Rosario Scalero began his career as a violinist, in which guise he gave the first Italian performance of Beethoven's Violin Concerto. Moving to Vienna in the 1890s he studied composition with Brahms's friend Mandyczewski, and both his surroundings and his study inspired his chamber music. The D minor Sonata Op.12 was dedicated to Mandyczewski's wife Albine, and it made a huge impression on the violinist and influential educator David Mannes, who duly invited Scalero to head up the composition department of his conservatoire in New York. In August 1919 Scalero sailed to the New World, and in 1924 he began teaching at the prestigious Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, becoming it's head of theory and composition three years later. In this guise he taught the likes of Barber, Menotti and Rota, but his own music fell from view. The present issue allows us to hear for the first time the musical mind that directed the creative impulses of his students. His violin and piano output shows that his music brought together three distinct strands of inspiration. There was his background as a virtuoso violinist, which comes to the fore in the Op.2 Capricci for solo violin and the Op.15 Variations on a theme of Paganini (not the famous one immortalised by Rachmaninov), and his native feeling for a cantabile melody, so evident in the Op.4 Romance. Then there is his life-long allegiance to his Italian roots to be enjoyed in the sets of Danze Napoletane Op.27 and the Danze Piemontesi. But equally his Viennese training yielded not only long-form structures such as the Sonata but also a trio of Waltz-Caprices Op.16 and neoclassical pieces in a lighter style such as the Suite of dances 'i'm alten Stil' and Eine kleine Suite of pieces 'after' Scarlatti.

Tracklist:

Violin Sonata In D Minor, Op. 12: I. Allegro
Violin Sonata In D Minor, Op. 12: II. Adagio
Violin Sonata In D Minor, Op. 12: III. Vivace, Ma Appassionato
3 Walzer-Capricen, Op. 16: I. Lento, Poi Tempo Di Walzer
3 Walzer-Capricen, Op. 16: II. Andante Malinconico
3 Walzer-Capricen, Op. 16: III. Allegro Con Brio
3 Capricci For Violin Solo, Op. 2: I. Allegro
3 Capricci For Violin Solo, Op. 2: II. Allegro Alla Scarlatti
3 Capricci For Violin Solo, Op. 2: III. Allegro Giusto
12 Variazioni Nach Den Barucabà / Variationen Von Paganini, Op. 15
Suite Im Alten Stil: I. Preludio
Suite Im Alten Stil: II. Sarabande
Suite Im Alten Stil: III. Gavotte En Musette
Suite Im Alten Stil: IV. Aria
Suite Im Alten Stil: V. Rigaudon
Eine Kleine Suite Nach D. Scarlatti: I. Pastorale
Eine Kleine Suite Nach D. Scarlatti: II. Andante Doloroso
Eine Kleine Suite Nach D. Scarlatti: III. Presto
14 Variazioni Über Ein Thema Von W. A. Mozart, Op. 8
3 Stücke, Op. 17: I. Gesang Am Meeresstrand
3 Stücke, Op. 17: II. Nänie
3 Stücke, Op. 17: III. Bacchanal
Romance, Op. 4
Danze Napoletane, Op. 27, No. 1
Danze Napoletane, Op. 27, No. 2
Danze Piemontesi, No. 1
Danze Piemontesi, No. 2
Danze Piemontesi, No. 3
Danze Piemontesi, No. 4
Danze Piemontesi, No. 5
Danze Piemontesi, No. 6
Danze Piemontesi, No. 7
Danze Piemontesi, No. 8
Danze Piemontesi, No. 9

UPC: 5028421961606
Label: Brilliant Classics
Release Date: 10.16.20
Format: CD

Scalero / Gran Duo Italiano - Complete Music Violin & Piano (CD)