Lorenzo Perosi (1872-1956)

[adriano]

 
Oh dear, he also wrote 14 string quartets. Some people reported he had frequent bouts of madness...

[Santo Neuenwelt]

Our research has determined that he wrote at least 16 string quartets. Also, 3 string trios,  3 string quintets, 4 piano quintets, and numerousl sonatas and suites for various instruments. Unlike his religious music, Perosi made no great effort to promote his chamber music and to have it performed and very few pieces were published and needless to say performed.

[pcc]

By way of an apologetic digression on the "Stuff-Stuff with Heavy" and "on and on and on" musical fronts, my tastes are individual, and voicing contrary opinions about the "greats", no matter how mildly expressed, can get you in a lot of trouble around the Eastman School of Music. It's been a hard road for me here. That said, the one small piece of Perosi in band transcription I heard didn't seem to excite either ire or passion, but certainly a slight interest, which may very well diminish if I investigate his music further.  As for "great" composers I looked forward to when I was young and was monumentally disappointed in when I encountered them in performance, I think the all time winner for me was Richard Strauss in his operas. ELEKTRA seemed interminable after its fortissimo D unison at the opening, which is all I remember after forcing it out of my mind - it's a loooooooong 1-acter, and I do recall getting madder and madder as it didn't seem to ever stop - and I remember sitting through ROSENKAVALIER with indifference wondering what everyone saw in it until in the last act my father, a reasonably seasoned operagoer who had not yet encountered Strauss, unconsciously expostulated (in a whisper - he was a courteous man) "He's ending it again!"  Maybe I'll come back to Strauss's operas eventually, once I exhaust other items on the menu.  Of Wagner, I generally take Rossini's famous opinion, and it is a little fun to say to dedicated Wagnerians that my favourite Wagner operas are DAS LIEBESVERBOT and RIENZI, and the urtext FLIEGENDE HOLLANDER that was recorded alongside Dietsch's VAISSEAU FANTOME, which I also enjoyed. (I will confess that the last time I listened closely to RIENZI during a five-hour drive it did seem slightly ham-fisted at times; an essay in Meyerbeerian style without Meyerbeer's kaleidoscopic skill. I never get bored in Meyerbeer operas, which statement may be taken down in evidence against me if you choose.)

[jerfilm]

Perosi reminds me a bit of Joseph Marx - on and on - but I really do like Marx's music.  Better than Perosi, I think.  But then Perosi's works for orchestra alone are few and far between so any kind of comparison seems difficult to make.

J

[Alan Howe]

Marx's music has backbone...

[adriano]

Yes, Alan, definitely!
In any case, Marx's music is genuinely symphonic and elaborately constructed. He knew Respighi personally and even wrote Respighi's orbituary in 1936. Marx's "Castelli Romani" is a real homage to Respighi. Perosi is a much more "esoteric" and simple affair :-)

[alberto]

I would  spend just one word in praise of Perosi (not pretending at all that he had been an important composer).
But I like the three orchestral Suites which I know : Tortona, Torino, Milano (there are others). Each of them is dedicated to an Italian town. They are in no way programmatic and contain no descriptive or folkish element, and have no connection with the city of the title.
The performances of the available recordings, on Bongiovanni label, are modest. The suite "Torino" I own in a second recording by the (no longer existing) Nuva Era label and it is not better.
I don't know much of his vocal works. I remember to have attended many years ago the performances of a short cantata and of a short oratorio, conducted both by Gianandrea Gavazzeni, who was the last advocate of fame (so far) of Perosi.

[FilmFlanuer]

I recently discovered Perosi and was intrigued enough to buy the only english-language biography, and reviewed it (Don Perosi by Leonardo Campra) elsewhere thusly:


"Ciampra's book is a pioneering study, being the first in english, of an pretty obscure name in classical music these days which makes its shortcoming all the more regrettable. Perosi (1872-1956) was a Catholic priest who had great success with a succession of oratorios as well as much other religious and secular music, although he never completed an opera. Astonishingly popular, especially on the continent in his day, Perosi was also a leading light in the movement supporting more traditional music, with sincerity of sentiment, within the church as well as friends with such figures as Mascagni, Puccini, Wolf-Ferrari and the like. HIs music comprises an interesting mix of a Gregorian plain chant style with some operatic features and deserves reassessment and greater popularity. As it is the existing CD releases are fairly hard to acquire, his work rarely revived in an age of different tastes and where modernism has long passed him by.

This book attempts an overview of a career which included two or three notable episodes, such as Perosi's interaction with Mussolini and artistic politics within the Catholic church. Not least was a mysterious episode in 1922 when the composer apparently suffered a breakdown of some sort. The suspicion is that this was manufactured, or exaggerated, by a church uncomfortable with Perosi's views on priestly celibacy and other issues. He was later rehabilitated.

Ciampa's work is a sincere, if frustrating, attempt to pull everything into context. The writer (who is also a composer and choral director) clearly has an affinity for his subject and has done some new and interesting research. But the result sufferers from wandering too far from a strict consideration of his subject, covering a whole supporting cast to a degree which makes one wish that Perosi's work and views were given greater and more detailed consideration. There is no chronology of the musical workaholic Perosi's life for instance and, even more of a lack, no attempt at a list of works either. Perosi wrote, apparently, 3-4000 pieces. While the oratorios which are the composer's main achievement are given (less than detailed) attention, his orchestral and chamber works are covered in less than a page! There is a tiny amount of music analysis to be found anywhere here, and one longs for critical analysis and reports from long-gone concerts, rather than the number of elderly panegyrics we are presented with - which may be pleasing to the composer's remaining admirers, but really do nothing for the interested reader, seeking an authoritative guide to the music, other than take up space. Instead we have rather a rambling account of an obscure career, and are treated to such illustrations as the sunset seen from the author's home - although there are plenty of others it must be said which are more relevant. In short, a useful work, but surely only a stop gap until more heavy spadework is done by a dedicated academic. Perosi is a middle ranking composer who shined in his special field, and whose time in the sun really ought to come again."

I have managed to download a dozen or so CD filled with his works, mostly vocal and some concerti and have been modestly impressed. Even though his is not a major or ground breaking talent, there is still something which brings me back to him in a way that I can't say is true of other composers of similar stature. I say this even though I am not in the least religious and so Perosi's most significant output would be thought to be of less interest! His long-breathed structures in the oratorios and often languid pacing reminds me a little of Schmidt, while the charming string tutti which begins the first violin concerto say alone ought to be enough to show that he is more than a one-trick pony. The CDs which have been issued imho are less convincing with the performances of the chamber music and one would hope that the gentle revival in his music would bring alternatives issues in due course.



This is the first post from a newby here. Good to know you all.

[Jor]

I enjoy Perosi's oratorios, I have no trouble at all with his "sickly sentimentality".

[alberto]

The Italian monthly magazine Amadeus has just (issue of February '17) released (together with the magazine itself) a Cd with the Piano Concerto (1916) and the Orchestral Suite n.2 "Venezia" (1907).
I didn't know these particular two works (already recorded by Bongiovanni).
Anyway I have always known various orchestral works by Perosi in modest performances (Bongiovanni and, in one case, Nuova Era labels).
The new Cd (with the Orchestra of the Teatro Regio, Torino; conductor Donato Renzetti) appears IMHO absolutely in a much better class and allows a better assessment of this music (which, personally, I find enjoyable, even if a bit long-winded and loosely constructed).

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, Alberto, for this very interesting news.

[Alan Howe]

I have tried to order the magazine at Amadeus' website; unfortunately, their registration form requires an Italian tax number of some sort which I (obviously) don't have, so I can't complete the order.

[djarvie]

Something must have changed.  A couple of years ago some of us successfully downloaded Sgambati's second symphony from the magazine, for around 7 Euros.

see http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,5531.msg58932.html#msg58932

[Alan Howe]

I can't find a link to a download on their website.

[adriano]

I have both versions of Sgambati's Symphony No. 2, the one conducted by Francesco Attardi and the other one by Ola Rudner.