Riccardo Zandonai: Rarities & Surprises, Art Songs, Transcriptions & Chamber Music

Description

In the dual role of Conductor and Artistic Director, I have sought hard to find pieces among Riccardo Zandonai’s output, exclusively for strings, for the Spettro Armonico Chamber Orchestra – something “new”, something unpublished and not performed in recent times.
Zandonai’s catalogue of works comprises largely of opera, symphonic works for large-ish orchestra and pieces for voice and piano. His output for chamber orchestra was quite small.
A trunk, full of his manuscripts and unpublished music, was donated to the Rovereto Civic Library in 2018 by the composer’s daughter, his only living heir. Among this treasure trove – thanks to the generous help of Professor Cescotti of the Centro Internazionale di Studi “Riccardo Zandonai” and Doctor Filosi of the “G. Tartarotti” Civic Library in Rovereto – a number of pieces for strings came to light.
Some feature the inclusion of harmonium, harp and voice. Other original compositions, transcriptions and arrangements came to the fore. With the exception of the Berceuse, which has already been recorded in the last decade, all other pieces were almost forgotten manuscripts.
I then transferred this music to electronic format, partly so that orchestral parts could be extracted.
This CD, therefore, is the result of a long process of research and transcription, all of which culminated in a celebratory concert dedicated to the Rovereto-born composer Riccardo Zandonai on the 75th Anniversary of his death.
The repertoire on this CD falls into four categories: original pieces for duo; original pieces for strings; transcriptions for chamber orchestra of works by other composers; transcriptions for voice and chamber orchestra from Zandonai’s output for voice and piano.

The original pieces for duo, namely Amarezze (‘Bitterness’) for violin and guitar and Danza for piano 4 hands, both still in manuscript form, were composed over the 2-year period 1898-99 when the young Zandonai had just begun his studies at the High School of the “Rossini” Conservatorium in Pesaro under the guidance of Pietro Mascagni. Amarezze bears the dedication “Alla gentil signorina Gisella Bonfioli” [to the gentle Miss Gisella Bonfioli], together with a short quote from Dante’s Convivio: “I shall recount the strangeness in my heart, how here within my sad soul weeps” [translation by Richard Lansing, from the original “Io vi dirò del cor la novitade, come l’anima trista piange in lui”]. The musical style and the word-painting clearly reveal a heartbroken fifteen-year-old Zandonai.
Like the duos, the two original pieces for strings, Lettera and the lovely Berceuse were still in hand-written form and belong to this youthful period. Written in 1900, it is quite reasonable to assume that they were ‘exercises’ – first examples of experimenting in writing for this instrumental combination. The grace and melodic elegance found especially in Amarezze and in the ‘mature’ and delicate Berceuse, as well as a ‘symphonic’ approach to rhythm and harmony in Danza are, at this stage, already clearly perceptible. On the other hand Lettera seems rather repetitive and as a consequence, less effective musically; however, worthy of note are its harmonic peculiarities and the difficult ostinato syncopation in the second violins and violas.
Among the rediscovered pieces, I found transcriptions of well-known works from the Baroque and Romantic eras rewritten by Zandonai for strings and reminiscent of the ‘popular’ vogue for the “Reinterpretazioni dell’antico”, the greatest exponents of which were Casella and Respighi.
The transcriptions of Lulli1, Handel and Mendelssohn, all handwritten and unpublished [sometimes only the individual parts were available, which required the reconstruction of the score], could be considered simple adaptations, without major changes to the instrumentation. They may have been exercises in arranging but it is worth noting Zandonai’s use of articulations, tempo markings and dynamics etc. which often differ strongly from the original. For example, Zandonai’s version of Lulli’s Minuetto asks for the accompaniment to be played pizzicato; in the Hornpipe there is no part for the harpsichord continuo, plus, all of the dynamics are rethought; as for the Canzonetta some dynamics have been changed in the rescoring from the original string quartet to string orchestra [e.g. the ending is marked forte rather than the piano marking Mendelssohn intended].
The transcriptions from Bach, Schubert and Schumann’s keyboard pieces are musically more interesting, proper orchestrations, that reveal Zandonai’s maturing feel for instrumentation. These three were the only pieces to have been published out of all those on the CD. It is entirely feasible that these pieces were never again performed after receiving their premières in the 30s – no evidence to the contrary has come to light2.
In his approach to these arrangements, Zandonai’s intervention is more substantial when compared with the simple adaptations mentioned above; in Preludio VIII the grace notes are written out in full and the Romantic sonority is reminiscent of the Bachian transcriptions by Mahler and Schoenberg, albeit with much reduced forces – strings with harp and harmonium; in the Schubert the timbral alternation from arco to pizzicato is quite fascinating and Zandonai, as well as changing the key from F minor to G minor, adds some imitative material in the coda of the viola part not included in the original piano version. Lastly, in Rêverie, the insertion of the harp gives the piece an even more intense and dreamy feel than its piano counterpart. However, the entire arrangement is very faithful to the piano version.
The combination of voice and piano is undoubtedly the most visited by Zandonai, who began composing for the duo from a very young age unfolding his stylistic evolution over the years. Only on rare occasions, however, did he orchestrate his works. For this reason, the Three Songs for string orchestra, harp and harmonium certainly represent the most important discovery from the manuscripts that I unearthed. This was the one piece of which both the score and individual parts have survived. These three songs were orchestrated in February 1931 for two concerts which were held in Napoli and Roma in March and April respectively of the same year, conducted by the composer2, and almost certainly never again performed. The instrumentation is exquisite with ever-changing timbres. The piano originals are enriched with new colours and word painting [e.g. the strings effect attached to the word ‘mare’ – sea – in La Serenata, not present in the piano version]. The instrumental balance is masterfully calibrated with the divisi strings and the delicate sounds of the harp and harmonium that accompany the voice sometimes ‘in dialogue’ and at others, emphasising the text. Zandonai reveals a ‘mature’ style from both musical and poetic standpoints, and these resulting orchestral versions are even more refined and full of additional timbral suggestions when compared with the already wonderful voice and piano originals. The vocal interpretation is entrusted to Maria Letizia Grosselli, one of the finest Zandonian interpreters – winner of the “Zandonai Special Prize” at the International Competition for Young Opera singers “Riccardo Zandonai” in 2004. In 2013 she recorded the album “Terra di Sogni” [Land of Dreams] bringing together 23 songs, Romanze da Camera, for voice and piano by this composer from Rovereto.

Album Notes by Simone Zuccatti
English revision by Peter Anthony Monk