The record of the day: Giuseppe Martucci, “Compositions…”
Giuseppe Martucci, “Compositions for cello and piano” (Cd Velut Luna CLVD 093)
Let’s treat ourselves to a pre-Christmas classical music break with a beautifully performed album that introduces us to the work of a musician whose works have remained mysteriously neglected for decades, but who has recently experienced a notable rediscovery by renowned soloists and conductors such as Riccardo Muti and, in this case, the cellist Enrico Dindo, a true master of his instrument who has undertaken a brilliant international career for years and who on this album plays together with his cousin Andrea, a pianist of notable talents technical-musical and great sensitivity, which has a perfect understanding with Enrico’s cello.
The Campanian musician Giuseppe Martucci made a very unusual choice for a nineteenth-century Italian composer: he decided to dedicate himself entirely to instrumental and symphonic music in a historical period that saw melodrama completely dominate the musical scene through the figures of Donizetti and Verdi. A great piano performer, Martucci enjoyed considerable success with his performances and composed many significant compositions for his instrument; in this he can be considered close to the figure of another great virtuoso-composer who was his contemporary, Ferruccio Busoni (who used a very different musical language). Martucci’s music harks back to the romantic tradition of Brahms, Schumann and Wagner, although there is no shortage of allusions to Beethoven in the formal construction of many of his works, which is combined with a taste for cantabile lines with a decidedly Italian flavour.
Martucci has a decidedly demanding and profound approach towards compositional architecture, as is demonstrated by the extensive “Sonata in F sharp minor op. 52”, inspired by romantic inspiration and very demanding from a performance and ensemble point of view. Divided into four movements, it is characterized by strong chromaticism and harmonies of notable density; Martucci’s mastery of the sonata form is total (listen to the skill with which he manages to develop the contrasting themes of the first half, “Allegro proprio”), reaching expressive peaks of great tragedy which are toned down in the two subsequent movements (in particular in the brilliant “Scherzo”) to reappear in all their power in the “Finale”, and only in the final bars does the music seem to recover a climate of greater serenity.
Carlo Boccadoro, composer and conductor, was born in Macerata in 1963. He lives and works in Milan. He collaborates with soloists and orchestras in different parts of the world. He is the author of numerous books on musical topics.
This text is taken from “Lunario della musica: A record for every day of the year” published by Einaudi, courtesy of the author and the publisher.
