BY Hous

di

Beet Ra

a a a

i i.

esas

’

Hr ti i. (GE i ’

i

fe

E ieaunas

et

mae

‘0° CAL-539 EZIO PINZA SINGS ITALIAN SONGS with Fritz Kitzinger at the Piano

SIDE 1 to a considerable amount of sacred music of other varie- (c. 1780) antedated Rossini’s famous opera by the same Sarti LUNGI DAL CARO BENE (Far from My Love | Languish) Arr.: Bruno ties; his cantatas are numbered by Dent up to 600; and name by more than three decades. Rossini was roundly Huhn the prodigious quantity of instrumental music which he damned as a kind of musical street-gamin irreverently Buononcini PUPILLE NERE (Love Lends to Battle) left behind includes twelve symphonies (concerti) for hurling stones at the statue of a saint for his audacity in A. Scarlatti CHI VUOLE INNAMORARSI—Canzonetta (The Man Who Would Turn Lover) Trans.: P. Floridia small orchestra. He is the father of Domenico Scarlatti. presenting an opera upon a subject which the venerated Legrenzi CHE FIERO COSTUME—Arietta (What Strange Whim Pursuing) The Chi vuole innamorarsi is a lovely canzonetta in Paisiello had already treated so brilliantly. (from “Eteocle and Polinice’’) Trans.: P. Floridia which the man who would turn lover is advised to consider Paisiello’s Nel cor più non mi sento (No more my Giordani CARO MIO BEN—Arietta (My Dear One) the matter carefully, for “it is not an easy matter to have heart is fervent with youth, though I feel the torments of Falconieri 0 BELLISSIMI CAPELLI—Villanella (Oh What Loveliness) Trans.: a wounded heart.” 4 love) is from his opera La Molinara which he composed P. Floridia Giovanni Legrenzi (1626-1690) is particularly famous after his return to Naples in 1784. SIDE 2 for his operas (18 in all) which constituted a step for- , Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) occupies a position Torelli TU LO SAI—-Arietta (Too Well You Know) Trans.: P. Floridia ward over the methods of his predecessors. His best known of singular importance in the development of the art Paisiello NEL COR PIÙ NON MI SENTO (In My Heart, No More | Feel) operas are Achille in Sciro, La divisione del mondo, I due of music. He is responsible for the enlargement of the (from “La Molinara’’) Cesari, and his last opera Pertinace. Legrenzi’s music was resources of the orchestra (he was, for example, the Monteverdi OBLIVION SOAVE (Sweet Oblivion) (from “L’Incoronazione di Poppea”) Trans.: Giocomo Benvenuti known and admired by both Bach and Handel. Bach used first to make effective use of the string tremolo as an Cavalli DONZELLE, FUGGITE—Canzone (Oh, Hasten, Ye Maidens) Trans.: one of his melodies as the basis of an organ fugue in accompaniment to vocal music). In his operas, his use P. Floridia C minor. Handel used a portion of Legrenzi’s motet [ntret of the recitative as a vehicle for dramatic expression Monteverdi LASCIATEMI MORIRE (Let Death Now Come) (from “Arianna”) in conspeciu in his Samson. constituted a great step beyond the early efforts of the Trans.: P. Floridia The Che fiero costume is taken from Legrenzi’s opera “stile rappresentativo.” Handel ALMA MIA—Arietta (from ‘“Floridante”) Freely trans.: Feliz Gunther Eteocle and Polinice. Its text in part follows. What strange Oblivion soave is from one of his last major works, whim pursuing, when for our undoing Blind Cupid thro’ the opera L’Incoronazione di Poppea, first performed in Giuseppe Sarti (1729-1802), known as Il Domenichino, torments our love doth compel. 1642. was one of the most famous composers of his period. He Giuseppe Giordani (c. 1744-1798), famous as a teacher The Lasciatemi morire (Let me die; for who can com- served as director of the Italian opera at Copenhagen, and as a composer, has to his credit a considerable amount fort me in such misfortune) is the famous lament which later attained the position of maestro di cappella at the of vocal and instrumental music. Of the vast amount of is the sole surviving fragment of the opera Arianna com- Milan Cathedral as the reward for his victory in a com- vocal music which Giordani composed only the Caro mio posed in 1608. The libretto was supplied by one of the petition over the leading musicians of Italy, and subse- ben is still sung with any degree of frequency. The text finest dramatic poets of the period, Ottavio Rinuccini. The quently worked in St. Petersburg where he raised the of the song concerns the protestations of a lover who vows Lasciatemi morire was later reworked by Monteverdi as Italian opera to an hitherto unparalleled state of excellence. to remain faithful in the absence of his beloved. a five-part madrigal and included by him in his sixth The Lungi dal caro bene (Far from my love I languish) Andrea Falconieri, seventeenth century lutenist and book of madrigals (1614). is a lovely example of his style. composer, was born in Naples toward the close of the six- Francesco Cavalli (Francesco Caletti-Bruni) (1602- G. F. Handel (1685-1759) and G. B. Buononcini (c. 1672- teenth century or the opening of the seventeenth, and died 1676) was a pupil of Monteverdi. His dramatic works c. 1750) were for a period rivals for the favor of the there approximately 1656. His first book of Villanelle for (forty-one operas) constitute a notable advance over the London public. Handel had been engaged for some time one, two and three voices appeared in Rome in 1616. methods of his master. Aside from his operas (the most in an attempt to establish Italian opera in London. His One of his most important productions was his first book famous of which are Giasone, Serse, Ercole amante), efforts met with a success sufficient to excite the envy of Canzone, Sinfonie, Fantasie, Capricci for various in- Cavalli is the composer of much church musie of con- of Buononcini who had come by invitation to London strumental ensembles published in Naples in 1650. siderable value; in particular, a Requiem of great beauty. to try his luck in the same field. The controversy which O bellissimi capelli (O locks so beautiful, my sweetest The Donzelle, fuggite is a simple and charming song. arose over the relative merits of the rival composers delight) is a villanella, one of the lighter forms of musical Its text we may paraphrase briefly as follows: Hasten ye encompassed the whole of musical London, both the composition which enjoyed considerable popularity dur- maidens to fly from beauty; beware of its arrows for they public and the performers, and continued year in and ing that period. Both the lyrics and the musical settings come laden with sorrow. year out with little sign of abatement. It is worth knowing were popular in character and loose in principles of formal Ezio Pinza, unquestionably one of the greatest bassos that Handel finally won out not only through the superi- construction. of modern times, was born in Rome, May 18, 1892, the ority of his operas (which the London public was not Giuseppe Torelli (c. 1658-1708) was a composer prin- seventh son of a carpenter. Before entering on his vocal always quick to appreciate), but also through the fact cipally of instrumental music. His importance in music career, Pinza had been a professional bicycle racer and that Buononcini resorted to a plagiarism which was history is considerable for he was among the first to an artillery captain in World War I. He made his singing publicly exposed. compose concertos for violin, and was one of the first debut at Milan’s famous La Scala and was first heard by Pupille nere is, notwithstanding, one of Buononcini’s composers to direct his attention to the concerto grosso. American audiences during the 1926-27 season of the finer compositions. The melody of the aria Tu lo sai has been taken from Metropolitan, of which he subsequently became a main- The Handel Alma mia from his opera Floridante was the collection of old Italian songs edited by Albert Fuchs stay. In 1949, Pinza forsook the operatic stage to create composed in 1721 at the beginning of his rivalry with and published by Litolff, with the following dates under the role of Emile de Becque in Rodgers and Hammer- Buononcini. the name of the composer: Giuseppe Torelli (1650-1703). stein’s “South Pacific.” His unparalleled success in both Alessandro Scarlatti (1659-1725) is known as the The text may be paraphrased as follows: Well do you musical milieus is an undeniable tribute to both his flaw- founder of the Neopolitan school in music. His work know the love you owe to me. I do not beg for other less musicianship and enormous personal magnetism. exerted a direct influence upon subsequent operatic com- favors, but only that you remember me. © by Radio Corporation of America, 1959 posers, particularly his use of the da capo aria which was Giovanni Paisiello (1740-1816) was one of the most ® RCA widely imitated. He composed no less than 115 operas; prolific opera composers of all time, for there are about AMDEN he is said to have written over 200 masses in addition 100 operas to his credit. His Il Barbiere di Siviglia A PRODUCT OF RADIO CORPORATION OF AMERICA