Mario Pilati's orchestral works

[alberto]

There's anybody wishing to get fun from a work titled "Concerto for orchestra in C major"?
Try the very, very tuneful and cheerful Concerto for Orchestra (1932) by the short lived Mario Pilati (1903-1938): three movements lasting 25' 51".
So don't expect at all an earlier Bartok or Lutoslavsky (whom I greatly admire, mostly the former).
By the way Pilati's Concerto was premiered by no-less than Mitropoulos and almost immediately later conducted by Weingartner : evidently those Old Maestros were capable of having fun.
Pilati's Concerto we can listen on Naxos 8.570873  (formerly MP, recordings of 2000-2001, Slovakian Radio Symph., Bratislava)
conducted by that infaticable champion of the unsung, and enigmatic, Adriano, who also writes the exhaustive booklet.
Fine (to me) also the Three pieces for orchestra (1929) and "By the cradle" (1938).
Slightly paler the earlier Suite for strings and piano (1925).

[adriano]

Thanks, Alberto, for your appreciation 
My second CD with music by Pilati has just been published on the Inedita label and a review can be read on the MusicWeb.
The fact that an artist uses only his first name does not make him "enigmatic".
Is Madonna enigmatic to you?
How about Midori and Solomon, just to stay within the domain of classical music?
Of course, prostitutes, clowns and dressmakers also use first names only 
I do so because I found that my parents did not deserve have their name associated with mine: they opposed against everything I was doing, so I preferred doing this all by myself.
Have a nice Summer!
adriano

[Mark Thomas]

Welcome Adriano! I still treasure my LP of the Raff Piano Quintet played by the Zurich Quintet which I bought in Musik Hug on Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich in 1981 or 82.

[britishcomposer]

conducted by that infaticable champion of the unsung, and enigmatic, Adriano

Welcome Adriano!

Maybe it's because English is not my first language but I think alberto wanted to say that you are a 'champion of the unsung and enigmatic'? 

But perhaps I am wrong. Anyway, all those artists you mentioned are of the glamorous sort. One is used to relate first-name-only artists with excentric appearence.
So it is surprising to meet an artist as unpretentious as you using only his first name.

[JimL]

I think Midori is her family name.  I could be mistaken.  However, single name artists aren't limited to given names.  Take Kennedy, for example.  In pop music, think Dion, Donovan, Prince and quite a few others, I would think (I have Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man playing on the TWC Solid Gold Oldies Channel right now.  Another thing I've gotten into recently - music from my first decade of life).

P.S. Actually I don't think Prince was his real name either.

[Lionel Harrsion]

P.S. Actually I don't think Prince was his real name either.

Actually, Prince is his real name - Prince Rogers Nelson.

[JimL]

Fascinating.  About Solomon, wasn't that his surname?  Maybe I'll just Google him.

...Nope.  Full name Solomon Cutner.

Anyway, Adriano, welcome and visit often and soon.  There's a lot of projects being bandied about here that could use your advocacy.

[alberto]

I sent my post before reading on the web two interviews by Adriano. Anyway, with or without interviews, I would have never used the word "enigmatic" if that could trouble in some way Adriano.
I thank "our" "infaticable champion of the unsung" and hope strongly he will fulfill as many as possible between his ever stimulating projects.
I share hope he will write here.

[adriano]

Hi everybody 

In any case, there are more important things about artists than the way they want to be named.
Now, a new CD with two more Symphonies by Swiss composer Fritz Brun has been released on the Guild label. I am on the way of recording all his Symphonies (10 - and all completed) and orchestra works:

http://www.guildmusic.com/shop/wbc.php?sid=6278701e237&tpl=suche.html&q=adriano

The Third Symphony has been relesed on the Sterling label, which I have left for various reasons.

In July there was the first performance of my string quartet arrangement of Hugo Wolf's "Michelangelo Songs" - in Trinidad and Tobago, by the excellent German baritone Christian Immler. What an honour for me!
If you consult my homepage m(www.adrianomusic.com), you'll find a lot of crazy arrangements I have done for various chamber groups, including a very successful one of Debussy's "Prelude à l'après-midi d'un faune" for flute, clarinet, harp and string quartet, which you can hear on flutist's Andrea Kollé's homepage http://www.andreakolle.com/recordings.php

In November there will be a première in Krefeld (Germany) of my wind quintet "digest" arrangement of Dvorak's opera "Rusalka", which is the second arrangement of this piece I have done. Its first (for the same ensemble as the Debussy) will be premiered next year at the Prague Children's Theatre and also performed in Austria and Switzerland.

I've also finised composing an "Impertinent Concertino" for harspichord and strings, which should be premièred next year. Other works of mine can be heard on the Italian CD
http://www.ineditacd.com/asp/Dettaglio.asp?ID=PI2743

That is all for now, hope it does not sound too pretentious :-)

To all of you kindest regards from Switzerland

Adriano

[Alan Howe]

Dear Adriano,

...and thanks for recording the Brun symphonies - it's 'big' music that I am pursuing with new fascination at present.

[adriano]

Hi Mark Thomas
Hi eschiss

Nice to hear that you still have/remember the Raff LP! Alas, my own label is dead since a long time, but, if you are interested, I can send you Respighi's piano works which were published on the same label on CD of which I still have a considerable stock.
Of all these LP's I have made nice private CD transfers.
You can write me and send me your address.
Kindest regards

Adriano

This was the complete catalogue of Adriano Records:
LPs
ADR 1 (1977) JOACHIM RAFF (Stereo)
Grand Quintuor (Piano Quintet, op.l07)*
Zürich Piano Quintet

ADR 2 (1977) OTTORINO RESPIGHI (Stereo)
Violin Sonata - 11 pieces for violin and piano*
Robert Kunz & Rudolf am Bach

ADR M3 (1978) JACK TROMMER (Historical Mono)
Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe (Original Soundtrack)*
Swiss Studio Orchestra, Dolf Zinsstag

ADR 4 (1983) OTTORINO RESPIGHI (Stereo)
String Quartet in D* - Doric String Quartet
I Virtuosi Elvetici

ADR E5 (1979) OTTORINO RESPIGHI (Historical Mono)
5 Songs and 2 Italian Folksongs*
Elsa & Ottorino Respighi performing (coupled with historical recordings of other singers)
(Partly reissued on CD in 2005 on Pierian 0024)

ADR 6 (1982) JULIUS REUBKE (Stereo)
Sonata B flat major - Mazurka and Scherzt
OTTO REUBKE 4 Pieces'
Rudolf am Bach

ADR 7 (1983) ERNST PFIFFNER (Stereo)
Hafiz-Zyklus - Polyhymnia - Suite for Violin, Piano Pieces
Various Swiss Artists

ADR 8 (1988) GIOVANNI PALESTRINA (Stereo) Missa brevis
GREGORIO ALLEGRI Miserere
A-cappella-Chor Zürich, Piergiuseppe Snozzi
(Reissued on CD in 2007)

ADR E9 (1985) FRANZ SCHREKER (Historical, 78s transfers)
Der Schatzgräber (Interlude)* Die Gezeichneten (Prelude Act III)
EDWARD GRIEG Peer Gynt, Suite No. 1 GEORGES BIZET L'Arlésienne (Suites 1 & 2)
Philharmonisches Orchester Berlin, Franz Schreker

CDs
ADR 10 (1991) OTTORINO RESPIGHI (Digital Stereo)
Tre preludi sopra melodie gregoriane - 6 piano pieces -
6 little pieces (4-hands)
Rudolf am Bach (with Evelyn am Bach)

ADR E11-12 (1993) Enrico Egano, Violoncello (Analog Stereo)
Works by SCHUMANN, BRAHMS, MENDELSSOHN, KODALY & SHOSTAKOVICH
(Live recordings 1979-1983)

ADR 13 (1994) The Zürich String Trio (Digital Stereo)
BEETHOVEN: Serenade D Major - DOHNANYI: Serenade C Major - REGER: Trio A Minor (Live recording)

ADR 14/15 BEETHOVEN (Digital Stereo) Complete String Trios
The Zürich String Trio
(Reissued in 2002 on CD on Brilliant Classics 92292)

ADR 16 (2002) The Zürich String Trio (Digital Strereo)
Works by DOHNANYI, REGER & SCHNITTKE

[adriano]

Hi everybody :-)
Just read the following American Record Guide review of my new Pilati CD on the Inedita label. Those primadonna critics should sometimes seriously think over their "profession's" credo and tasks. I think Mr. Hecht deserves this answer of mine, which I publish at the bottom.

---------
PILATI: Preludio, Aria, & Tarantella; Italian
Folk Songs; Bagatelles; Divertimento
Moscow Symphony/ Adriano/ Inedita 2757 (53 minutes)

Italian composer Mario Pilati (1903-38) was born in Naples, where he studied with Antonia Savasta. After moving to Milan, he worked for Ricordi as an arranger and taught pupils, among them Gianandrea Gavazzeni. Pilati achieved some success as a composer before dying at age 35. His pieces were performed for a while afterwards but eventually suffered the same post-war neglect that met several Italian composers active in the Fascist period. Pilati's discovery has been a project of Adriano, who previously directed a Marco Polo disc (Naxos reissue) of more serious Pilati works. In terms of style, the works here are mainly neoclassical and somewhat steeped in folk music and Italian opera.
This is the first review of Pilati's music in ARG. It is from the dark side, but first, full disclosure.  I do not like "light" or "pops" music of any nationality. Nor do I care for music that lacks depth or bite, neither challenges nor engages me, and gives me nothing interesting to listen to. Worst of all is music that lacks inspiration. The works on this program meet all these criteria. They are simple, innocent to the point of unsophistication and perhaps even crudeness, repetitious, blocky in texture, and square in form (literally and figuratively).  No flair for harmony is apparent, and the melodies say little.
Preludio, Aria e Tarantella begins with a lively solo violin. Parts of the harmony in Preludio (and elsewhere) sound like low-grade Mascagni but most is ordinary. Similar comments apply to the Aria, which, despite touches of Italian devices and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, sounds square. Tarantella is blocky, too long, and in this heavy performance, uncomfortably Russian.
Pilati's treatment of the Italian Folksongs is "by the numbers" and repetitious. In the Bagatelles, I hear a touch of Prokofieff, a cute bassoon solo, and the influence of the American music and movie scores that Pilati admired, but most sound like pieces for children or music hall fluff.
The Divertimentos for brass are a little better.  It may be a stretch, but one or two might interest a brass ensemble looking for something a little raw that sounds like Italian street bands.
The workaday performances do not help. A good Italian orchestra and conductor steeped in the idiom might make more of the orchestral pieces, but I'm not sure how much more.  The brass works fare better because the players put them forward with more enthusiasm and flair. Even so, a group that pays closer attention to neat tone quality and ensemble might make a better case for them.
HECHT
American Record Guite 09/27/2011
--------

Dear Mr. Hecht
Concerning your review of my Inedita CD with music by Mario Pilati:

1) It's always an awkward thing to learn from a reviewer what he personally likes or not, even though this does and should not interest the reader, nor will end up into the annals of music history compared to all the work real musicians do.
A reviewer is here to criticise the music and the performance from an objective, expert's and specialist's point of view, in order that potential buyers of a CD still have some room to decide and not have to observe that the reviewer has a problem with the pieces he listened. American Record Guide is one of those Magazines like Fanfare which sometimes reveals more on the personalities of their writers than on the composers they write on, but this same pervert attitude occurs also over here in Europe.
You seem to have no idea about Italian folk music, and before you write some silly sentences as, for example, that Pilati's pieces lack inspiration, you may consider that folksong-based music is just inspired by the folk tunes, which are used/arranged and nothing more. With the same criteria you also may not like folksong arrangements by Bartok or Kodaly, being also just skilful orchestrations and arrangements - with no further "inspiration".
But, if you don't like all this kind of music, why do you review it and not hand it over to an expert colleague?

2) That Pilati had "no flair for harmony" is absolute nonsense, the more so you do not explain exactly where and why. Pilati uses and plays with harmony in a most sophisticated and humorous way, as did his contemporaries Respighi and Casella, with a twinkle in the eye. You seem not to have a flair for (Italian?) humour at all.

3) Pilati's teacher was not a woman: you spell "Antonia" instead of "Antonio" Savasta.

4) The Title of "Divertimento" is not "Divertimentos" in plural.

5) What exactly does the expression "uncomfortably Russian" mean??

6) What exactly does the expression "the melodies say little" mean?

7) What does the expression "sounds square" mean?

Adriano, conductor
Zurich/Switzerland

[eschiss1]

to nitpick point 4, in English, yes, it is. That's why on IMSLP and Wikipedia for instance one's encouraged strongly to use Concertos, not Concerti, etc.

[Dundonnell]

The question of which reviewers are chosen by the editors of music magazines to review particular cds is a very interesting issue.

I have repeatedly queried why Professor Arnold Whittall of King's College, London reviews almost every new cd of the music of Penderecki when he, self-admittedly, has very little time for the post-1980 Pendereckian neo-romanticism/post-romanticism of the music. The answer I got was that he volunteers to do so. This I find....shall I just say, 'interesting'.

[dafrieze]

I still subscribe to Fanfare, and usually flip through Gramophone and, on the rare occasions I can find it here in the United States, International Record Review.  But I gave up on the American Record Guide many years ago, when I saw it mutating into the mouthpiece for its editor, a dyspeptic right-winger who would publish long editorials (his own, of couse) that had nothing whatsoever to do with recordings (or even music) but ranted on about other people's bad manners and the general degeneration of the human race.  His reviewers all tended to be similarly grumpy old men who took obvious delight in disdaining most of the recordings they were assigned to review.  As for Mr. Hecht, his self-regarding priggishness speaks for itself.  I don't know, Adriano, if ARG publishes letters to the editor (they never used to), but I'm very glad you offered us your response.  For what it's worth, I admire your conducting and appreciate the breadth of your repertoire.