ALFREDO CASELLA (1883-1947): Concerto for Orchestra, Op. 61, Symphonic Fragments from La donna serpente, Op. 50, A notte alta for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 30.

Description: World Premiere Recording of the 27-minute, three-movement Concerto of 1937, written for the 50th anniversary of the Concergebouw Orchestra and premiered there by Mengelberg the following year. Its outer movements, Sinfonia and Inno alternate between bustling activity and expressive melody and they surround a big Passacaglia with ten variations. Virtuosic and characterful writing for a virtuoso orchestra and the sound quality is as good as Chandos of 25 years ago. La donna serpente was a 1932 opera to the same libretto as Wagner's Die Feen, magical and comical by turns and the six extracts from it have got to be among the most vivid and colorful of all Casella's music. For the earlier (1917, orch. 1921) A notte alta, a tale of two lovers meeting at night, expressionistic in style, see our note on the Naxos recording offered here in August 2010 (08M004). Martin Roscoe (piano), BBC Philharmonic; Gianandrea Noseda.