Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948)
Idillio, Concertino en la majeur pour hautbois, cordes et 2 cors, op. 15
Serenata pour cordes
Suite, Concertino en fa majeur pour basson, cordes et 2 cors, op. 16

Fabien Thouand, hautbois
Valentino Zucchiatti, basson
Nuova Orchestra da camera "Feruccio Busoni"
Massimo Belli, direction

« Cette musique épouvantablement dépassée » aux oreilles du philosophe et musicologue allemand Theodor W. Adorno, recèle toutefois un charme certain. Assurément, elle n’était plus de son temps et certainement pas celui de la Seconde Ecole de Vienne. Moitié allemand, moitié vénitien, Wolf-Ferrari connut un beau début de carrière grâce à la notoriété de ses opéras. La brisure de la Première Guerre mondiale, l’évolution des esthétiques reléguèrent son catalogue aux oubliettes. Il se réfugia dans l’écriture de pièces instrumentales. Le charme des deux concertos qui évoquent autant Francis Poulenc, que Jean Françaix et la période néoclassique de Respighi, voire quelque intermède “à la Puccini” est d’un lyrisme romantique un peu fané. La beauté des mélodies, le sens des contrastes sont admirablement exploités par les deux solistes, Fabien Thouand et Valentino Zucchiatti. Le Concertino est d’une belle écriture, noble et chantante. Les danses folkloriques réinventées, quelques allusions à l’univers baroque vénitien et plus encore, l’expression d’une profonde nostalgie séduisent. Idillo pour hautbois, cordes et deux cors brille d’un entrain “rossinien” juste. La Sérénade pour cordes (1894) assure le pendant à celles d’Europe centrale de la fin du XIXe siècle. La direction incisive de Massimo Belli pousse les cordes de l’orchestre dans leurs limites. (Jean Dandrésy)

Little-known but delightful instrumental treasures from the composer of ‘The Jewels of the Madonna’. Given its colour by a pastorally evocative scoring of oboe and small orchestra, the Idillio Concertino lives up to its name with calm and gentle cantabile writing throughout in Wolf-Ferrari’s most neo-classical vein. The composer’s declared idol was Mozart, and all three of these works seek to recover something of a timeless beauty which many locate in Viennese Classicism. ‘When a piece of music touches our heart,’ said Wolf-Ferrari, ‘we do not need to understand why it does so: indeed it is something that should not be understood, even were it possible to do so. We do not need to be botanists to perceive the beauty of a forest! In art, it is sentiment, not reason, which determines [our reaction]. Art does not desire an audience of initiates, a congregation of the faithful, but a pure and open heart.’ This newly recorded album is for every listener who feels likewise. The solo instrument for the Suite-Concertino is the bassoon, but the dreamy mood prevails in the long-breathed opening Nocturne, which is followed by a quick, strumming scherzo, a lovely heartfelt Canzone and a gentle concluding Andante. This pair of concertos from 1933 is complemented by one of Wolf-Ferrari’s best-known instrumental works, the four-movement Serenade for Strings which dates from a full 40 years earlier, before the composer embarked on an operatic career. In this precociously mature work – written at the age of 17 – Mozart is even more clearly a guiding light, as indeed he was for the composer’s contemporary Busoni, who lends his name to this chamber orchestra based in the north-east of Italy. Founded in 1965 by Aldo Belli, the orchestra boasts a distinguished discography such as the ‘Idyll’ album on Brilliant Classics.