Riccardo Zandonai, Jan Novák and Rovereto
Two chamber works by two composers who linked their names to Rovereto are recorded here for the first time.
Zandonai was born in Rovereto, where he received his early education and developed relationships that helped his studies and career. He regularly returned to his hometown, where he found in his family and friendships, in the nature surrounding Rovereto, new energies and inspiration.
Novák arrived in Rovereto in mature age as a political exile. In only a few years, he developed a connection with the town and its people that granted him significant relationships and lasting memories.
Riccardo Zandonai
(Sacco di Rovereto, 1883 – Trebbiantico, 1944)
Born in a village overlooking the Adige river and rich in economical and cultural traditions, Riccardo Zandonai early revealed a pronounced musical vocation. After a few years spent studying in Rovereto with Vincenzo Gianferrari, he enrolled at the musical Liceo of Pesaro (under the direction of Pietro Mascagni). In Pesaro he completed in three years the ten-year program in composition. His keen interest for the vocal repertoire led him to compose one hundred chamber songs, mostly written in his early years. His international reputation is mainly tied to his operas, especially Francesca da Rimini on a libretto from Gabriele D’Annunzio’s homonymous tragedy. Other works still well known nowadays are Conchita, Giulietta e Romeo, I Cavalieri di Ekebù. Avoiding a radical break with the Italian tradition, he pursued a personal style with innovative harmonies, which shows extraordinary skills in orchestration. These features can also be found in his symphonic works, like Primavera in Val di Sole, and even in chamber pieces as the Suite here recorded.
Fra i monti/In the mountains. Suite for piano and winds
Fra i monti is one of several instrumental works inspired by the natural surroundings of Zandonai’s birthplace. Mountains always had for Zandonai a special spiritual dimension. In an autobiographical page he wrote: «I adore the mountain. Sacco di Rovereto, my home, is a mountain village. From the valley where it had the whim of living, the bell tower rises as high as possible, as if to spy to the Verona plain and beyond the mountains of Trento, listening to the murmuring of the Adige going ‘in search of villages and cities’. And the noise of the winds that blow with impetuous gales tells wild stories of the mountains: swearing in German in winter and singing in Italian in spring».
The date at the end of Fra i monti is May 1902. The author was 19 years old and had graduated with full marks only some months before.
The verses added to the score are a clear sign of his longing for home: “Amore di terra lontana, / Per voi tutto il cuore mi duol” (“Love for distant homeland, / for you the whole heart pains me”), from the poem Jaufré Rudel by Giosuè Carducci.
The Suite is composed in four movements: I. Canzone (Andante mosso) starts tentatively with mysterious fifths upwards and then alternate, unsettling, quivering passages where brightness and darkness seem to fight each other. The II. Notturno (Adagio) is a very slow movement reminiscent of a funeral march and characterized by popular elements and mournful colours. Without a signed Tempo, the III. Mazurka is the liveliest page: naive rhythms, short repeated motifs, some witty passages build a playful page. The Suite ends with a Serenata (Andantino mosso): an ambiguous movement in three parts starting with ingenuous, nearly comic effects and incorporating a passionate central section.
Zandonai also intended this Suite as a symphonic piece, as it is testified by some traces of instrumentation with strings.
Fra i monti was premiered on November 14th 2021 within the concert cycle Mart Music organised by the Centro Internazionale di Studi „Riccardo Zandonai“ and Associazione Filarmonica di Rovereto.
Jan Novák
(Nová Řiše, 1921 – Neu Ulm, 1984)
Jan Novák is considered one of the most important Czech composers of the 20th century. His works follow in the great tradition of Bohemian music from Smetana to Martinů, who was his teacher in the USA, after his studies in Brno and Prague.
He worked in Brno until his liberal ideas had him expelled from the Union of Czechoslovak Composers. After the Soviet invasion (1968) he left with his family and lived in exile in Denmark and in Italy. Asked for a new composition for the local contemporary music festival (Settimane Musicali), he came to Rovereto where he found a welcoming environment. Here he lived several years (1970-1977) composing, teaching at the Civica Scuola Musicale, conducting his choir „Voces Latinae“. A lover of Latin language and poetry, he could converse in Latin with his friends and pupils before learning Italian. Many of his works are based on Latin texts written by himself. After spending his last years in Germany, he was buried in Rovereto, where his memory has been since cherished with concerts and special projects.
Excellent pianist, he performed in duo with his wife Eliška Nováková. His catalogue includes dramatic works (ballets, sacred music), a great vocal production, orchestral and chamber pieces and a great number of film music scores.
Balletti à 9
«Novák’s talent was established beyond dispute by his composition for nonet, entitled Balletti à 9, in which he again demonstrated his sense for rhythm and for timbre combinations, timbre being treated as an essential element of the music. The composition, which brought a new dimension and a folklike tunefulness to what were essentially dance forms, preserved, like all Novák’s works of the period, a basically tonal character» (Alena Němcová).
This work is a clear demonstration of Novák’s style: a variety of rhythms, elegant phrases, and popular accents are framed in a clear, sharp form. Syncopated and ostinato patterns in joyful counterpoint are the main features of the first movement, Allegro molto; a Moderato follows with fleeing and seemingly endless melodies played by the woodwinds. A hectic conclusion leads to the Lento where the rhythmic ostinato of the double bass (later the bassoon) is the basis for multiple melodic lines, fluently intertwined and giving way, at times, to solo fragments. The final Vivo starts with a wavy movement of the strings where the main theme emerges with an unmistakable folksy accent, popular but elegant, dancing and lightweight but with a steady core.
For the political context in which Novák composed this work, we give the floor to his daughter Dora: «Balletti à 9 is one of Jan Novák’s early compositions, commissioned in 1955 by the Czech Nonet and premiered a year later at the Prague Spring Festival. Despite the political circumstances in former Czechoslovakia at that time and the pressures of the communist regime, Balletti à 9 reflects Jan Novák’s indomitably playful spirit. His interest in the wide spectrum of all styles of music was a thorn in the eye for the official authorities, accusing his compositions of ‘jazzistic monstrosities’ and other musical ‘crimes’ influenced by the Western world. The four movements of Balletti dance in the joy of nature and spring, Novák’s favorite season. His mastery of orchestration, rhythmical exuberance and eloquence of melodic lines are always contained in a clear formal design, thus making his musical language accessible to a large audience» (Dora Novák-Wilmington).