One of the great orchestral pieces from the first half of the 20th century, Casella’s 1937 Concerto for Orchestra, Op. 61 deserves standard repertoire status. It combines formal shapeliness and bigness of vision within a supple, expressive, neo-classical framework. At this time, there are only two recordings, both very good and very different, on Naxos and Chandos. I’m keeping both. You can hear the Naxos recording on YouTube.
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Those Naxos Casella CDs are among the most cherished in my collection. What a magnificent composer! Deserves to be ubiquitously known and performed regularly. (There was the whole matter of Casella being a fascist, but perhaps he’d have redeemed himself a bit on that front had he lived a bit longer after the war).
I studied piano with one of his pupils
Just listened to the Noseda recording and I found the piece very reminiscent of Nielsen's style, with its strong brass muscle and dynamic effervescence in the strings and percussion.
Hi Dave, what’s your favourite recording of Casella’s 2nd? I love the Ventura. Of course the redcoats at Gramophone prefer Noseda & the BBC
My favourite CASELLA work is the Kreisleriana Trio recording of the Piano Trio op.62 on Koch
I love the job of this channel in discovering to people those 20th century composers that were more or less neglected by music historians because they did not conform to their notions of what 20th century had to be (dodecaphonic, serial, spectral, or whatever avantgarde school).
This music is totally fabulous ! Thank you so much.
How about a video on great twentieth century Concertos for Orchestra – Kodaly, Bartok, Petrassi, Lutoslawski Tippett Gerhard etc ?
Dave, Excellent piece on the Casella Concerto for Orchestra. I hope you keep doing these Repertoire pieces on new or overlooked composers or pieces, especially of 20th Century music. I just wanted to point out that both the Chandos and Naxos versions are available on YouTube, so people can compare.
I heard the first movement and thank you for forwarding this link. This "new" music is actually 86 years old, pre-dates Rachmaninoff and Bartok last symphonic works. Very, very nice discovery!
I have seen a lot of humorous examples of people asking an AI/ChatGPT for unexpected juxtapositions. Like, "Write me a Seinfeld scene in the style of Shakespeare." Or, "Draw me a painting of dogs playing poker in the style of Botticelli." "Write me a baroque orchestral suite in the style of Mahler," sounds something like that. 🙂
Thanks Dave for giving this wonderful work and its composer some well-deserved attention. You inspired me to revisit the work today: two muscular, energetic, and life-affirming outer movements surrounding an alternately brooding and serenely beautiful central Passacaglia. There's a section about 4 or 5 minutes into the central movement (in the Noseda recording) which is hauntingly beautiful in its poignant harmonies and effective use of the orchestral piano. Casella's late style is an example what I like to call "beefy neoclassicism", in other words, formal concision and clarity married to a Romantic sense of drama and emotion which he retained from his earlier works. I honestly prefer Casella's brand of neoclassicism to the much more widely respected, drier and emotionally "cool" brand espoused by Stravinsky and co, but that's just me!
Thanks for keeping Casella in the spotlight. I'm a real push-over for his later ("3rd period), neoclassic stuff; it's filled with a special kind of energy and joy. His "second" (WW1) period writing is tough and rather dark, and has taken me more time to appreciate. I went through a big Casella phase about 20 years ago, when there was far LESS of his music available. Around this time, I found the original/vellum score to his Third Symphony in the Chicago Symphony library, which Casella himself had signed and donated at the work's premiere there in 1941. Very cool to page through it.
Wasn't Casella's last big work a "Mass for Peace" (?) Has it appeared yet on CD? Anyway, I sampled both Chandos and Naxos recordings of the Concerto for Orchestra, and think I'll purchase the livelier, more spirited Chandos. Glad that you featured it today. LR
He is a great composer. Thank you Dave.