Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Music for Violin & Piano Fulvio Luciani & Massimiliano Motterle

• Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895 - 1968): Notturno adriatico, Op. 34:
• 1 Notturno adriatico, Op. 34: I. Tranquillo e sognante 05:09
• Notturno adriatico, Op. 34:
• 2 Concerto No. 3, Op. 102: I. Drammatico 07:54
• 3 Concerto No. 3, Op. 102: II. Lento, grave e triste 05:24
• 4 Concerto No. 3, Op. 102: III. Molto moderato. Allegretto moderato 08:22
• Sea-Murmurs:
• 5 Sea-Murmurs: I. Dolcementem Mosso e ondulato 01:33
• Tango:
• 6 Tango. Allegretto con grazia 01:59
• Tre intermezzi, Op. 117:
• 7 Tre intermezzi, Op. 117: I. Andante moderato 03:59
• 8 Tre intermezzi, Op. 117: II. Andante non troppo e con molto espressione 03:43
• 9 Tre intermezzi, Op. 117: III. Andante con moto 05:04
• Preludes, Op. 28:
• 10 Preludes, Op. 28: I. Agitato in C Major 00:35
• 11 Preludes, Op. 28: II. Lento in A Minor 01:43
• 12 Preludes, Op. 28: III. Vivace in G Major 00:55
• 13 Preludes, Op. 28: IV. Largo in E Minor 01:43
• 14 Preludes, Op. 28: VII. Andantino in A Major 00:32
• 15 Preludes, Op. 28: X. Allegro molto in C-Sharp Minor 00:26
• 16 Preludes, Op. 28: XI. Vivace in B Major 00:37
• 17 Preludes, Op. 28: XII. Presto in G-Sharp Minor 01:11
• 18 Preludes, Op. 28: XIII. Largo in F-Sharp Major 02:34
• 19 Preludes, Op. 28: XVII. Allegretto in A-Flat Major 02:52
• 20 Preludes, Op. 28: XXIV. Allegro appassionato in D Minor 02:40
• 21 Preludes, Op. 28: XXVIII. Allegro molto in F Minor 01:05
• Total Runtime 01:00:00

Info for Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Music for Violin & Piano

World-premiere recordings and a Heifetz commission full of virtuoso fireworks on a unique compilation of music by one of the 20th-century’s reluctant romantics.

Forced into exile from his native Italy by the onset of Fascism, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco sailed to the US in 1939. He arrived at dawn one muggy summer morning, and immortalized the moment, a turning point in his life and his music, in the finale of his Third Violin Concerto. The piece was commissioned from him by Jascha Heifetz, both to give himself an impressive new commission from a young and talented but not too radically inclined composer and as a way of helping a fellow émigré find his feet in a new and strange land.

Castelnuovo-Tedesco certainly wrote with Heifetz’s technique in mind as well as his predilection for big cantabile melodies. Despite its concerto title, the piece was conceived for violin and piano like a sonata. The moods of the work, cast in traditional three-movement form, mirror the composer’s own, shifting from initial confusion to nostalgia to ebullience. However, Heifetz did not care for the piece, especially the finale, and it lay unplayed until this pair of Italian musicians gave its first performance of modern times in 2016. Writing in the booklet, Fulvio Luciani considers it ‘one of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s major works’; this is its second recording, but Luciani and Motterle enjoy a familiarity with the music unrivalled by any other living interpreters.

As well as several attractive miniatures dating from the composer’s pre-war years in Italy, Luciano and Motterle also present the first recordings of his postwar arrangements of piano music by Chopin and Brahms. They are acts of love on the part of a pianist that engage with the violin, and the outcome is remarkably fresh and persuasive.

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco was one of the most successful and remarkable composers of the first half of the 20th century in Italy. His style is influenced by Neo-Classicism, vivid, brilliant, with the occasional odd dissonance, strongly rhythmical and full of catchy melodies. He fled Anti-semitism before WWO2, and settled in Hollywood where he successfully composed film music for more than 200 films.

This new recording of music for violin and piano by Castelnuovo-Tedesco contains the rarely performed Violin Concerto for violin and piano, written for Jascha Heifetz, and describing the impressions of his forced exile to the USA fleeing the Italian fascists.

Apart from several short original works here included are transcriptions of the Intermezzi Op. 117 by Brahms and a selection of the Op. 28 Preludes by Chopin, the highly refined arrangements bringing to light a series of hidden features.

Played by two excellent Italian soloists (who incidentally gave the first performance of the Violin Concerto in Italy) violinist Fulvio Luciani and pianist Massimiliano Motterle.

Fulvio Luciani, violin
Massimiliano Motterle, piano

Fulvio Luciani
A pupil of Paolo Borciani, first violin of the Quartetto Italiano, Franco Gulli and Norbert Brainin, Fulvio Luciani is the founder and first violin of the Quartetto Borciani. In many ways a loner, always unconventional in his approach to his music-making, he is the first ever to have performed Sivoriʼs Twelve Caprice-Studies; he has also recorded the complete works of Schumann for violin and piano, and has organised and performed a series of concerts for solo violin spanning over seven centuries. He has played Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas with Schumann’s piano accompaniment, the violin and piano repertoire of Dushkin and Stravinsky, and Liszt’s works for violin, together with more familiar repertoire. He has worked with Siegfried Palm, Hatto Beyerle, Bruno Canino, Antonio Ballista, Riccardo Zadra, Paolo Bordoni, Enrico Dindo and Massimiliano Motterle, and has appeared at famous venues, including the Teatro alla Scala. His performances have been recorded by Sky Classica, which has dedicated documentaries to him. He is an enthusiastic teacher and enjoys writing. Ricordi have published his edition of Sivoriʼs Twelve Caprice- Studies. He has won the ʻAntonio Vivaldiʼ International Record Award presented by the Venice-based Fondazione Cini.

Massimiliano Motterle
graduated with the highest distinction from the Milan Verdi Conservatory and has been a prizewinner in more than 20 national and international competitions, including the Budapest Liszt Competition, the Cincinnati International Competition, Valencia Concorso Iturbi and Parma Concorso Internazionale. He completed his training with the eminent pianists Lazar Berman, Paul Badura-Skoda and Alexis Weissenberg. He made his début in Milan at the age of 21 as soloist in Rachmaninovʼs Piano Concerto No 3 and has since then appeared with important orchestras such as the RAI Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Liszt Chamber Orchestra, in collaboration with conductors including Umberto Benedetti Michelangeli, Piercarlo Orizio, András Ligeti, Riccardo Frizza and Jonathan Webb. He has collaborated with artists such as Andreas Brantelid, Karin Dornbusch, and the Scala String Quartet and for some years has been working regularly with Fulvio Luciani.

Booklet for Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Music for Violin & Piano