Petrassi - Primo Concerto

A couple of years ago my friend HK demoed a snippet from one of Goffredo Petrassi's Concerti per Orchestra. It took a long while to follow up on his suggestion but now I'm happy to have the full set of 8 Concerti on a double CD issued by the Stradivarius label. The Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra is conducted by the redoubtable Arturo Tamayo - for whom I have great respect since his traversal of Xenakis' complete symphonic oeuvre on the Timpani label.

Petrassi's Primo Concerto makes for a very promising start. It's a very muscular three movement work - Allegro, Adagio, Tempo di Marcia - lasting just over 23 minutes. Rhythmically and harmonically it has Hindemith written all over it, but then it's a more sanguine and athletic version of the original. Not surprisingly, one is also reminded of the Walton of the First Symphony, as well as of the 'angry' Vaughan Williams of the Fourth and Sixth symphonies. So, it's the kind of taut, epic and rather abstract symphonic music that goes down extremely well with me.

Again, it's rather amazing how this body of work is able to lead such a peripheral existence. Likely, Petrassi has a big reputation in Italy but beyond its borders he must be very little known. His discography is very spotty, with some of his alleged masterpieces - Coro di Morti, Noche Oscura, the operas - unavailable. Chailly, for example, recorded the complete Varese and the Hindemith Kammermusiken, so why didn't he go on and recorded the Petrassi Concerti? Anyway, let's see where this leads us. The Secondo Concerto follows 17 years after the first so we may be in for a very different experience.