Suite nello stile italiano by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco

Review by: James Ringo

Notes, Second Series, Vol. 14, No. 3 (Jun., 1957), p. 445
Published by: Music Library Association
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there might well be a mass exodus from
pursuits musical toward the humbler
pleasures of the nearest local Bocci-ball
court. We must be grateful for many
things, and the beautifully-spaced, well-
aerated Ricordi format still gives one of
their pages an eye-appeal unmatched by
any other contemporary music publisher.
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Suite
nello stile italiano. New York: G.
Ricordi, 1955. [35 p., $1.75]
Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Suite nello Stile
Italiano, Op. 138, is a thoroughly pleasant
work of ample proportions, couched in a
familiar, expertly-handled international
style-two parts Pizzetti, one part pre-
Schoenberg Vienna. The work is in four
movements: Preludio (divided in two sec-
tions-a Ricercare and Mascherata),
Gagliarda,
Siciliana, and Tarantella.
Compared with Pizzetti's rather academic
neo-Brahmsian products, to which the
author of this suite owes no small debt,
Castelnuovo-Tedesco's music seems to
this listener considerably fresher and
more graceful. Whereas Pizzetti is often
sententious and rhetorical, Castelnuovo.-
Tedesco sings freely and without self.
consciousness. He is a lyrical personality,
primarily, and the grandiose gestures of
drama and inner turmoil seldom tempt
him. The piano writing is accomplished
and idiomatic.
Ricardo Castillo: Eight Preludes for
Piano Solo.
Philadelphia: Henri
Elkan, 1957. [11 p., $1.60]
Ricardo Castillo's Preludes, listed as
homages to Debussy, Ravel, Moussorgsky,
Stravinsky, and Messiaen, remind this re-
viewer of Mompou. As such, they are
delicate and a little remote-like looking
at scenes of great activity through the
wrong end of a telescope.
Six Modern Cuban
Composers:
Harold
Gramxatges, Argeliers Leon,
Hilario Gonzalez, Edgardo Martin,
Nilo Rodriguez, Jose Ardevol. Piano
Solo.
Philadelphia:
Elkan-Vogel,
1955. [28 p., $2.00]
The collection, Six Modern Cuban
Composers, is considerably more reward-
ing than Ricordi's Italian counterpart.
The melodic material offers greater
promise and, though filled with rhythmic
patterns that seem to have found their
ultimate expression in Milhaud's Saudades
do Brasil, the best of these Cuban pieces
should occasionally turn up at the recital
hall.
Erno von Dohnainyi: Three Singular
Pieces, Op. 44. Tre pezzi singolari.
For piano. New York:
Associated,
1954. [21 p., $2.00]
The stimulating thing about Dohnanyi's
Tre Pezzi Singolari is the composer's
ability to introduce new elements into
his well-established style without doing
violence to either that style or the bor-
rowed material. These witty and excel-
lent pieces employ noticeable character-
istics of both Kodaily and Bart6k. The
results, since they sound like neither of
these composers but like an extension of
Dohninyi's own well-known style, speak
well for this wholly creative type of as-
similation. The titles of the individual
pieces are Butrletta, Nocturne-Cats on
the
Roof,
and Perpetuum Mobile.
JAMES RINGO
Stefan Wolpe: Early Piece for
Piano,
1924. New York: McGinnis & Max,
1955. [10 p., $1.50]
Stefan
Wolpe: Two Studies for
Piano. Part two. New York: McGin-
nis & Marx, 1955. [7 p., $1.00]
It is a pleasure to see more of Stefan
Wolpe's compositions published; Mc-
Ginnis and Marx are to be complimented
on their foresight. Wolpe is often dis-
cussed but little of his powerful and
deeply original music has been published
up to the present. Although these two
piano pieces are in a sense minor works,
compared to his large-scale imaginative
creations of the last few years, they do
give some key to this important writer.
The Early Piece for Piano (1924) is a
mildly modern work with a strong roman-
ficism.
Essentially two-part in texture,
it is not too
difficult, but calls for elas-
ticity from the performer. It does have,
as in his later music, a free, prose-like
structure and an
improvisatory character.
Two Studies for Piano (1948) is also
two-part in texture but shows clearly
Wolpe's distinctive harmonic sound,
eruptive force, and use of the full key-
board. This composition will be of inter-
445
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