Release Date: 12 January 2005
Label: Naxos - Ex Select Products / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313277926
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: Italian song
Description
Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835)SongsIn the dawn of Italian Romantic opera the strongestvoice was that of Bellini. Within a limited technicalresource he brought to the prevailing Rossinian idiom awealth of poignant melody enhanced by moments ofexpressive dissonance to which even Wagner paidtribute. His fame, of course, rests on his stage works,but, like all Italian opera composers of his day, heturned out a number of pieces for voice and piano thatvary from academic exercises to songs dedicated tosome noble dilettante or other. There is nothing here ofthe German Lied. The poems are conventional; theaccompaniments never exploit the possibilities of thekeyboard in the manner of Schubert or Schumann.Sometimes they suggest an orchestral reduction, asthough the composer had his eye on the theatre.Certainly the operatic world is rarely far away.Bellini's so-called chamber compositions aredistributed throughout his career. La farfalletta (TheButterfly 2) is said to have been written at the age oftwelve for a childhood friend (and sweetheart, ofcourse) to words by her brother as part of a puppettheatre entertainment, she herself singing while her dollmimed the actions of one who tries to catch a butterflyto give to her boy-friend. It is a pleasant little ditty in thefashionable polonaise rhythm, only the minor-keyinflection of the third line presaging the Bellini to come.Anecdote also surrounds the two pieces dating fromthe composer's years at the Naples Conservatory. Both,says his lifelong friend, Francesco Florimo, weresettings of poems by his pupil, Maddalena Fumaroli,with whom he was by now corresponding secretly,since her parents disapproved of their buddingrelationship. Alas for legend! The autograph of Dolenteimmagine di Fille mia (Sad Image of my Phyllis 5)bears the date 1821, the year before Bellini andMaddalena became acquainted, together with adedication to one Nicola Taur. But then theconcentrated sadness of the melody, already fullycharacteristic, lends itself all too easily to romanticassociations. As for the scena ed aria, Quando inciso suquel marmo (When inscribed on this marble 16), this isobviously one of those essays in dramatic writing thatall Italian conservatories required of their students. Inthe singer's discovery of his own name carved on ablock by his (supposedly) faithless beloved we maydiscern the plot that inspired Haydn's curiouslyexperimental L'isola disabitata (The Desert Island).Here the influence of Rossini is apparent, notably in thecrescendo of the cabaletta.By 1829 Bellini had settled in Milan, where thesuccess of Il pirata at La Scala had won himinternational fame. In that year the firm of Ricordiissued a set of 'sei ariette', alternating minor and majormodes. No. 1, Malinconia, ninfa gentile (Melancholy,gentle nymph 9), spins a long, continuous melodyevolved almost entirely from a single two-bar phrase. InNo. 2, Vanne, o rosa fortunata (Go, O fortunate rose10), the opening strain recurs, punctuated by two shortepisodes,
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Yaqi Yang; Margarita Parsamyan; Robynne Redmon; Minghao Liu; Frank Ragsdale; Kim Josephson; Kevin S
Vilmos Csikos; Olivier Lechardeur; Manon Lamaison
Tomas Cotik; Martingale Ensemble; Ken Selden
