Musa Italiana (CD review)
Music of Mendelssohn, Schubert, and Mozart. Riccardo Chailly, Filarmonica della Scala. Decca 485 2944.
By John J. Puccio
Just as a lot of Spanish-inflected music was written by French composers (Bizet, Massenet, Chabrier, etc.), so has much Italian-themed music been written by non-Italians, as in the present album of Italian-influenced music by German and Austrian composers. Perhaps it says as much as anything about the countries of Spain and Italy that they have inspired so many people outside their boundaries to write music in their style.
Whatever, it’s good to see an Italian conductor, Riccardo Chailly, and an Italian orchestra, the Filarmonica della Scala, doing music (from whatever composer) in the Italian manner. It’s also good to see Maestro Chailly doing more recordings. He’s been around a long time and has been the principal conductor of some of the world’s finest orchestras (Gewandhaus Orchestra, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, and others) and is now the Music Director of La Scala. Although I would not fully agree with a 2015 Bachtrack poll in which music critics ranked Chailly as the world's best living conductor, he is certainly among the best currently working.
The program begins with the Symphony No. 4 in A, Op. 90 “Italian” (revised 1934 version) by German composer, conductor, and pianist Felix Mendelssohn. He premiered it in 1833 after a trip to Italy, but he never published it in his lifetime. Although it is numbered 4 among his five symphonies, he wrote it last. Concerning it, the composer wrote “It will be the jolliest piece I have ever done, especially the last movement.”
The first movement Allegro is among the most recognizable of all the music Mendelssohn wrote for his symphonies, a thrilling surge of undulating rhythms that can get the blood racing as well as reflect a sunny Italian mood. Chailly takes it at a zesty pace that certainly gets the adrenaline flowing, while not being too overly hectic.
The second-movement Andante con moto scholars think may have been inspired by the religious processions Mendelssohn saw on his trip to Rome. One may be perhaps slightly perplexed by this tempo indication (moderately slow yet with quick motion) for a religious procession, but Chailly does his best to combine the two contrasting possibilities into a nimble if speedy walk. After that is a delicate Minuetto, Con moto grazioso; which Chailly handles with much refined grace and spirited delight. Then the work concludes with a Saltarello. Allegro di molto (a lively Italian dance in a fast tempo) that is essentially a whirlwind of music reminiscent of the composer's Midsummer Night's Dream. Here, Chailly lets the horses loose, yet even though the revised edition adds a number of bars, it appears more animated than ever. (Though longer, it seems shorter, if you know what I mean.) In all, this is one of the most ebullient and lively interpretations of the Fourth Symphony you’ll find, if that’s what you’re looking for.
The next selections are Austrian composer Franz Schubert’s Overture in the Italian Style in D and Overture in the Italian Style in C. They come as a distinct contrast to the Mendelssohn, being more serene and sedate. Yet under Chailly’s direction, they are no less charming and contain much sparkling delight.
The program concludes with three overtures by W.A. Mozart from Mitridate, re di Ponto; Ascanio in Alba; and Lucio Silla. They are typically Mozartian, with a classical beauty and sheen. Maestro Chailly polishes them to a high luster with an energetic hand.
Producers Dominic Fyfe and John Fraser and engineer Philip Siney recorded the music at Teatro alla Scala, Milan in June 2021. The audio has a fairly narrow stereo spread set in a somewhat hollow-sounding venue. We get an abundance of hall resonance, which helps to present a reasonably realistic setting while obscuring some detail and creating a somewhat soft, rounded overall sound.
JJP
John J. Puccio, Founder and Contributor
Understand, I'm just an everyday guy reacting to something I love. And I've been doing it for a very long time, my appreciation for classical music starting with the musical excerpts on the Big Jon and Sparkie radio show in the early Fifties and the purchase of my first recording, The 101 Strings Play the Classics, around 1956. In the late Sixties I began teaching high school English and Film Studies as well as becoming interested in hi-fi, my audio ambitions graduating me from a pair of AR-3 speakers to the Fulton J's recommended by The Stereophile's J. Gordon Holt. In the early Seventies, I began writing for a number of audio magazines, including Audio Excellence, Audio Forum, The Boston Audio Society Speaker, The American Record Guide, and from 1976 until 2008, The $ensible Sound, for which I served as Classical Music Editor.
Today, I'm retired from teaching and use a pair of bi-amped VMPS RM40s loudspeakers for my listening. In addition to writing for the Classical Candor blog, I served as the Movie Review Editor for the Web site Movie Metropolis (formerly DVDTown) from 1997-2013. Music and movies. Life couldn't be better.
Karl Nehring, Editor and Contributor
For nearly 30 years I was the editor of The $ensible Sound magazine and a regular contributor to both its equipment and recordings review pages. I would not presume to present myself as some sort of expert on music, but I have a deep love for and appreciation of many types of music, "classical" especially, and have listened to thousands of recordings over the years, many of which still line the walls of my listening room (and occasionally spill onto the furniture and floor, much to the chagrin of my long-suffering wife). I have always taken the approach as a reviewer that what I am trying to do is simply to point out to readers that I have come across a recording that I have found of interest, a recording that I think they might appreciate my having pointed out to them. I suppose that sounds a bit simple-minded, but I know I appreciate reading reviews by others that do the same for me — point out recordings that they think I might enjoy.
For readers who might be wondering about what kind of system I am using to do my listening, I should probably point out that I do a LOT of music listening and employ a variety of means to do so in a variety of environments, as I would imagine many music lovers also do. Starting at the more grandiose end of the scale, the system in which I do my most serious listening comprises Marantz CD 6007 and Onkyo CD 7030 CD players, NAD C 658 streaming preamp/DAC, Legacy Audio PowerBloc2 amplifier, and a pair of Legacy Audio Focus SE loudspeakers. I occasionally do some listening through pair of Sennheiser 560S headphones. I miss the excellent ELS Studio sound system in our 2016 Acura RDX (now my wife's daily driver) on which I had ripped more than a hundred favorite CDs to the hard drive, so now when driving my 2024 Honda CRV Sport L Hybrid, I stream music from my phone through its adequate but hardly outstanding factory system. For more casual listening at home when I am not in my listening room, I often stream music through a Roku Streambar Pro system (soundbar plus four surround speakers and a 10" sealed subwoofer) that has surprisingly nice sound for such a diminutive physical presence and reasonable price. Finally, at the least grandiose end of the scale, I have an Ultimate Ears Wonderboom II Bluetooth speaker and a pair of Google Pro Earbuds for those occasions where I am somewhere by myself without a sound system but in desperate need of a musical fix. I just can’t imagine life without music and I am humbly grateful for the technologies that enable us to enjoy it in so many wonderful ways.
William (Bill) Heck, Webmaster and Contributor
Among my early childhood memories are those of listening to my mother playing records (some even 78 rpm ones!) of both classical music and jazz tunes. I suppose that her love of music was transmitted genetically, and my interest was sustained by years of playing in rock bands – until I realized that this was no way to make a living. The interest in classical music was rekindled in grad school when the university FM station serving as background music for studying happened to play the Brahms First Symphony. As the work came to an end, it struck me forcibly that this was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard, and from that point on, I never looked back. This revelation was to the detriment of my studies, as I subsequently spent way too much time simply listening, but music has remained a significant part of my life. These days, although I still can tell a trumpet from a bassoon and a quarter note from a treble clef, I have to admit that I remain a nonexpert. But I do love music in general and classical music in particular, and I enjoy sharing both information and opinions about it.
The audiophile bug bit about the same time that I returned to classical music. I’ve gone through plenty of equipment, brands from Audio Research to Yamaha, and the best of it has opened new audio insights. Along the way, I reviewed components, and occasionally recordings, for The $ensible Sound magazine. Most recently I’ve moved to my “ultimate system” consisting of a BlueSound Node streamer, an ancient Toshiba multi-format disk player serving as a CD transport, Legacy Wavelet II DAC/preamp/crossover, dual Legacy PowerBloc2 amps, and Legacy Signature SE speakers (biamped), all connected with decently made, no-frills cables. With the arrival of CD and higher resolution streaming, that is now the source for most of my listening.
Ryan Ross, Contributor
I started listening to and studying classical music in earnest nearly three decades ago. This interest grew naturally out of my training as a pianist. I am now a musicologist by profession, specializing in British and other symphonic music of the 19th and 20th centuries. My scholarly work has been published in major music journals, as well as in other outlets. Current research focuses include twentieth-century symphonic historiography, and the music of Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Malcolm Arnold.
I am honored to contribute writings to Classical Candor. In an age where the classical recording industry is being subjected to such profound pressures and changes, it is more important than ever for those of us steeped in this cultural tradition to continue to foster its love and exposure. I hope that my readers can find value, no matter how modest, in what I offer here.
Bryan Geyer, Technical Analyst
I initially embraced classical music in 1954 when I mistuned my car radio and heard the Heifetz recording of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. That inspired me to board the new "hi-fi" DIY bandwagon. In 1957 I joined one of the pioneer semiconductor makers and spent the next 32 years marketing transistors and microcircuits to military contractors. Home audio DIY projects remained a personal passion until 1989 when we created our own new photography equipment company. I later (2012) revived my interest in two channel audio when we "downsized" our life and determined that mini-monitors + paired subwoofers were a great way to mate fine music with the space constraints of condo living.
Visitors that view my technical papers on this site may wonder why they appear here, rather than on a site that features audio equipment reviews. My reason is that I tried the latter, and prefer to publish for people who actually want to listen to music; not to equipment. My focus is in describing what's technically beneficial to assure that the sound of the system will accurately replicate the source input signal (i. e. exhibit high accuracy) without inordinate cost and complexity. Conversely, most of the audiophiles of today strive to achieve sound that's euphonic, i.e. be personally satisfying. In essence, audiophiles seek sound that's consistent with their desire; the music is simply a test signal.
Mission Statement
It is the goal of Classical Candor to promote the enjoyment of classical music. Other forms of music come and go--minuets, waltzes, ragtime, blues, jazz, bebop, country-western, rock-'n'-roll, heavy metal, rap, and the rest--but classical music has been around for hundreds of years and will continue to be around for hundreds more. It's no accident that every major city in the world has one or more symphony orchestras.
When I was young, I heard it said that only intellectuals could appreciate classical music, that it required dedicated concentration to appreciate. Nonsense. I'm no intellectual, and I've always loved classical music. Anyone who's ever seen and enjoyed Disney's Fantasia or a Looney Tunes cartoon playing Rossini's William Tell Overture or Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 can attest to the power and joy of classical music, and that's just about everybody.
So, if Classical Candor can expand one's awareness of classical music and bring more joy to one's life, more power to it. It's done its job. --John J. Puccio
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Just as a lot of Spanish-inflected music was written by French composers (Bizet, Massenet, Chabrier, etc.), so has much Italian-themed music been written by non-Italians, as in the present album of Italian-influenced music by German and Austrian composers. Perhaps it says as much as anything about the countries of Spain and Italy that they have inspired so many people outside their boundaries to write music in their style.
The second-movement Andante con moto scholars think may have been inspired by the religious processions Mendelssohn saw on his trip to Rome. One may be perhaps slightly perplexed by this tempo indication (moderately slow yet with quick motion) for a religious procession, but Chailly does his best to combine the two contrasting possibilities into a nimble if speedy walk. After that is a delicate Minuetto, Con moto grazioso; which Chailly handles with much refined grace and spirited delight. Then the work concludes with a Saltarello. Allegro di molto (a lively Italian dance in a fast tempo) that is essentially a whirlwind of music reminiscent of the composer's Midsummer Night's Dream. Here, Chailly lets the horses loose, yet even though the revised edition adds a number of bars, it appears more animated than ever. (Though longer, it seems shorter, if you know what I mean.) In all, this is one of the most ebullient and lively interpretations of the Fourth Symphony you’ll find, if that’s what you’re looking for.
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