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CastelnuovoTedesco Appunti
Preludes and Studies Op.210
Enea Leone
MARIO CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO (1895-1968) Appunti CD1 60’06 Book 1: The intervals 1 On the open strings (Marinaresca) 2’30 2 Melody without accompaniment (Preghiera) 2’55 3 On the second (Bolle di sapone) 1’12 4 On the third (Canto dei mietitori) 3’00 5 On the fourth (Campane a valle) 3’18 6 On the fifth (Il ballo dell’orso) 2’21 7 On the sixth (Stornellatrice) 2’45 8 On the seventh (Serenatella) 1’46 9 On the eighth (Marcia funebre per una marionetta) 3’47 10 On the ninth (La pioggia nel roseto) 2’02 11 On the tenth (Ave Maria) 2’48 Book 2 Part 1: Dances from the 17th and 18th century 12 Pavana 13 Gagliarda 14 Sarabanda 15 Rigaudon 16 Allemanda 17 Corrente 18 Minuetto 19 Gavotta 20 Siciliana 21 Giga
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2’57 2’51 3’05 2’15 3’25 1’58 4’17 3’23 4’26 2’51
CD2 43’23 Book 2: The rhythms Part 2: Dances of the 19th century 1 Polka 2’52 2 Mazurka 2’46 3 Polonaise 4’06 4 Vals Française 2’16 5 Wiener Walzer 4’04 6 Quadrille 3’19 Book 2: The rhythms Part 3: Dances of the 20th century 7 Two Step 8 Blues 9 Fox Trot 10 Tango 11 Rumba 12 Samba
3’21 4’45 3’19 3’12 2’48 2’45
Book 3: The figurations 13 La macchina da cucire (Study on 5 strings) 14 La Filatrice (Study on the scale)
1’07 2’35
Enea Leone guitar Recording: 20–23 July, 23–26 August & 13–16 September 2013, Parish church of Prina, Strona, Italy Recorded by Daniele Marinelli and Luca Maria Burocchi, Pitch Audio Research - www.pitchaudio.it - & © 2015 Brilliant Classics
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Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (Florence, 1895 – Beverly Hills, 1968) became naturally involved in music as a boy. His was a well-to-do family of Jewish origins that had great respect for the arts, and culture in general. In a passage from his autobiography, he recalls with fondness the times he spent listening to his mother play the piano, and singing with her the arias they had heard at the Opera. Edgardo del Valle de Paz (1861–1920) was the boy’s first real piano teacher. And Castelnuovo-Tedesco proved to be a promising pupil: already acquainted with the instrument, he was inspired by his own desire to learn, and his mother’s encouragement and example. Following a few years of proper lessons, he sailed through the entrance exam for the “Luigi Cherubini” Conservatoire in Florence, where he went on to study composition as well as piano, initially with Antonio Scontrino, with whom he did not see eye-to-eye, and later with Ildebrando Pizzetti (1880-1969). It was thanks to Pizzetti that Castelnuovo-Tedesco mastered counterpoint, a technique the older musician held to be absolutely essential. Apart from helping Castelnuovo-Tedesco perfect his technique, Pizzetti also introduced him to Alfredo Casella (1883-1947), who was so impressed by the young composer that he helped him further his career both in Italy and abroad. Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s music was often performed by the Società Italiana per la Musica Contemporanea (S.I.M.C.), founded in 1923 and directed by Casella himself. Although Castelnuovo-Tedesco was not a founding member of the association, he became actively involved in it, along with other outstanding Italian musicians of the time such as Ottorino Respighi, Gian Francesco Malipiero and Ildebrando Pizzetti. Alongside his work as a soloist and composer, Castelnuovo-Tedesco also wrote reviews and articles for important publications, including La critical musicale, Il pianoforte and La rassegna musicale. One of his own most successful compositions was the Concerto Italiano for violin and orchestra Op.20 of 1924. This was followed in 1931 by a second violin concerto, Profeti Op.66, commissioned by the great Jascha Heifetz himself. When in 1932 Castelnuovo-Tedesco attended the International Contemporary Music Festival in Venice, Andrés Segovia (1893-1987) was there to accompany his friend, the Spanish composer Manuel De Falla (1876-1946), who was conducting his opera Retablo 4
de Maese Pedro. Castelnuovo-Tedesco had long been an admirer of the famous guitarist, but on this occasion he did not have an opportunity to talk about music and future projects with him. On the last day, however, Segovia asked Clara Forti, the composer’s wife, to tell her husband that he would like to have a composition of his for the guitar. Castelnuovo-Tedesco replied to this request by letter: “Dear Segovia, I would be very happy to write something for you, because I have often had the opportunity to admire you as an artist; but I must confess that I do not know the instrument, and have not the slightest idea how to write for the guitar!”. Segovia wrote back describing the main features of the guitar, and to illustrate the main technical difficulties pertaining to the instrument he sent him Fernando Sor’s Variations Op.9, and those composed by Manuel Maria Ponce on the subject of Folia de España. Armed with this information, Castelnuovo-Tedesco got down to work, composing the Variazioni attraverso i secoli (1932). In due course these were followed by the Sonata (omaggio a Boccherini) (1934), the Capriccio diabolico (1935), the Tarantella (1936), Aranci in fiore (composed the same year as the Tarantella, though not for Segovia, but for Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s guitarist friend Aldo Bruzzichelli) and Variations Plaisantes sur un petit air populair (j’ai du bon tabac) (1937). When the introduction of racial laws in 1938 made the situation of Jewish families in Italy extremely vexatious, unlike many of his fellows Segovia did not turn his back on Castelnuovo-Tedesco, but instead decided to spend the Christmas holidays with him. Castelnuovo-Tedesco reciprocated this act of sincere friendship by writing the Concerto in D for guitar and orchestra for Segovia in 1939. Given the daunting political situation spreading throughout Europe, on 13 July 1939 the composer, his wife and their two sons, Lorenzo and Pietro, decided to set sail for the United States. They settled in Larchmont, a town not far from New York. In the autumn of 1940 Castelnuovo-Tedesco signed a contract with Metro-Goldwin-Mayer (MGM) for a threeyear term, later described by the composer as “the years of slavery in Babylon”). This meant moving to California, where his family joined him six months later. When it came to an end the contract was not renewed, so Castelnuovo-Tedesco started working free-lance with various film studios, including Columbia, Universal, Warner Brothers, and 20th Century Fox. 5
Although he wrote a great deal of film music, in his autobiography CastelnuovoTedesco declared that “… in my artistic life, the experience with the movies represents no more than a hundredth part.” He was also intensely involved in teaching, with private pupils of the calibre of André Previn, Herman Stein, John Williams, Henry Mancini and Jerry Goldsmith. Moreover, as a composer he went well beyond the sphere of film music. In America he wrote the Shakespeare Sonnets cycle for voice and piano (1944-47), a number of works pertaining to his own Jewish world such as Sacred Service for the Sabbath Eve (1943), the non-liturgical choral work Naomi and Ruth (1947), which was premiered in Los Angeles in 1949, and The Merchant of Venice (1956). During the American period he also wrote numerous works for the guitar: for instance, the Serenata per chitarra e orchestra da camera Op.118 (1943), the Suite Op.133 (1947), the Quintetto for guitar and strings Op.145 (1950), the Romancero Gitano for four voices and guitar Op.152 (1951 – on verse by the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca) and the Second concerto di C for guitar and orchestra Op.160 (1953). In 1946 the composer managed to obtain American citizenship. Although he returned briefly to Italy from time to time, he remained in the United States until his death in 1968. The collection of Appunti Op.210 derived from Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s fruitful collaboration with the musicologist Ruggero Chiesa (1933-1993), who taught guitar at the “G. Verdi” Conservatoire in Milan. Chiesa was involved in a project with the Milanese publisher Suvini Zerboni aimed at rediscovering and expanding the guitar repertoire, and in a letter dated 28 February 1967 wrote to Castelnuovo-Tedesco, who had already composed many fine works for the guitar, inviting him to write a collection of relatively simple pieces that would encourage students of contemporary music to address the guitar. The composer agreed with enthusiasm, and immediately began to work on the structure of the four parts of the collection he had in mind. Alas this work was never completed, because CastelnuovoTedesco died suddenly on 18 March 1968, struck down by an aortic aneurysm. The original idea involved devoting a first volume of the Appunti to intervals, a second volume to rhythms, a third to figurations and a fourth part, or “appendix”, containing short dodecaphonic studies. 6
Only the first two of these four “volumes” were completed. The first, “Gli intervalli”, consists of 11 pieces comprising a study of the free strings, a non-harmonized melody, and nine pieces based on increasing intervals from seconds to tenths. As for I ritmi, it took the shape of a rich collection of dances divided into three parts: Danze del ’600 e del ’700, Danze dell’Ottocento and Danze del ’900 (respectively, dances of the 1600 and 1700s, Dances of the 1800s, and Dances of the 1900s). We have a list of the eleven pieces that the composer intended to include among the figurations of the third volume, and the technical problems that he was planning to address. Unfortunately he was only able to achieve the first two of them: La macchina da cucire (studio sulle cinque note) and La filatrice (studio sulle scale). Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco had evidently set to work with his usual creative energy, writing in less than a month a first draft of the entire first volume. Moreover, his continued correspondence with Ruggero Chiesa suggested a number of ensuing corrections and amendments. Delighted though he was with the composer’s musical and creative genius, the musicologist was able to point out a number of points that would have been difficult to play on the guitar. Chiesa never forgot the essential aim of this work, which was to encourage students to approach the contemporary repertoire even when their own technical skills still called for refinement. To this end he did all he could to simplify and “streamline” certain passages, not least in view of the fact that the composer, who was not himself a guitarist, inevitably had a pianist’s perspective of the instrument. Unfortunately fate did not favour a similar job of revision for the second volume, which Chiesa had appreciated for its creativity, while judging it less suitable for teaching purposes. When Castelnuovo-Tedesco died, Chiesa had no alternative but to publish the volume as he had received it, simply adding fingering where this was possible. Closer analysis of the pieces sheds light on the choice of “appunti”, or “notes”, as a title for the work. It was suggested by the composer, and accepted by Chiesa, who declared in a letter: “From a psychological point of view I believe it to be a good idea not to present the pieces as though they were studies, because both students and soloists are beleaguered by this sort of title, which is common in guitar music. Instead they want to get to grips with 7
something that does not come across as didactic, at least not overtly so.” The decision to attribute an imaginative title to each piece in the first volume would seem to be the fruit of the desire to avoid appearing to be excessively didactic. For the composer, the idea of linking each piece with a particular interval was a continual source of inspiration rather than a constraint. As a result, the melodious nature of the thirds, sixths and tenths becomes the salient feature of the Canto dei mietitori, La stornellatrice and Ave Maria, while the fourths invest Campane a valle with a suspended, archaic atmosphere. In the second volume Castelnuovo-Tedesco retraces the history of dance “through the centuries”. The first part, devoted to the dances of the 1600 and 1700s, comes across as a rich Baroque suite in which the individual movements are paired so as to alternate different tempi and moods (the only exceptions are the Minuetto and the Gavotta, which respectively embody their own inner pairing with the Trio and the Musetta). From the tonal point of view, they share the same key: G major alternating with G minor, with an incursion into E minor. Despite the explicit reference to certain models of the past, and in particular to Bach, the composer’s own style and originality come across clearly. Indeed, the final Giga, which actually departs from the Bach-like model, is more reminiscent of the tarantella than of the Baroque dance. In the second part, Danze dell’Ottocento, the music increasingly departs from imitation in favour of irony. The pieces appear to harbour two different souls: on the one hand the Valse Française and the Mazurka recall a certain languor typical of Chopin (including the citation in the latter piece of his Mazurka Op.7 n. 2); while on the other, the atmosphere that prevails in the Wiener Walzer and in the Quadrille relates more to the brilliance and worldly frivolity of the music of Johann Strauss and Jacques Offenbach. The project ends with the Danze del ’900, which in some respects come across as a homage to the composer’s adopted country. Of the six pieces that make up the volume, the first three feature rhythms typical of North American culture (Two Step, Fox Trot and Blues), while the other three relate to Latin American dance rhythms (Tango, Rumba and Samba). 8
The languid sensuality of the Tango and the vibrant energy of the Rumba bear witness to Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s remarkable mimetic skill. Clearly he was a composer who was fully at ease with all styles and genres, from the most learned to the most popular. From the extant draft, one cannot help wondering how he would have completed the third volume of the Appunti, had he but had the time. Personally I would also be very interested in hearing the dodecaphonic studies that he intended to compile in the fourth volume. For although Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s style was more closely related to the idiom of the late 19th century, he was certainly familiar with dodecaphony and the various other tendencies of early 20th century music. Indeed, in his autobiography, although he voiced certain doubts concerning the dodecaphonic system, he also declared that he had never refused to teach its principles and workings to any student who expressed interest in the field. Although Castelnuovo-Tedesco was unable to complete what he had in mind, he certainly provided guitarists with a fascinating volume that bears eloquent witness to his desire to reconcile a tool for teaching with intrinsic musical value. © Lorenzo Paparazzo Translation by Kate Singleton
Born in Milan in 1978, Enea Leone first approached the guitar while still very young, under the guidance of his father. Later he studied with Lena Kokkaliari, and then with Ruggero Chiesa and Paolo Cherici at the Conservatorio G. Verdi in Milan. He was awarded a first-class Diploma in 1998, continuing with two years of specialisation and a further two years devoted to obtaining a postgraduate Diploma, again with first-class honours. Next came a period of study with Emanuele Segre, Alirio Diaz and Oscar Ghiglia, who awarded him a grant and diplomas of merit at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena in 2002, 2003 and 2004. In 2005 he obtained the ‘Solistendiplom’ at the Musik-Akademie in Basel, also under Oscar Ghiglia. Since 1990 he has been making a name for himself as a soloist in some of the foremost national and international competitions, including those of Stresa, Modovì, Lodi and 9
Gargagno, as well as the Franz Schubert award, the ‘Pittaluga’ competition in Alessandria, and in 2002 at the Torneo Internazionale di Music TIM, where he was awarded first prize. He has also performed in concerts in Italy and elsewhere (Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, Romania and Greece), as a soloist, in chamber ensembles (Trio Solista) and with orchestras. These performances have included collaboration with eminent musical associations such as the ‘Pomeriggi Musicali’, the ‘Associazione Amici del Conservatorio G. Verdi’ and the ‘Amici del Loggione del Teatro alla Scala’ in Milan. In 2010 he performed Rodrigo’s Concierto di Aranjuez with the Orchestra Cantelli in Milan. Since 2000 he has worked closely with the Associazione Musicale Harmonia Scuola di Musica in Gessate, just outside Milan, acting as artistic director and holding annual masterclasses. Since 2006 he has also held guitar masterclasses as part of the events organised by the ‘Magia del borgo, chitarra e altro’ at Brisighella, near Imola. Moreover, in 2007 he began working with the town council of Roburent (Cuneo), which is closely linked with the Mondovì Competition, and in 2008 with the ‘Suoni dal legno’ event organised by the city of Todi. Two years ago he also began working with ‘Badesi in musica’ in Sardinia. He currently teaches guitar at the Conservatorio Pierluigi da Palestrina in Cagliari, Sardinia. In 2003 he recorded a CD of Astor Piazzolla’s compositions, both solo and chamber works, for M.A.P. In 2007 he recorded Eleven, a CD featuring works by Morricone transcribed for solo guitar by C. Marchione, distributed by Nicolosi Productions, whose artists include Sting, F. Gambale and Billy Cobham. The publishing house Carisch included several tracks from Eleven in the CD that accompanies its volume of Morricone scores. In 2011 he recorded Souvenir for Stradivarius, a CD devoted to Romantic music (Coste-Regondi) that contains two hitherto unrecorded pieces. In attributing its 5-star rating to the recording, the periodical Amadeus declared that in Souvenir ‘…Enea Leone proves to be in total mastery of these highly demanding works’ in spite of the fact that from a musical and performance point of view they are extremely daunting: ‘His impeccable interpretation and technical skill are of the highest level’. In reference to the same recording, the magazine Musica said that ‘…Enea Leone shows he has the ability to capture the listener’s attention right from the outset: the sound is malleable, soft and 10
rounded, achieving just the right effect of introspection and dreaminess… his agility is admirable, revealing his sensitivity to the musical content of each episode… Leone is faultless in all respects…’: again the recording was awarded a 5-star rating. The Spanish magazine Diverdi reviewed Souvenir in the following terms: ‘...The recording contains pieces described as Reverie, Introduction and Capriccio that are rarely interpreted in such an interesting way… Enea Leone reveals a great gift for performing the highly virtuoso Romantic repertoire…’. The Japanese periodical Gendai Guitar declared that ‘Enea Leone’s passion and excellence make the performance of the works by Coste and Regondi extremely interesting…’, while Il Fronimo found Leone’s interpretation in Souvenir to be ‘excellent in all the tracks: his remarkable technique allows him to play the notes with great fluency and clarity, to add to which his virtuoso skill is underpinned by perfect phrasing, rubato and suspended notes, continuity of melody and clarity of modulation, all of which are essential to the interpretation of the Romantic repertoire… for keeping close to hand…’. Seicorde judged Enea Leone’s interpretation to be particularly convincing, ‘on account of the wealth of timbre and dynamics that invests the music with a sense of continuous flow, whereby the emotional tension never fails… The warmest compliments to Enea Leone for his devotion to a project whose fruits deserve our heartfelt gratitude…’ (CD of the Month, 5 stars). Oscar Ghiglia has described Enea as a ‘highly talented guitarist of boundless technical mastery and great musical intelligence, both in his solo and in his chamber performances. He has great artistic maturity and a fine presence on stage. His understanding of the guitar, his musical perspicacity and his exceptional communicative skills also mean that he would be a teacher of great value for any educational institution involved in music.’ I would like to dedicate this work to my master, Ruggero Chiesa. I would also thank Corde Aquila Alabastro.
Thanks to Marco Benini for the amazing guitar made by Francisco Simplicio Enea Leone plays Aquila Corde, Alabastro. 11