Nino Rota - Trio for clarinet, cello & piano (1973)

28 décembre 2013 | Paris -   / 237369086429754  
Annelise Clément (clarinette), Dima Tsypkin (violoncelle) et Sergey Smirnov (piano)

Nino Rota - Trio for clarinet, cello & piano (1973)
Allegro
Andante
Allegrissimo

Rota (1911 - 1979), a leading composer of lyrical and neo-Romantic concert music in Italy, was nonetheless most widely known for producing a large catalogue of film scores. Partly American-educated, he wrote for both American and Italian films: his most famous cinematic association, however, was that with Federico Fellini, who relied on Rota to score nearly every film he ever directed.
The Trio's opening "Allegro" is in waltz tempo throughout. Though the cello and clarinet predominate in the melodic role for the first part of the movement, the piano soon asserts its presence with a dreamy cadenza; the music then becomes a virtual homage to Johann Strauss II.
The central movement is richly melodic, with an operatic flavor colored by Rota's quirky, personal harmonic style. The clarinet and cello again take the main role--portraying operatic lovers, perhaps--while the piano accompanies them in an orchestral vein.
Cinema fans may sense in the final movement a strong association with Rota's film music. The humor of the composer's writing in the "Allegrissimo" recalls, perhaps, one of the many circus-like, off-kilter scenes so characteristic of Fellini's films.