Nino Rota

Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin is as well-loved by the public as he is appreciated by his peers, who awarded him the Canada Council for the Arts Virginia Parker Prize in September 2000. At the helm of the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal since March 2000, Yannick Nézet-Séguin has worked tirelessly to broaden the scope of the orchestra’s involvement in a variety of venues, while always maintaining his own rigorous standards and keeping in close touch with the music-loving public.

Nino Rota: La Notte Di Un Neurastenico, Nonetto
Classical | CD | FLAC CUE LOG | COVER | 276 MB
La Bottega Discantica 09 | Release Date: 1997

Born in Milan in 1911 into a family of musicians, Nino Rota was first a student of Orefice and Pizzetti. Then, still a child, he moved to Rome where he completed his studies at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in 1929 with Alfredo Casella. In the meantime, he had become an 'enfant prodige', famous both as a composer and as an orchestra conductor. His first oratorio, L'infanzia di San Giovanni Battista, was performed in Milan and Paris as early as 1923 and his lyrical comedy, Il Principe Porcaro, was composed in 1926.

Although he is best known for his film scores and The Godfather in particular, Nino Rota’s concert music combines traditional tonality and forms with characteristically heartfelt melodies and appealing clarity. Contrasts abound in this selection of chamber works, from bassoon buffoonery in the Toccata to the Brahmsian eloquence of the Clarinet Sonata, and from the dramatic Improvviso and melancholy moods of the recently discovered Fantasia, to the jocular instrumental exchanges in the exquisite Trio.

Nino Rota (1911-79) is best known for his many film scores. That doesn't mean that he couldn't write great music for other purposes, as this highly interesting program demonstrates. His idiom is conservative harmonically but highly imaginative, full of melody and mood. All three of these pieces have been recorded before. If you don't have them yet, these performances are done with conviction. Bronzi is a good conductor as well as a fine cellist; and his reading of the Concerto for Strings is intense and well balanced ………

Fanfare, Raymond Tuttle, Nov/Dec 2009