italian composer, conductor and pianist of Jewish origin, a survivor of the Holocaust. He began his musical studies with Vittorio Orefice, later undertaking piano studies under Cesare Pollini. In 1894, he was invited by Giuseppe Martucci to be his piano and composition student at Bologna, where Fano graduated in 1897. Fano's Fantasi

?Guido Santorsóla (1904-1994) began his musical studies at the age of five, taught by his father, a sculptor, trumpeter and double bassist who moved from Southern Italy to São Paulo, Brazil in 1909, with the rest of the family joining him the following year. He enrolled at the São Paulo Conservatory of Music, then travelled to Naples to hone his violin technique and later London, where he studied at the Trinity College of Music under Alfred Mistowsky. His eventual return to Brazil coincided with a visit from Pietro Mascagni. At a concert in the great composer's honour Santorsóla, accompanied at the piano by Mascagni himself, performed his own compositions for violin and piano for the first time. Santórsola's final compositional period began at the age of 58, in 1962. He devised a very personal 12-tone technique free from conventional rules, and not to be confused with Schoenberg's. His language is rooted in the golden age of Florentine counterpoint through to Bach. The novel instrument used on this recording - the gran violino a 5 corde (great five-string violin) - originated from an idea by violinist Mauro Tortorelli, who commissioned the luthiers Vincenzo and Marco Corrado - based in Montegiordano, in southern Italy - to build a special instrument covering both the violin and viola registers by adding the viola's low C string to the usual four of the violin. This ingenious solution allows the performer to switch between violin and viola repertoire on the same instrument. The Sonata for violin and piano, composed in São Paulo in 1928, undoubtedly belongs to Santórsola's early compositional period. Divided into three movements - Con sofferenza, Andante espressivo, Deciso - it is based on classical sonata form but with typically post-romantic expressive, passionate themes, enriched with original South America-inspired harmonies. Saudade, a nostalgic piece for violin an