FRANCO MARGOLA (1908-1992): Mandolin and Piano: Moderato, Adagio, 3 pezzi, Romanza senza parole, Violin and Guitar: Sonata, Allegro, Guitar and Piano: Improvviso, Fantasia, Grande Sonata for Mandolin and Guitar, Piccola Suonata for Violin and Piano, DANIELE RICHIEDEI (b.1984): Minimal Choro for Mandolin, Guitar, Violin and Piano.

Description: Margola’s precociously mature student years are represented on this album by the Piccola Sonata, composed in 1929. There are three sections within its concise five-minute span, largely elegiac in character and flavored not only with late-Romantic harmonies but the unmistakable influence of Ravel. At the other end of his life, Margola began to write for mandolin as a professor at the conservatoire in Parma. He treats the instrument like a lute, as if transcribing Renaissance dances in the style of Respighi, but the harmonies remain richly Romantic. One particular highlight is the Romanza with an airy theme that alternates between the piano and the mandolin in a lyrical mood that naturally brings Mendelssohn and the world of Lieder to mind. Raffaele La Ragione (mandolin), Gabriele Zanetti (guitar), Daniele Richiedei (violin), Giacomo Ferrari (piano).