Of Rage and Remembrance (Corigliano 85)

John Corigliano (16 febbraio 1938):
I. Of Rage and Remembrance, ciaccona (composta sulla base del III movimento della Sinfonia n. 1) per voci e orchestra su testo di William M. Hoffman (1991).

This is the season of stone:
Dead leaves on a garden wall,
Dried berries in bone-cold air,
A brittle moon,
An ashen sun.
Bear it,
Bear it, you tell me.
This is the season of stone.
Was there a time before the sorrow –
Days of double darkness,
Nights of blinding light?
Is there life outside the terror –
Waking from an airless dream
To the silence of an empty room?
This is the season of stone,
You tell me,
When dead leaves lace the garden wall,
And berries dry in the bone-cold air.
And the brittle moon rules
The ashen sun.
Bear it,
Bear it, you tell me.
This is the season of stone.
But remember the crack of the ice-locked lake,
And the fog on the hyacinth roads.
Remember the breeze through the fields at dawn,
Cascading the trees and our youth-dark hair.
I remember, I remember.
Remember.
Giulio Sorrentino, cellist,
You were the radiance of my youth.
Freddy. Fortunato Arico,
Giulio’s teacher,
goodbye.
Paul Jacobs, brilliant pianist and dry wit,
Farewell.
J. J. Mitchell, muse of poets and painters,
60
Adieu.
Jacques Chwat, a cabalist and agnostic,
You walked among the living,
Guided by the dead.
Maya zhizn, maya maledost,
Prashchai, prashchai.1
Mark Pearson and Jim Moses: friends, lovers, died in ’88.
Shalom.
Robert Jacobson:
A tall, kind man with a dazzling smile
Opera was his passion.
Adios.
Nikos Kafkalis: I’ll never forget you!
Goodbye. Farewell.
Anthony Holland: man of the theatre,
Oh, Tony, I miss you so!
Lebewohl.
Farewell.
Adios.
Goodbye.
This is the season of stone.
Bear it, bear it, you tell me:
But remember the crack of the ice-locked lake,
And the fog on the hyacinth roads.
Remember the breeze through the fields at dawn,
Cascading the trees and our youth-dark hair.
I remember the scent of mint and thyme,
I remember the heat,
I remember the wine.
I remember the joy.
Remember.
Though I live to be a thousand years,
I’ll never forget you.
Gahm kee-aylaykh b’gay tzahlmohvess
Loh-eeraw raw kee-ahtaw eemodee

II. Sinfonia n. 1 (1988-89):
    1. Apologue: Of Rage and Remembrance (Ferocious) [13:07]
    2. Tarantella [26:46]
    3. Chaconne: Giulio’s Song (Adagio) [35:00] – attacca:
    4. Epilogue (Adagio) [48:50]
 
Michelle DeYoung, mezzosoprano; Michael Accinno, voce bianca; Robert P. Baker e Michael Forest, tenori; Jason Stearns e James Shaffran, baritoni; National Symphony Orchestra, dir. Leonard Slatkin.

Ispirata, in parte, dal NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, la Sinfonia è dedicata alla memoria di amici del compositore morti di AIDS. Alcune annotazioni di John Corigliano e la partitura completa si trovano qui.

AIDS Memorial Quilt
L’AIDS Memorial Quilt

Quasi marcia

Leopold Damrosch (1832 - 15 febbraio 1885): Sinfonia in la mag­giore (1878). Azusa Pacific University Symphony Or­che­stra, dir. Christopher Russell.

  1. Poco andante – Allegro vivace con fuoco
  2. Intermezzo scherzando: Vivace con leggierezza
  3. Quasi Marcia: Solenne
  4. Allegro vivace assai

Sinfonia d’estate

Erkki Melartin (2 febbraio 1875 - 14 febbraio 1937): Quarta Sinfonia in mi maggiore op. 80, Kesäsinfonia (Sinfonia d’e­sta­te, 1912). Pia Freund, soprano; Lilli Paasikivi, mez­zo­so­prano; Laura Nykänen, contralto; Tampere Filharmonia, dir. Leonid Grin.

  1. Allegro moderato
  2. Scherzo: Vivace [10:40]
  3. Andante [16:40]
  4. Rondò finale: Allegro – Tempo de marche festive [31:25]

Rinascita

Mieczysław Karłowicz (1876 - 8 febbraio 1909): Sinfonia in mi minore op. 7, Odrodzenie (Rinascita, 1902). Narodowa Orkiestra Symfoniczna Polskiego Radia z siedzibą w Katowicach (Orchestra sinfonica della Radio polacca di Katowice), dir. Lukasz Borowicz.

  1. Andante – Allegro – Meno mosso – Tempo I
  2. Andante non troppo [14:42]
  3. Vivace – Molto meno mosso – Tempo I [26:25]
  4. Allegro maestoso – Allegro ben moderato – Allegro vivo [31:34]

Mieczysław Karłowicz

Appassionato di alpinismo e di fotografia, Karłowicz morì travolto da una valanga durante un’escursione sui Tatra.

Sinfonia apocalittica

Karl Weigl (6 febbraio 1881 - 1949): Sinfonia n. 5, Apocaliptic (1945), in memoria di Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, dir. Thomas Sanderling.

  1. Evocation: Moderato – Allegro moderato
  2. The Dance around the Golden Calf: Allegro moderato [16:21]
  3. Paradise Lost: Adagio [23:32]
  4. The Four Horsemen: Allegro moderato – Andante [38:59]

KW

Allegretto agevole

Ludolf Nielsen (29 gennaio 1876 - 1939): Sinfonia n. 3 in do maggiore op. 32 (1911-13). Bamberger Symphoniker, dir. Frank Cramer.

  1. Andante con moto – Poco più moto – Andante – Allegro energico – Più vivo – Maestoso
  2. Allegretto agevole – Andantino con moto – Tempo I – Presto – Tempo II – Presto
  3. Andante lento pastorale
  4. Andante lento – Allegro maestoso

Elegia – VII

Michail Michajlovič Ippolìtov-Ivànov (1859 - 28 gennaio 1935): Sinfonia n. 1 in mi minore op. 46 (1907). Bamberger Symphoniker, dir. Gary Brain.

  1. Adagio – Allegro risoluto
  2. Scherzo: Moderato. Maestoso – Allegro [12:57]
  3. Elegia: Larghetto [18:51]
  4. Finale: Allegro moderato [25:48]

Sinfonia russa

Vladimir Vladimirovič Ščerbačëv * (24 gennaio 1889 - 1952): Sinfonia n. 5, Русская (Sinfonia russa; 1948, rev. 1950). Orchestra sinfonica accademica di San Pietroburgo, dir. Aleksandr Titov.

  1. Lento assai
  2. Allegro drammatico [6:01]
  3. Lento [18:51]
  4. Allegro moderato [29:59]
  • Si pronucia approssimativamente sc-cierbaciòf.