Giovanni Sgambati - Symphony No. 1 (1880) **MUST HEAR**

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• published: 21 Jun 2013
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Painting Info - "On the Beach" by Ellixus on deviantart. I. Allegro Vivace - Non Troppo - 00:00 II. Andante Mesto - 10:23 III. Scherzo - Presto - 21:36 IV. Serenata - Andante - 27:24 Giovanni Sgambati (1841--1914) was, along with Giuseppe Martucci, one of the prime movers behind the rebirth of Italian instrumental music, a campaign aimed at reducing the pre-eminence of opera and raising audiences' awareness of how much had been and was still being produced in the way of orchestral and chamber music in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Italian audiences did not hear Beethoven's Third Symphony until 1867, and it was Giovanni Sgambati who conducted that premiere, as he did the first Italian performances of Beethoven's Seventh (in 1870) and of such significant contemporary works as Liszt's Dante Symphony and Christus oratorio. Born in Rome, a talented pianist and composer, Sgambati had come into contact with musicians from elsewhere in Europe early on in his career. His friend and teacher Franz Liszt enabled him to move to Germany, where the world of instrumental music appeared to be following completely different rules, with a wealth of possibilities for composition and performance. Orchestras there were "well-oiled machines" boasting remarkable forces and sonic potential, and this clearly influenced the work of those composers who saw the symphony as the vehicle for the highest expression of poetic and aesthetic truth. The First Symphony's unusual blend of Italian melodic style and German orchestral tradition met with immediate critical approval, so much so that it became part of the repertoire of conductors such as Martucci, who presented it at Bologna's Teatro Comunale in 1888, and Toscanini, who conducted it at the Teatro alla Scala in 1899; it also received favourable reviews from Grieg and Saint-Saëns (the latter dubbing it "très intéressante et très originale"). It is cast in five movements: Allegro vivace, non troppo -- Andante mesto -- Scherzo (Presto) -- Serenata (Andante) -- Finale. Allegro con fuoco. Although the first of these is in sonata form, it is difficult to single out its main themes; as in the Cola di Rienzo Overture, various different motivic cells are used here and are continually reworked and developed across the different sections of the orchestra. An introductory section presents three phrases which are varied and taken up again throughout. The first of these is a descending chromatic motif for the clarinets and violas, above double-stopping in the violins; the second is made up of D major arpeggio fragments in the flutes and oboes; and the third, finally, is a broader melodic-rhythmic motif played by the bassoons, together with cellos and double basses. After this first section, the music becomes more insistent in nature, leaving room for the introduction of a second, cantabile idea above murmuring cellos. There is no development as such—the various elements are reused and juxtaposed among the different instruments and varied both melodically and rhythmically, as if through a kaleidoscope. Sgambati here appears to be using the Lisztian technique of thematic transformation. His orchestration is always elegant and translucent, never giving rise to the sense that it is lacking some grand polyphonic character. The second movement (Andante mesto), for example, features a limpid melody of obvious Italian inspiration, but "orchestrated" in the German manner. Here the two main themes are presented above a rocking accompaniment from cellos and basses. The first is given to the oboe, and is then paraphrased by the flute, which then introduces the second theme. This in turn introduces an animated central section where, fantasia-like, the tension breaks and the music runs free; the increasingly agitated pace then leads to a repeat of the exposition. The quality of the orchestration is particularly evident in the Scherzo, whose inventive power and rhapsodic nature recall the Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. The following Serenata, meanwhile, is especially noteworthy for its happy fusion of disparate elements. Out of a timid but inexorable introduction, marked lento crescendo, on dark strings, there emerges a suspended accompaniment and then a delicate cantabile melody, initially for violins only, which takes on a hint of mystery at various points within the development section. The Allegro finale can be seen as a synthesis of the appassionato impulses prevalent in the opening movement and in the cantabile sections of the other three. The intense process of variation and elaboration to which the initial motif is subjected is particularly striking: it is twisted and bent in various ways within the rondo structure, into which are inserted moments of cantabile delicacy such as the central section (Andante) as well as episodes rich in rhythmic elaboration which lead into the exultant final bars.