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Repertoire in Focus: Another Side of Nino Rota

May. 05, 2010

This month The Miami Symphony Orchestra and conductor Eduardo Marturet perform Nino Rota's The Leopard, the concert suite from Rota's famous score for the Luchino Visconti film of the same name from 1963. Best known for scoring some of the most important films of the 20th century, Rota thus developed an outsized reputation as a master film scorer that has at times obscured the fact that he was also a skilled and inventive composer across all classical genres. Rota embraced a uniquely neo-classical style with a gift of lyricism and wit deeply influenced by Stravinsky and Shostakovich. We'd like to bring your attention to selections of Rota's music outside of the film music genre that continue to attract critical acclaim into the 21st century:

Mysterium-cantata for large orchestra, and mixed chorus: "The opening of Nino Rota's Mysterium blew me away. In the dramatic opening (and later closing) of this seven-movement oratorio, Rota uses a palpably moody, downward chromatic figure that will, more than a decade later, add a chilling atmosphere to some of the darker parts of The Godfather. As the oratorio unfolds, Rota continues to find intriguing, often haunting instrumental figures to back his skillful choral and solo settings-some of them sweet, some of them sweepingly powerful-of Biblical and liturgical texts."
–Royal S. Brown

15 Preludes for Solo Piano: "The preludes are lyrical and witty-sometimes alternately, sometimes simultaneously. In their lyricism we definitely hear the subtle soul that marks the composer's best film music, while their wit again brings to mind Shostakovich, but with a captivating flow. On the basis of Mysterium and these preludes, I would definitely like to hear more of Rota's concert music."
– Royal S. Brown

Triofor Clarinet, Violoncello and Piano: "Rota was highly inventive and actually had mastered all the 'schools' of 20th-century music, from neo-romanticism to postmodernism-particularly the trends that infected Italian composers. In the trio there are hints here and there of Rota's grasp of non-traditional modes of expression bordering on atonality. Despite a traditional trio structure that predates Mozart, Rota conjures a 20th century uneasiness as well as moments of extreme beauty where a solo instrument will simply 'sing' on its own."
– Paul Cook

Cello Concerto Nos. 1 and 2: "It is true that the bravura element provides the main focus of listening interest in these works. Concerto No. 1 requires great agility in the cello's perilous higher register. This work uses a fuller brass section, but the more classically oriented second concerto needs just two horns in addition to the regular forces. Cellist Dmitry Yablonsky brings terrifying verve to the finger-twisting diablerie of the finale of No. 1, and fully explores a strand of irony and paradox that informs both works. This is a welcome first recording of concertos that merit wider currency."
–Michael Jameson, writing about the Chandos CD featuring both concertos

Symphony No. 3: "The BIS series of Rota's symphonic and chamber works reveals a composer of incisive gifts and technical brilliance. Civilized the music certainly is, but often far more than that, with its pervasive wit enhancing rather than detracting from the elegant suggestions of deep feeling. The wise and wily 'neo-classicism' of the Third Symphony sets out like an exercise in updated Mozart, but though Prokofiev's Classical Symphony is brought to mind it soon becomes evident that a strain of acid melancholy undercuts the dapper phraseology. The model here, if there is one, seems more likely to be late Busoni, with disturbing cross-currents."
–Calum MacDonald

Learn more on the life and music of Nino Rota at www.schott-music.com.

Nino Rota
Mysterium (1962)
cantata for large orchestra, mixed chorus, children's chorus and SATB soloists
3(3.pic)2.ca.2.bcl.2.cbsn-4.3.3.1-timp.2perc-hp.org-str
70'

Symphony No. 3 (1956/1957)
for orchestra
2(2.pic)2(2.ca)2.2-2.2.2.1-timp-str
19'

Concerto No. 1 (1972)
for cello and orchestra
2(2.pic)2(ca)2.2-4.2.3.1-timp-str
1972

Trio (1973)
for clarinet, cello and piano
11'

15 Preludes (1964)
for solo piano
45'

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