ZANELLA, Amilcare Castore (1873-1949) - Piano music

Obra d'Arthur Bowen Davies (1862-1928), pintor nord-americà (1)

- Recordatori d'Amilcare Castore Zanella -

En el dia de la celebració del seu 142è aniversari de naixement

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Parlem de Pintura...

Arthur Bowen Davies (Utica, 26 de setembre de 1862 - Florència, 24 d'octubre de 1928) va ser un pintor, gravador i dissenyador de tapissos americà. Va ser conegut per les seves obres idíl·liques i fantàstiques pintades en un estil romàntic i, sobretot, per ser el pioner en introduir, a l'Amèrica de principis del segle XX, els estils de la pintura moderna europea. Va estudiar a Utica, Nova York i Chicago. En els seus inicis va pintar paisatges a la manera romàntica com en la seva obra 'Along the Erie Canal' (1890), però després del 1900 va començar a crear un estil propi i característic que va plasmar en una sèrie de pintures sobre escenes idíl·liques protagonitzades per elegants figures nues i criatures mitològiques amb fons de paisatges purament romàntics, com per exemple 'Crescendo' (1910). El 1908, Davies va organitzar una exposició d'artistes, que van arribar a ser coneguts com Els Vuit o com Ashcan School. Com a president de la Societat d'Artistes Independents, Davies va ser una figura fonamental en l'organització de l'Armory Show de 1913, que va portar els treballs dels modernistes europeus i americans al públic nord-americà. Ell mateix va adoptar un estil cubista modificat i va pintar composicions geomètriques durant alguns anys. Durant l'última dècada de la seva carrera va tornar al seu estil representatiu i va dedicar gran part del seu temps a l'aiguafort i a la litografia en color. Va morir a Florència l'octubre de 1928.

Font: En català: No disponible - En castellano: Arthur Bowen Davies (1862-1928) - In english: Arthur Bowen Davies (1862-1928) - Altres: Arthur Bowen Davies (1862-1928)

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Parlem de Música...

Amilcare Castore Zanella (Monticelli d’Ongina, 26 de setembre de 1873 - Pesaro, 9 de gener de 1949) va ser un pianista, director i compositor italià. Va estudiar amb Bottesini i altres mestres al Conservatori de Parma. El 1890 va assolir el càrrec de director de l'orquestra del Teatro Regio de Parma. Entre els anys 1893 i 1900 va viatjar a Sud Amèrica com a substitut de direcció de la companyia d'òpera Marino Mancinelli. Posteriorment va iniciar una carrera com a intèrpret de piano i compositor, escrivint en tots els gèneres possibles, des d'òperes i un rèquiem fins a simfonies, concerts i nombrosa música de cambra. Va dirigir el Conservatori de Parma entre els anys 1903 i 1905 i després el Liceo Musicale de Pesaro entre els anys 1905 i 1940. Va morir precisament en aquesta ciutat el gener de 1949.

OBRA:

(selective list)

Vocal secular:

Stage:
Aura (op, Haydée [I. Finzi], Pesaro, Rossini, 27 Aug 1910;
La sulamita (op, 3, A. Lega, after Bible: Song of Solomon), Piacenza, Municiple, 11 Feb 1926;
Il revisore (Il trappolone) (op, Lega, after N.V. Gogol: The Inspector General), 1938, Trieste, Verdi, 20 Feb 1940;
4 other ops, ballet, all unperf., some apparently never orchd

Vocal-orch:
Panteismo, op.53 (G. Carducci), T, orch, ?1908;
I due fanciulli, op.75 (G. Pascoli), chorus, str, pf, org, 1918;
Il racconto del figlio, 1v, orch, 1927;
L’infinito (G. Leopardi), T, chorus, orch, 1929;
Alla Madonna della neve (M. di Savoia), 1v, chorus, pf, org, orch, 1930;
Rapsodia dei canti di trincea, male chorus, orch, 1932;
Felix mater, chorus, orch, 1934;
other pieces

Other works:
choral pieces, most of them unacc. or with pf [incl. Canone enigmatico cancherizzato, scorbutico e antivocale, 4vv];
songs;
band pieces;
arrs. of Rossini and others

Vocal religiosa:

Messa di Requiem, op.63, 3 male vv, org, 1915;
De profundis, unison vv, str qt, org, hp (1950);
other pieces

Instrumental:

Orch:
Conc. sinfonico, pf, orch, 1897–8;
Fede, sym. poem, 1901;
Sym. no.1, e, op.24, 1901;
Fantasia e grande fugato sinfonico, op.25, pf, orch, 1902;
Vita, sym. poem, 1907; 2 pezzi, op.58:
Lacrymae rerum, Umoresca [arr. from pf pieces], also arr. hp, str; Fantasia sinfonica, 1918;
Sym. no.2 (Sinfonia fantastica), A, op.76, 1919;
Edgar Poe, sym. impression, ?1921;
Poemetto, vn, orch, 1922;
Elegia e momento frenetico, keyed xyl, str, 1923;
smaller pieces

Chbr:
Pf Trio no.1, e, op.23, 1899;
Brass Qt, op.30, 3 tpt, trbn;
Nonet, op.45, fl, ob, cl, bn, pf qt, db, 1906;
Str Qt no.1, A, op.62, 1918;
Pf Qnt, op.64, 1917;
Sonata, f , op.71, vn, pf, 1917;
Sonata, A, op.72, vc, pf, 1917;
Str Qt no.2, d, 1924;
Pf Trio no.2, g, 1928;
Preludio drammatico e danza dei fiori, db, pf, 1928;
Intermezzi per il Macbeth di Shakespeare, op.94, pf qt, db, also orchd;
smaller pieces, some with unconventional scoring (3 hps; 2 fl, 2 hps, hpd; 6 vc; etc.)

Pf:
Sonata drammatica, op.5, 1890;
Il passero solitario, 1898;
L’arte del fare il nuovo: pezzi stupidi e nuovi, ?c1902 [incl. Danza senile di un fanciullo precocemente invecchiato, Lotta tumultuosa fra l’acido solforico e il marmo, Passeggiata di un pazzo nel giardino del manicomio];
2 studi (amaritmiche), op.44 (1906);
2 leggende, op.47 (1912);
Introduzione e fuga a 2 soggetti, op.67, 1915–16;
Lacrymae rerum, Umoresca, op.58, 1915–16, orchd;
Sonata, e , op.70, 1917;
Poema fantastico, op.90 (1937);
Jota da concerto, op.91 (1938);
Rondò-jazz da concerto, op.92 (1939);
c30 other works

Font: En català: Amilcare Zanella (1873-1949) - En castellano: No disponible - In english: No disponible - Altres: Amilcare Zanella (1873-1949)

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Parlem en veu pròpia o en veu d'altri...

Some of Zanella’s earlier pieces were considered adventurous in their day, especially in their rhythmic freedom: the intriguing Due studi op.44 dispense entirely with bar-lines, as do the opening and closing sections of the evocative, Leopardi-inspired Il passero solitario. Moreover his unpublished compositions of the period include some (mostly piano pieces gathered under the general title L’arte del fare il nuovo and described as ‘composizioni burlesche, avveniristiche’) which were deliberately freakish, with nonsense titles paralleling those of Satie. Later he became, on the whole, more staid and conformist – overproductive and often lapsing into a rather prolix academicism, out of touch with contemporary trends. Even the would-be-modish Rondò-jazz da concerto shows no understanding whatever of jazz idioms. Only three of his operas ever reached the stage. Aura and La sulamita suffer from unconvincing librettos, and the music of the latter especially lacks dramatic tension. Only in Il revisore, which won albeit ephemeral success in both Germany and Italy, did Zanella create something with real theatrical vitality, showing clear signs of the bizarre sense of humour that had been evident in the early piano pieces.

GROVE MUSIC ONLINE (source/font: aquí)

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The music of Zanella heard on this recording is the living testimony of a high cultural legacy, of which we have long been defrauded by the prevarications of a petit bourgeois intellectual nearsightedness imprisoned within the outrageous idea (expressed in the pronouncements of Casella) that “Romanticism (or, to be more precise, its last period which marked its decline, from 1870 to 1914) is by now a dead letter for the creative spirit of the world (this fact is visible to the naked eye in every corner of the thinking universe)”. For the crime of Romanticism was allegedly that of having propagandized the idea of art, as “a divine gift, that is to say, art which is not learned but rather received at birth from who knows where”, as opposed to art as a craft. “So was it understood by the greats of the Renaissance. And it was only because Romanticism misunderstood this sacrosanct truth that it was responsible for having gradually produced all those artists who were perhaps well provided with the divine gift but royally deficient in technique and all too ignorant of their trade. ”Yet the reality was in fact something else altogether. In order to understand the extent to which Romanticism as a high expression of bourgeois culture had always been alien to the idea of the unconscious artist whose masterpiece (again according to Casella) “descends one fine day upon his long-haired head, raised ecstatically toward the ceiling of his poor and untidy room”, one need only glance at the compositional styles of a romantic writer par excellence such as Chopin.

TACTUS (source/font: aquí)

Gaudiu i compartiu! 

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Informació addicional... 

INTÈRPRETS: Marco Alpi (piano)
TACTUS: ZANELLA, A.C. - Piano Music

IMSLP: Amilcare Zanella (1873-1949)

CPDL: No disponible

SPOTIFY: ZANELLA, A.C. - Piano Music

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