Nicolas Flagello: Piano Concerto No. 1; Dante's Farewell; Concerto Sinfonico

Nicolas Flagello (Composer), John McLaughlin Williams (Conductor), Kynan Johns (Conductor), Rutgers Symphony Orchestra (Orchestra), Nat'l. Radio Sym. Orchestra of Ukraine (Orchestra), New Hudson Saxophone Quartet (Performer), Tatjana Rankovich (Performer), Susan Gonzalez (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: New Hudson Saxophone Quartet, Tatjana Rankovich, Susan Gonzalez
• Orchestra: Rutgers Symphony Orchestra, Nat'l. Radio Sym. Orchestra of Ukraine
• Conductor: John McLaughlin Williams, Kynan Johns
• Composer: Nicolas Flagello
• Audio CD (June 20, 2006)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Naxos American
• ASIN: B000FGGKIU
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #342,019 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "A" Material from Flagello, August 6, 2006

By 

Eugene G. Barnes (Dunn Loring, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nicolas Flagello: Piano Concerto No. 1; Dante's Farewell; Concerto Sinfonico (Audio CD)

This is about my fifth foray into the music of Nicolas Flagello (Metropolitan Opera bass Ezio Flagello's brother, if the name sounds familiar), and after listening to it, I'm sure I'll be adding even more Flagello to my collection in the future.

The low price and interesting sounding program that originally attracted me to this disc did not prepare me for the high quality of the music's content, the vitality and commitment of the performances, and the sweet fullness of the recorded sound. There's an odd bonus of a painting by Flagello on the cover depicting the Amalfi Coast that looks eerily like the view of Toledo by El Greco.

The 29-minute Piano Concerto No. 1 has a pleasing similarity to the soundworld of Sam Barber's (much later) Piano Concerto, only Barber's is more dissonant. Flagello wrote two more piano concertos after this one, and, good as they are, they are not nearly so striking as his first. And this is a student composition, Flagello's first large-scale work. If most college degree requirement music aims at presenting forward looking musical ideas within a traditional, accessible context, this little baby must have knocked his professors' socks off. Bold, confident writing for the piano is combined with a sureness of hand in the orchestration that is nothing short of remarkable. Serbian/American pianist Tatjana Rankovich has already recorded Flagello's 2nd and 3rd concertos and some of his solo piano music. Her playing in this recording is mostly exemplary, although I could have wished for a bit better articulation in some runs about 11 minutes into the piece. And that horn solo in the second movement could have been a bit more in tune. Quibbles, really; pay no attention to my whining.

The second piece, the 14-minute "Dante's Farewell" for Soprano and Orchestra, is a tightly packed setting of a portion of an English-language monologue by Joseph Tusiani about Dante leaving his wife for his final trip to Rome, never to return. The dread and resignation mixed with moments of transcendent beauty are reminiscent of Mahler's final "Lied von der Erde," "The Farewell." Susan Gonzalez, who sang the premiere, is a bit too closely mic'd for my complete comfort and winds up sounding a bit harsh at times, but she's spot on in interpretation. The NRSO, Ukraine, under J.M. Williams gives us a scintillating performance of Anthony Sbordini's idiomatic orchestration produced from Flagello's short score.

For the final work on the CD, the 23-minute Concerto Sinfonico for Sax Quartet and Orchestra, Naxos switches to the Rutgers SO under Kynan Johns. Their strings are occasionally a little weak when exposed, but they deliver a convincing, full-bodied performance nonetheless of this long dark Nachtmusik of the soul. Flagello uses the sax quartet as Ralph Vaughan-Williams might, leaving the jazz ethos far behind and concentrating on exploiting their timbre in a completely classical context, where they sound ominous but luminous.

Sometimes it's hard to choose from the "trunkload" of titles available in Naxos' American Classics series of CDs. This should be an easy one to say "yes" to.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous stuff, July 25, 2006

By 

WalpoleBassMan "WalpoleBassman" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nicolas Flagello: Piano Concerto No. 1; Dante's Farewell; Concerto Sinfonico (Audio CD)

another superb recording by John M. Williams and the NRSU. big, unapologetically romantic. The Sax Quartet performance is rough with some mediocre ensemble playing (is it the conductor - K. Johns - the orchestra - Rutgers Univ?) but I have to give it 5 stars anyway because the piece is so great.
By the way, if you don't have any of Williams' other recordings on Naxos be sure to check them out - he is one of the top interpreters of American 20th C. music around. I would love to hear him conducting some of the top-tier American orchestras.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great music, variable performances., December 5, 2006

By 

Steven Schwartz (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nicolas Flagello: Piano Concerto No. 1; Dante's Farewell; Concerto Sinfonico (Audio CD)

Flagello is a major find for me. Each of these scores shows a master at work. The first piano concerto (Flagello's three piano concerti all have different musical characters) is a kind of gloss on the Rachmaninoff second, but it's no mere rehash. Nevertheless, it's one of those Modern works that I believe have a real shot at popularity. It is an heroic piece, designed to have a crowd leap to its collective feet. Dante's Farewell - an example of the very difficult genre of dramatic scena - avoids the typical pitfalls. It's coherent and powerfully dramatic, as the poet's wife, Gemma, recounts his leaving Florence for the last time. The Concerto Sinfonico for sax quartet and orchestra overcomes the stigma of a composer "showing off" with an unusual combo of forces and from the first measures impresses as a great piece of music, rather than an exercise or stunt - powerful and poetic.

The performances range from Williams, Rankovich, and the Ukrainians' stellar to a fairly scrappy Concerto Sinfonico. Dante's Farewell, despite a superb musically- and textually-sensitive soloist (Susan Gonzalez) falls short, due I think to nothing more complicated than bad microphone placement (Gonzalez sounds too far forward and the orchestra too flat).

Still, one of my discs of the year.