Bassi, Lovreglio, Marriner, Barlow: Fantasies On Verdi’s Operas for Clarinet and Piano

Description

There are musical genres which show a remarkable continuity in time, even though they may evolve, at times substantially. For instance, “motets” were written already in the first centuries of the second millennium, and are still composed by many musicians worldwide. Other genres, instead, are much more ephemeral, and bound to a particular moment in history, or place in geography, or both. In these cases, of course, a sociological element is frequently also to be taken into account: genres which appear at a given moment and disappear at another tend to depend also on dynamics typical for a society’s situation in those moments.
This is (partially, as we shall see) the case with operatic fantasies, represented in this Da Vinci Classics production in their form for the clarinet. Obviously, opera fantasies could not exist prior to the birth of opera, in the seventeenth century. Instrumental works (especially variations) on famous operatic themes were in high demand already in the eighteenth century, but in this case, normally, just one famous theme from an opera was selected, and (more or less) virtuoso variations were built on it. There was also, of course, the possibility of combining several themes from one or more operas, and perform them instrumentally. An example of this practice, played by winds (the so-called Harmoniemusik) is found in the “table music” (Tafelmusik) which accompanies Don Giovanni’s Pantagruelian dinner in the eponymous opera.
However, operatic fantasies proper are a typical product of the nineteenth century, with scanty fringes either way. The instrument on which they first appeared is the piano, and this is easily understandable. Different from what happens today, a virtuoso’s skill was not evaluated merely in terms of “correct notes per minute”, but also in terms of creativity in the fields of composition and improvisation (with composition and improvisation frequently overlapping). Especially in salons (rather than theatres), a touring virtuoso was often asked to improvise, either on themes suggested by the audience or on those of his or her own choice. Virtuosos had therefore to possess a full command of instrumental technique, in order to be able to realize straightforwardly every musical idea which came, perhaps impromptu, to their mind. They also had to know the operatic repertoire very well: opera, especially in certain countries, was the most beloved pastime of the upper classes. And, as is well known, people love to hear repeatedly the motifs and themes they cherish, in a phenomenon where boredom is very rarely engendered by repetition. Thus, virtuosos playing elaborations, potpourris, arrangements, or fantasies on “thèmes favoris”, as they were called, were actually banking on the success of the operas whose themes they were borrowing.
Such improvisations were, as has been said, particularly efficacious on the piano, since the piano is an autonomous, self-standing instrument. A piano virtuoso and improviser can play virtually for hours, weaving themes and cadenza-like passages in an improvisation which is also a “composition”, i.e. the “putting together” of fragments coming from a given opera’s motifs, and/or from a repository of “filling-up” passages which have been memorized by the virtuoso.
When the phenomenon expanded to embrace other instruments, the situation changed slightly. There were, to be sure, fantasias for unaccompanied instruments such as the flute or the violin, but they were numerically almost negligible. Especially in the early nineteenth century, performances on unaccompanied melodic instruments were really exceptional, and even masterpieces originally conceived in this fashion (such as Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas) were practically never played in public. Thus, operatic fantasies for melodic instruments normally required a piano or orchestral accompaniment, and this limited substantially the possibilities of the performer/improviser in terms of creative freedom, at least at the impromptu level. In order to play together, at least a skeleton of the work has to be agreed upon between soloist and accompanist; and even though this does not prevent the soloist from adding embellishments or passageworks to the skeleton itself, de facto the available possibilities are not limitless.
This album offers us a beautiful itinerary among such Fantasias written for the clarinet – not only in the nineteenth century. In spite of what has been said before, and though operatic fantasies have actually become rarer and rarer in terms of both composition and performance, they have not disappeared. Living composers keep proposing them, and this seemingly untimely genre continues to fascinate both performers and audiences.
The first musician we encounter in our journey is Luigi Bassi, whose life is only very partially known to us. His exact date and place of birth are uncertain, although he was likely born in Cremona in 1833. In his late teens, he is documented as a student of the Conservatory of Milan, where he learnt clarinet and composition, as is testified by some sources. Even before his twentieth birthday (and his graduation from Conservatory), both of which happened in 1853, Bassi successfully performed both as a soloist and as a principal clarinetist in some important venues and orchestras in Milan. Interestingly, we learn from a review of September 1852 that Bassi was acclaimed as the performer of Ernesto Cavallini’s I Fiori Rossiniani, which is, once more, a combination of famous melodies from the operatic world. Later, another review informs us that Bassi had played variations on themes by Verdi as an intermezzo between the acts of Rossini’s Barber of Seville. At twenty, Bassi was already capable of satisfactorily replacing the principal clarinetist of the Teatro Alla Scala, and was appreciated both as a composer and as a performer of his own works. He was active as an orchestra player not only at La Scala (where he remained until his death in 1871), but also in other main venues of the city. He was an appreciated performer of chamber music too – for instance in Beethoven’s Septet – and Hans von Bülow (who was very exacting in his opinions about music) described him as an extremely proficient artist. Bassi had also a noteworthy activity as a composer and an important record of published works, issued by some of the most prestigious printers in Italy (Ricordi, Lucca, Canti, Vismara, Giudici & Strada). Within his published oeuvre, most pieces belong in the genre of the operatic fantasy. The virtuosity required by this repertoire had the positive side-effect of improving the quality of the principal players of the orchestra (creating the so-called “virtuoso orchestra”), and also of providing educational material for pupils and amateurs. Even though the most complex virtuoso fantasies fell far beyond the limits of a student or dilettante, others were purposefully designed with this aim in mind. Bassi’s involvement in this genre was partially determined by the model he had had in his former Conservatory teacher, Benedetto Carulli, who authored operatic fantasies on works by Rossini, Verdi, and others.
This Da Vinci Classics album features four such works by Bassi (albeit with different titles, such as Reminiscenze variate, Divertimento etc.), among which is the most beloved and still most frequently played of Bassi’s works, i.e. the Concert Fantasia on Themes from Verdi’s Rigoletto. His composition on Luisa Miller includes seven tunes excerpted from Verdi’s opera, presented in an order different from that found in the original opera, and regularly embellished with virtuoso passageworks. Bassi’s aim is clearly not that of retelling the opera in a miniature form, but rather to take the themes as stimuli for a genuinely virtuoso piece.
Four melodies from Il Trovatore make up Bassi’s fantasia on that opera, starting with the chorus which introduces Act I, and followed by three arias (one for each of the remaining Acts), with Di quella pira as the (rather obvious) finale.
Bassi’s piece on Don Carlos is curiously titled “transcription”, even though, of course, it is not a transcription of the entire opera. It opens with the chorus Inni di festa, followed by Rodrigo’s Aria (Io morrò), the duet Dio che nell’alma infondere, Carlo ch’è sol il nostro amore, Che mai si fa nel suol francese etc.; the melodies are offered and adorned with creativity and expertise.
Bassi’s pieces are juxtaposed, in this recording, to another similar work by Donato Lovreglio, from Southern Italy. Born in Bari, he moved to Naples and founded a music school there, while also concertizing extensively as a touring virtuoso, frequently accompanied by his wife Adelina Catelli who was an excellent pianist. Although Lovreglio was primarily a flutist, he was also a clarinet virtuoso, and his surviving output is mainly composed by works for these two woodwind instruments. Once more, it includes first and foremost operatic fantasies. The one on La Traviata is probably his best-known work. After a short prelude, it comprises themes from the first Act’s duet between Alfredo and Violetta (Di quell’amore), followed by a virtuoso varied setting of Violetta’s Ah, forse è lui. One of the most famous themes of the opera could not be missing: Libiamo is offered here in a refreshing 6/8 tempo, along with another famous, but contrasting theme, i.e. that of Amami, Alfredo. In contrast with the tragical ending of Verdi’s opera, Lovreglio’s Fantasy ends with the joyful and enthralling cabaletta Sempre libera.
The other pieces recorded here bear witness to the continuing liveliness of the operatic fantasias, albeit in a quantitatively reduced form. Some of them are written by Andrew Marriner, one of the foremost living clarinetists (he became the principal clarinetist of the London Symphony Orchestra in 1986). He created a collection of pieces from famous operas, in cooperation with his friend, and erstwhile fellow chorister Stephen Barlow (currently one of the greatest British conductors). Their Verdian elaboration contains excerpts where the solos originally conceived for the clarinet by Verdi are woven together, with an approach which unites today’s attention to the “original” to the refreshingly creative attitude of nineteenth-century virtuosi. Barlow’s own Variations on the same opera complete this programme with a work which combines tradition with innovation, always in the name of Italy’s most important operatic composer of all times.
Chiara Bertoglio © 2024