Giorgio Federico Ghedini (1892-1965)
Musique concertante pour alto, viole d'amour et orchestre à cordes
Musique concertante pour violoncelle et orchestre à cordes

Paul Hindemith (1895-1963)
Cinq Pièces pour orchestre à cordes, op. 44 n° 4

Simonide Braconi, alto, viole d'amour
Enrico Bronzi, violoncelle
Nuovo Orchestra da Camera Ferrucio Busoni
Massimo Belli, direction

A n’en pas douter, la musique pour alto, viole d’amour et orchestre à cordes composée en 1953 constitue un temps fort de la carrière musicale de Federico Ghedini (1892-1965). Œuvre sombre, austère, crépusculaire, le concerto, construit en un seul mouvement, dégage un climat tour à tour rêveur et intrépide. Il s’en dégage un étrange magnétisme. Dans l’interprétation soignée qu’en donne la Nuova orchestra da camera, placée sous la direction de Massimo Belli, le risque de maniérisme n’est d’ailleurs pas à redouter. La formation italienne sait rendre la noirceur du langage musical de ce musicien singulier, contemporain de Martucci et Casella. Le chef parvient à nourrir un dialogue constant, précis, attentionné entre le soliste et l’orchestre. Le concerto pour violoncelle et orchestre à cordes, écrit en 1962, est d’inspiration néo-classique. Entre quelques passages plaintifs et quelques jaillissements d’intensité lyrique, le baroque italien refait surface. Il avait en son temps inspiré Stravinski. Ghedini y fait aussi largement référence pour construire ce qu’il appelle son édifice sonore (« edifici sonori »). Si la Musica concertante ne possède pas la même puissance ensorcelante de l’œuvre précédente et des cinq morceaux pour orchestre d’Hindemith proposés dans cet enregistrement, le programme offert reste de très bonne facture. (Jacques Potard)

New recordings of unfamiliar, imposing concertos by an Italian contemporary of Prokofiev. Born in 1892, Giorgio Federico Ghedini was among those Italian composers – like Martucci and Casella – who elected to devote most of their energies to music for the concert hall rather than the stage. Initially writing in a relatively conservative neoclassical idiom, Ghedini began to take his place in the front rank of modern Italian composers during the late 1930s, with a terse, boldly sculptured series of ‘edifici sonori’ (as the composer called them), in which Stravinsky’s influence is unmistakable. After the war his style continued to evolve through engagement with the concerto genre and the concerto grosso ensemble with its roots in the Italian Baroque. The private, reflective, plaintive characters of both solo instruments are well matched to Ghedini’s idiom by this point in his career. Dating from 1953, the Musica da concerto for viola and string orchestra is cast in a single span which disguises a traditional fast-slow-fast arch, though the viola’s powerful presence frequently draws the pulse of the music away from convention and into earnest dialogue with the strings. Neoclassical counterpoint briefly surfaces near the beginning of the final section, but otherwise the Musica da concerto is remarkable for its sustained lyric intensity around the soloist’s almost ubiquitous presence. Composed in 1962, the Musica concertante for cello and string orchestra is emphatically late music – Ghedini died three years later – which has attained a measure of serenity compared to the earlier viola work. Here the string orchestra and soloist engage in overlapping waves of melody and rhapsody, rising and falling across a continuous 16-minute span, comparable to but distinct from contemporary concertante works by Henze (Ode to the West Wind) and William Schuman (A Song of Orpheus). These valuable and underrated mid-century concertos are intriguingly separated by Hindemith’s condensed set of Op.44 pieces for string orchestra, characteristically knotty, chromatic and incisive. This unique pairing of works joins several previous, well-received albums on Brilliant Classics by the Trieste-based Nuova Orchestra Ferruccio Busoni, such as a similarly adventurous coupling of string idylls by Elgar, Janácek and Kalinnikov (95199) and more recently a collection of string-orchestra works by Ernanno Wolf-Ferrari (95875). ‘The New Busoni Chamber Orchestra’s approach under Massimo Belli thoughtfully treads a line between relaxation and over-inflection, and hits the right note (as it were) in terms of capturing the music’s rusticity.’ (Fanfare)