Nino Sevilha

The album “Aufgelebt” is all about revival, rebirth and recreation, the promise of new beginnings. Beethoven worked on his Piano Concerto No. 4 and the Op. 61a (piano version of a violin concerto) in the same period of his life. Both concertos were neglected and would have been forgotten had it not been for the attention of Felix Mendelssohn, who revived the Fourth Piano Concerto in 1836 and conducted the violin concerto, in 1844. Since then, these two concertos have been considered to be masterpieces of classical music literature. The Violin Concerto had yet another chance of rebirth long before young Joachim’s success. After attending the premier of the piece, Muzio Clementi asked Beethoven to transcribe the work for piano and orchestra. His wish was promptly fulfilled by the composer, who at the same time enriched the Concerto with authentic cadenzas, of which the first - in the First Movement - is very special as the piano is accompanied by timpani!

Nino Rota’s reputation outside Italy as, at best, a civilised purveyor of minor theatre music is turning out to be hardly even a half-truth. BIS’s series of his symphonic and chamber works, and Chandos’s of the concertos, reveals a composer of incisive gifts and technical brilliance. Civilised the music certainly is, but often far more than that, its pervasive wit enhancing rather than detracting from the elegant suggestions of deep feeling. The wise and wily ‘neo-classicism’ of the Third Symphony sets out like an exercise in updated Mozart, but though Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony is brought to mind it soon becomes evident that a strain of acid melancholy undercuts the dapper phraseology. The model here, if there is one, seems more likely to be late Busoni, with disturbing cross-currents just beneath the surface. The Concerto festivo, more obviously a display piece, takes Italian opera genres (aria, cabaletta, etc) and reinterprets them in fairly irreverent orchestral terms, while the ballet music that Rota produced for the tercentenary of the death of Molière – almost his last work –insouciantly mixes Baroque, modern and popular styles, just as it mixes merriment and melancholy, with constant technical brilliance and utter lack of pomposity. The Swedish performers take to the Italianate gaiety as to the manner born. A delightful disc.

This is a fine selection of Nino Rota's film scores , with 'La Strada' and 'Il Gattopardo'. The 'La Strada' is , in fact, a seven movement suite from the ballet which Rota adapted for the stage using his filmscore. Rota's ability to both supply big tunes and provide ironic comment in his scores is in evidence here. Gianluigi Gelmetti gets big, bold playing from his Monte Carlo orchestra. He gets committed playing that suits the pieces here, especially the splendid 'Il Gattopardo'. The sound is warm and big scale, particularly for the 'Waterloo' and 'War and Peace' items.

Los Angeles staple Carlos Niño teams up with The Pyramids' Idris Ackamoor and guitarist/producer Nate Mercereau, cutting Ackamoor's free-spirited tenor wails with tempered new age percussion and celestial synths.

EXTRA PRESENCE is a 90 minute, 17-track collection showcasing Los Angeles modern music scene pioneer Carlos Niño’s unique, highly developed, self-described “Spiritual, Improvisational, Space Collage” sound, and featuring an incredible cast of collaborators (including Jamael Dean, Nate Mercereau, Shabazz Palaces, Deantoni Parks, Sam Gendel, Laraaji, Jamire Williams, Iasos, and more)…