Giuseppe Martucci (1856-1909)
Trio pour piano n° 1 en do, op. 59
Trio pour piano n° 2 en mi bémol majeur, op. 62
Quintette pour piano en do, op. 45
Moment musical pour quatuor à corde
Menuet pour quatuor à cordes
Trois pièces de Georg Friedrich Haendel transcrites pour quatuor à cordes

Maria Semeraro, piano
Quatuor Noferini

Roberto Noferini, violon
Federico Parravicini, violon
Anna Noferini, alto
Andrea Noferini, violoncelle

Giuseppe Martucci, compositeur fort estimé de Toscanini, fut l’un des artisans du renouveau de la musique instrumentale dans l’Italie du XIX° siècle, vouée au culte de l’opéra. Aux côtés de Sgambati, il ouvrit la voie aux maîtres du début du XX° siècle, Respighi et Casella en particulier. Outre la musique symphonique, il cultiva aussi la musique de chambre comme en témoignent ses deux vastes trios et son imposant quintette avec piano. On passera sur les limites techniques du quatuor Noferini pour apprécier ces découvertes dont l’inspiration sérieuse se veut aux antipodes des excès de vocalises du bel canto. Plus germaniques par leur langage et leur ambition qu’italiennes, ces partitions, que viennent compléter quelques séduisantes miniatures pour quatuor à cordes forment un corpus très estimable qu’on est heureux de découvrir. (Richard Wander)

Giuseppe Martucci (1856-1909) was in the vanguard of Italian composers working outside the dominant operatic tradition. Having received his first music lessons from his father, he entered the Royal College in Naples in 1868 and three years later produced his first major work, the Piano Quintet. The opus number of 45 indicates the industry with which the composer applied himself, not only in his youth but throughout his life, and it is a remarkably mature work for a 21-year-old, recognised by the award of a local but prestigious prize for composition. Martucci’s two piano trios date from his late 20s, are cast on the grandest scale, in Schubertian dimensions with a truly Brahmsian breadth of line and spaciousness of argument. Like the Quintet they are cast in the traditional four movements, which open with a searching melody over a turbulent accompaniment, quickly ceding to the gentler development of lovely cantabile ideas: despite writing instrumentally, Martucci had a native gift for apparently natural, singing melodies. A Mendelssohnian lightness of texture lifts these trios from the occasionally heavy-handed rhetoric of the Piano Quintet. One may also hear the composer’s Neapolitan background, especially in the rustic Scherzos with their echoes of local folk music and musicians. This new recording complements previous releases by Brilliant Classics of the piano music with which Martucci learnt his craft (BC94800) and the music for cello and piano (BC94816) which is roughly contemporary with the trios. The performers have considerable experience in this underappreciated field of unquestionably underappreciated music. Maria Semeraro is the pianist on the Brilliant Classics release of the music for cello and piano by Alfredo Casella (BC94823), and the Quartetto Noferini have made a well-received disc of chamber music by Martucci’s teacher, Giovanni Sgambati (BC94813). Together they form an impressively idiomatic partnership.