Search - Rota, Malipiero, Porena :: Italian Compositions of the 20th Century: Rota: Concerto for Strings (1964-5) / Malipiero: Sesta Sinfonia for Strings (1947) / Porena: "Vivaldi" (1988) / Morricone: Esercizi for 10 String Soloists (1992-3)

The depth of virtuosismo

05/14/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There's rather little to say about this gorgeously recorded and produced disk. It's Italian "virtuosismo" at its finest and a disk you can have on all day and still feel the enchantment. Recorded in a lovely villa near Venice, even the venue seems to impart its own elegance to this magnificent presentation.Suffice it to say that all the music is superb, with that perculiarly luminescent, timeless quality that is a trait of this century's Italian music in general. The Malipiero is the gem here, a major work that challenges the gray matter without being in any way difficult to grasp. The others are significant works of the highest international standard that showcase the incomparable ensemble's intellect and approach, and in the Porena, go quite a bit beyond that.Each of the works has its own mood and virtue of craftsmanship that conveys how many great Italian composers the century has produced, but also a great deal about the values of the nation that can produce such prodigious talent."