Lorenzo Perosi (1872-1956)

[John Hudock]

I'd like to put in a plug for Fr. Lorenzo Pelosi. The Italian label Bongiovanni has done yeoman's work in bringing the composition of this very unjustly neglected composer to light. I was first introduced to his music via his choral works. He was a Catholic priest and wrote many very beautiful masses in a traditional manner. As I explored the recordings further I then discovered his chamber works which I also found charming and beautiful, well crafted, memorable melodies. Finally I discovered his large scale choral works (there are several large impressive oratorios) and his orchestral works and concertos.

I think he is one of the most unjustly underrated Italian composers of the 20th century and deserves a wider audience.

For some reason I don't quite understand only about a third of the Bongiovanni discs of his work are available from the main retailers (Amazon, CDConnection, ArkivMusic), but this Italian internet retailer seems to have the entire catalog:

http://www.ibs.it/cd/ser/serpge.asp?ty=exa&x=25137


If anyone else is familiar with Perosi, I would love to hear of your impressions.

[Alan Howe]

I've tried Perosi, And tried, and tried. But I fall asleep every time at his sickly sentimentality and rambling inconsequentiality. Oh dear - sorry. Evidently not my cup of tea...

[wunderkind]

It's nice to see a reference to this composer - so obscure and hardly known at all.

I have seven of the Bongiovanni discs and very much enjoy them all.  The orchestral suites are evocative and romantic and the chamber music is delightful.  They all are imbued with a sort of "Italianism" - very attractive.

Perosi's piano concerto is fine, too.

[gentile]

Perosi is better known as a catholic liturgical composer (he was in fact the Music Director of the Sixtine Chapel in Rome) but I find him best in his chamber music. As John said, his chamber music is well crafted, memorably tuneful, varied and inventive, and surely a surprise for those that only have heard his masses and oratorios. His chamber music style is similar to that of his contemporaries Respighi and Wolf-Ferrari. It is also astonishing that the main body of it (16 String Quartets, 4 Piano Quintets and 3 String Trios) was composed in the interval of just three years (1928-1931).
However, the main drawback (and what a drawback!) is the third-rate rendition of all these works by the so called "Ensemble Perosi" in the Bongiovanni label (the only recording available so far). It is not a question of the performance being stylish or not (which might be a matter of taste). It is just that these guys go badly out of tune far too often. Thus, the greatness of this music can be only envisaged rather than actually perceived through these recordings. This problem (poor sound and shabby performances) is recurrent with Bongiovanni, making it a sort of Jekyll and Hyde label. One the one hand, you may think that it is better to have these deficient recordings than nothing. On the other hand, the release of the works may surely deter others from recording the same repertoire (not specially profitable from the economic point of view) thereby stealing the opportunity of a decent version by other labels that do things better. So, I cannot join an indiscriminate applause to them.
For those of you liking the music of Perosi, I would like to bring to your attention also the music of his successor as Music Director of the Sixtine Chapel, Domenico Bartolucci (1917-2008). He is much less known than Perosi but wrote music in the same vein. He produced also much church music but, as Perosi, had also a penchant for symphonic and chamber music. I heartily recommend a CD containing his Sinfonia Rustica (a beautiful symphony with some surprising Nielsenesque turns) and Piano Concerto (with a final movement that is a real joy)  as well as another CD of chamber music with his beautiful  Sonata en SOL for violin and piano, and a piano trio. These CDs have been issued by the Italian label Capella Sistina and can only be found at specialized Italian shops (such as the website mentioned by John). The sound and performances are not first class but still decent.

[wunderkind]

lol     I wouldn't worry too much about Bongiovanni's recordings deterring other labels from releasing Perosi.  After all, time and again we see hitherto obscure - or even unrecorded - composers suddenly appear on two labels simulatneously.  It happens all the time.

Personally, I repeat that I easily can tolerate - and enjoy - the Bongio CDs, regardless of their perceived shortcomings.  The music speaks for itself, anyway.  Don't be too critical and thereby miss hearing what are now, largely, the only extant discs of Perosi's attractive works.

[jerfilm]

Old thread, I know.  but much of Perosi's recorded music can be found at Radio me la suda.

Amazing how many of his huge oratorios have been recorded, if only at live performances.

J

[Alan Howe]

One of the most justifiably neglected composers IMHO...

[pcc]

Well, someone here likes him, at least, and some of his contemporaries like Puccini held him in high regard. I don't know enough of his work to make an informed personal assessment, but I suppose it comes down to personal taste.  I was very surprised to find the lengthy and quite impressive orchestral prelude to his oratorio La Risurrezione di Lazzaro on a ca. 1910 12" double-sided Fonotipia disc, quite sensitively performed by the Musica della Regia Marina Italiana (Royal Italian Navy Band) under Seba Matacena.  The band transcription seemed colourful, though suitably sombre overall, and it was certainly an intricate and intriguing piece.  I thought it an unusual work to find its way into the band repertoire even in Italy; then again, this group recorded something like 300 sides for Fonotipia between 1907 and 1911, running the gamut from maxixes to Wagner (including the Forest Murmurs from Siegfried) to the overture to Emile Jonas's incredibly silly operetta Le canard à trois becs. A 'catholic' repertoire indeed.

[petershott@btinternet.com]

I think that "sickly sentimentality and rambling inconsequentiality" is an unfair and inappropiate description of the chamber music (and I don't know any of Perosi's music apart from the Bongiovanni discs of the quartets).

Part of the problem is of course the quality of those recordings. If you manage to 'hear through' those indequate recordings it is possible to imagine the music in far more effective performances, and music of a perhaps modest but certainly pleasing quality.

The real problem though is that quite astonishing developments are happening in the musical world of the 1920s, and Perosi, for good or ill, seems wholly unaffected by the music around him. Imagine being at a gathering of excited people, and over there in the corner is Perosi delivering a long monologue all to himself. If you stopped your ears to all the cackle around you I'm sure you would find Perosi a perfectly competent and fluent speaker, and certainly producing stuff of a reasonable quality. However in the whole scheme of things it just isn't terribly interesting because he seems to have no awareness of what else is going on in the room. (Apologies for the rather clumsy analogy!)

In my view Perosi is at his best in the two piano quintets in the Bongiovanni discs (composed as far as I remember in the early 1930s?)

[jerfilm]

All four of the piano quintets are available.  I agree, they are among his better pieces.  I also like the 1916 Piano Concerto.

Jerry

[Santo Neuenwelt]

We at Edition Silvertrust have recordings of String Quartet Nos.1-10, a String Trio, a String Quintet (2 Vla),and 2 of the 4 Piano Quintets. I do not know what else, chamber music-wise, has been recorded. But our researches have determined that there is a lot which has never been published or recorded.

We offer his String Quartet No.3 which Ricordi agreed to print and reprint. I have played it many times and the melodies are wonderful and though there are several episodes which are not particularly suited to the string quartets style and are very hard to pull off, nonetheless, it is a good work and one which does not have the numerous problems that most of the others have. A pity one is never going to hear it performed live (except possibly in Italy). Of course, one could say that about the works of many composers.

Talk about a Vielschreiber, these things just rolled off his pen like an assembly line production. In 1928 alone, I think he produced eight string quartets and not surprisingly there are techical and other problems and no doubt explains why Ricordi initially refused to publish most of his chamber music. He certainly did not take the pains he took with his masses and other religious works. If he had been as slip shod as he was with his chamber music, the pope would have fired him as Perpetual Director of the Sistine Choir.

He is by all accounts a very interesting character.

[adriano]

I always liked Perosi's uncomplicated and sincere music. During my LP life period I had all these LPs with liturgical works issed by the Angelicum company, revealing nice interpretations and sound. There was a lovely Requiem Mass, if I am not wrong. And thanks to this thread I discover right now that Angelicum has reissued some masses and oratorios on two 4-CD albums!

[Alan Howe]

I absolutely can't abide his music. It's sentimental and has no backbone. And it goes on and on and on. Not for me!

[pcc]

Well, for some people much Wagner and Mahler are, to use Calvin Trillin's phrase about pretentious "Continental Cuisine" in places like Kansas, "Stuff-Stuff with Heavy" and they certainly can go "on and on and on", but I wouldn't undertake to say so...or should I? Ehhhhh...no.

[Alan Howe]

Why not say so? All reasoned opinions are welcome here!