Ildebrando Pizzetti: Prelude to Fedra; Canti della stagione alta*; Sinfonia del fuoco**
*Susanna Stefani (piano)
**Boris Statsenko (baritone), Stadtischer Opernchor, Chemnitz
Robert-Schumann-Philharmonic, conducted by Oleg Caetani
[Marco Polo 8.225058]

This exciting release is the first devoted exclusively to the music of Pizzetti who, along with Malipiero and Respighi, modernized Italian opera and helped re-establish Italian orchestral music.

The prelude to the opera “Fedra” is pervaded with a languorous moodiness and a searing exoticism. This excerpt makes one wish for more. Perhaps Marco Polo can be persuaded to record Pizzetti’s operas which have vanished from today’s repertoire.

“Canti della stagione alta”, is written in a lighter vein. Though Pizzetti has scored this concerto for piano and orchestra in his own highly original musical idiom, there are notable influences of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Debussy and Rachmaninov. The chamber music-like scoring of certain passages is happily colored with the bright hues of Spring and Autumn. Pianist Susanna Stefani very capably handles the tonal shifts, moods and rhythmic difficulties of an intriguing piece which, to be quite honest, took me several hearings to fully appreciate.

The “Sinfonia del fuoco” plunges us into a world of ripe, thrusting exoticism. Scored with chilling dissonances and striking oriental orchestral effects, this choral piece for baritone and chorus was written for the silent film “Cabiria.” It’s Pizzetti at his best. Boris Statsenko’s well-focused, youthful baritone and the blood-curdling fervor of the Stadtischer Opernchor dramatically evoke all the spine-chilling, barbaric splendor of a bloody pagan ritual.

Oleg Caetani has done a fine job with the Robert-Schumann-Philharmonic, deftly illuminating the heady, perfumed and vari-colored exoticism of these scores. The sound is excellent. Notes and texts/translations are included.

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