Paolo Litta (1871-1931)

[adriano]

My dear Munich friends Ilona and Michael just sent me this wonderful, very recommendable CD:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/CDs-Vinyl-Paolo-Litta/s?rh=n%3A229816%2Cp_32%3APaolo+Litta

Lovers of Symbolist art will be delighted!

[Alan Howe]

How absolutely fascinating. A must-buy for me.

Audio excerpts here:
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/konzert-trilogie-fuer-violine-und-klavier/hnum/9675072

[adriano]

Here is the booklet:
https://booklets.idagio.com/4260036256901.pdf

[Alan Howe]

Thanks. Makes very interesting reading about the development of the composer's artistic credo.

[Alan Howe]

I had never heard of this composer or his gigantic (82:18) Concert-Trilogy for violin and piano, composed between 1909 and 1924).

The first part 'Le Lac d'Amour' is itself sub-divided into four sections, 'Le Lac', 'Le Cygne',  'Cloches d'Antan' and 'La Source qui pleure'. The sleevenotes suggest that the idiom is derived from Franck and d'Indy, which is helpful - the music is certainly highly chromatic, but also very beautiful, largely slow-moving and soaringly lyrical. Whether it is sufficiently differentiated across these four sections (36+ minutes) is doubtful - although that could simply be down to my inability to follow its internal logic and structure at one hearing.

The second part 'La Déesse Nue' (24:15), composed in 1912, extends the hothouse chromaticism further in a Tristan-style direction, but it is the third part, 'Der Tod als Fiedler'/'Le Ménétrier, la Mort' (21:53), dating from 1924, which takes the work down a more modernist, brutal and disjointed path, reminding us perhaps of, say, Szymanowski. The final collapse representing the end of life is quite shocking - and threatens to break the stylistic boundaries of this forum.

An extraordinary achievement. The problem for this listener, however, is the work's giganticism and the concentration of effort required to listen to it, let alone comprehend it properly. It is often, and I do mean often, extremely beautiful and one has to admire the vision of the composer in conceiving of a work for violin and piano lasting over 80 minutes. There can surely be nothing like it in all music.

The performance is absolutely extraordinary. It was recorded over a period of two days. The performers must have been exhausted!

[Mark Thomas]

A fascinating overview, thanks Alan. I have the recording, and the booklet notes obviously give a good idea of what's in store, because I must admit to having felt more than a little daunted by the prospect of all that cloying chromaticism. Still, nothing ventured, and buoyed up by your review I'll arm myself with a stiff gin and tonic and take the plunge.

[adriano]

I adore such decadent music pieces :-)

[Alan Howe]

So do I, but 82 minutes' worth?

[adriano]

Well, no need to listen to the whole CD in one piece. It's made of three different works, which can be enjoyed separately. The 2nd and 3rd pices have a duration time of about a sonata, but the first (36 minutes) may be a bit too much :-)

[Alan Howe]

That's true, of course. And probably good advice.

[Mark Thomas]

I sat through the whole CD, in one session, this afternoon. The expression "I'm sure it's very nice if you like that sort of thing" came to mind, because it's definitely not my sort of thing. I'm not very fond of the French late romantic musical aesthetic which is the work's starting point in the four-part Le Lac d'Amour opening section of the trilogy. For the most part that's chromatic and slow moving, but comparatively familiar territory with some effective scene painting. The other two sections, each a single movement over 20 minutes long, are more episodic and, for me at least, difficult to follow, their increasing atonality and dissonance leading to the final section's jarring contrasts of mood which finally descend into musical brutality. I'm not going to pass judgement on the work as a whole because I just didn't understand two thirds of it, but Alan's assessment of it's merits seems very fair, and in particular the performers deserve huge credit, their commitment to the piece is palpable.