Menotti: Fantasia for Cello and Orchestra; Apocalisse (Apocalypse); Suite from 'Sebastian'
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Composer: Gian Carlo MenottiConductor: Richard Hickox
Orchestra: Spoleto Festival Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2001-04-24
Music Label: Chandos
Soundtracks:
- Apocalypse: I. Improperia. Adagio, Solene - Allegro - Adagio - Allegro Molto - Andante Maestoso...
- Apocalypse: II. La Citta Celeste. Adagio, Ma Non Troppo, Molto Cantabile
- Apocalypse: III. Gli Angeli Militanti. Allegro Giocoso Ma Non Troppo - Lento
- Fant: Allegro Moderato - Raphael Wallfisch
- Sebastian: Ste: I. Intro. Adagio - Allegro Molto - Adagio
- Sebastian: Ste: II. Barcarolle. Andante Con Moto
- Sebastian: Ste: III. Street Fight. Allegro Energico
- Sebastian: Ste: IV. Cortege. L'istesso Tempo
- Sebastian: Ste: V. Sebastian's Dance: Tempo Di Valzer Moderato
- Sebastian: Ste: VI. Dance Of The Wounded Courtesan. Molto Moderato - Andante Maestoso, Ma...
- Sebastian: Ste: VII. Pavane. Andante Calmo
Music reviews of Menotti: Fantasia for Cello and Orchestra; Apocalisse (Apocalypse); Suite from 'Sebastian'
Music Review: Militant Angels and All
Rating: 4 Stars
It is by his television opera "Amal and the Night Visitors" that most music-lovers know Gian-Carlo Menotti (born 1911), the bulk of whose production is for the lyric stage. But Menotti has also written a respectable raft of purely instrumental and orchestral music, highlights of which appear on the present Chandos CD. The three movements of "Apocalypse" (1951-53) suggest something on a symphonic order; or if not quite a symphony, the work is nevertheless unified in mood and lavish in its gestures. In these qualities it resembles the sectional tone poems of Respighi, particularly his "Church Windows," in whose idiom Menotti unashamedly writes. Richard Hickox leads the Orchestra of the Spoleto Festival in a broad, even lavish, traversal of the score, its fanfares and chant-like chorales beautifully captured by the Chandos engineers. The initial "Improperia" is the most imposing of the three movements, the darkest in mood, and the most complicated in structure. It opens with piercing trumpets and hazy strings building up to cinematic outburst fit for C. B. de Mille type special effects. The following "Citta Celeste" offers repose between the two spectacular panels. The final movement, "Angeli Militanti," will bring to mind Respighi's "St. Gregory the Great" ("Church Windows" IV). The competition comes from a Koch CD with James de Preist leading the Oregon Symphony, which mates "Apocalypse" with "Meditations on Ecclesiastes" by Norman Dello Joio and with a short piece ("Masques," I think) by Anthony Lo Presto. Hickox and Chandos do a better job, as nice as the de Preist performance is. The new CD also offers up Menotti's "Fantasy for Cello and Orchestra" (1976), a pleasant one-movement concerto in the composer's usual lyrical vein, and the suite from the ballet "Sebastian." The latter belongs to a peculiar twentieth century sub-genre, the sacred ballet. Hindemith's "Nobilissima Visione," Dello Joio's "The Triumph of Saint Joan," and Ingolf Dahl's "The Tower of Saint Barbara" are other entries in the same category. As for the "Fantasy," it is as good as or better than many a twentieth century concerted work with solo cello; it has something of the Barber Concerto's edginess, an influence not unexpected in Menotti. Anyone who enjoys music in a conservative, neo-Romantic idiom (I include myself) will find something to like in this work. The soloist has a very sweet tone, most appropriate for the music. The suite from "Sebastian" is likewise attractive, although without the "through composed" logic of its companions on the program; the somber conclusion makes the most lasting impression, although there is much attractive music along the way. It would be nice were Chandos to follow this disc with a recorded program, say, of the two piano concertos and the double bass concerto, all of which would fit within the eighty-two minute limit of the CD format. Menotti was born in Italy but came to the United States in the 1930s and remained there for decades. In his musical language, he is at one with the Italian American "school" of composers like Vittorio Giannini, Nicolas Flagello, Paul Creston (born Guttovecchio): he avoids the cultivated ugliness of the twentieth century "isms" and writes ingratiating music for a broad, but still discriminating, audience. Especially for "Apocalypse" and the "Fantasy," I recommend this CD.
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Description of Menotti: Fantasia for Cello and Orchestra; Apocalisse (Apocalypse); Suite from 'Sebastian'
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