Fellini i Clown

I Compani has been around since 1985, and its mandate hasn't changed much at all since. The ensemble, formed and still directed by alto and tenor player Bo van de Graaf, devotes itself to the music of Nino Rota, whom film fans will recognize as Federico Fellini's Bernard Hermann. Over the years, van de Graaf and other members of the band have fattened the band's book with original compositions in the style of Rota, but it's Rota's work that still forms the core of I Compani's output. Fellini (IcDisc), a collection of Nota and van de Graaf compositions performed live, marks the band's second decade, and by now this routine is old hat. The band performs Rota's surreal folk music, minor-key ballads and carnival marches with balance and precision, saving the longer solos for van de Graaf's more atmospheric and open-ended pieces. Pieter Douma's electric bass gives the music a slightly funky touch, but the overall mood is respectful. For the curious: Fellini pulls from La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, La Strada, Juliet of the Spirits, Amarcord and Casanova.

Both these works are unashamedly Romantic and nostalgic in style. The E minor Piano Concerto was composed in 1960, at the same time as Rota's music for Fellini's film La dolce vita. As if in answer to the extreme cynicism of that and much of his other film music, the concerto seems to be a questioning exploration of the remaining possibilities in a modern, Romantic form. The opening Allegro-tranquillo movement begins with a dreamlike theme on the piano which is then taken up by the orchestra and developed as a sort of conversation – the orchestra insisting on a heroic, almost martial sound, while the piano and woodwind reiterate the original soft mood.