MARIO CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO – Shakespeare Overtures 2: As You Like It; The Merchant of Venice; Much Ado about Nothing ; King John; The Winter’s Tale – Joel Maragnella, solo oboe /Jay Harrison, solo cor anglais/ Ashley Arbuckle, solo violin/ Michael Goldschlager, solo cello/ West Australian Symphony Orchestra/Andrew Penny – Naxos 8.572501, 59:12 ****:
This is the second disc of overtures based on Shakespeare plays by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968), an Italian composer who studied with Pizzetti and Casella. He left Italy in 1938, when promised refuge from Mussolini’s anti-Jewish edicts by Toscanini and Heifetz. Toscanini conducted many of his works and Heifetz commissioned a violin concerto from Castelnuovo-Tedesco. He settled in Los Angeles and wrote film music between 1940 and 1956. His pupils included Henry Mancini, Nelson Riddle, Andre Previn, and John Williams. The composer wrote a wide variety of works that include operas, ballets, choral pieces, concertos, and of course, film scores.
The compositions on this disc are representative of film scores, and you can hear the influences of Korngold (without the fecundity of melodies), Mahler, and Bernard Hermann, among others. However, Castelnuovo-Tedesco spun plenty of gorgeous tunes bathed in the large flamboyant tonal orchestrations that film composers of the era used. His love of Shakespeare resulted in short (none more than 15 minutes) overtures that are impressions of specific aspects of the drama, rather than musical representation of plot details. For example, the overture As You Like It starts with jaunty resemblances of pipers and dancers, continues with a funeral march from Claudio’s invocation in Act V, Scene 3, “Now music, sound and sing your solemn hymn.” Music that brings to mind the love duet between Beatrice and Benedict follows. These Shakespearean musical representations use a wide variety of instrumentations that are often thrilling and consistently beautiful. The performances are musically proficient and the sound is excellent though not of the highest audiophile standards. If you like the movie scores of Korngold, Rosza and the great Hollywood composers of the 1940s and 1950s, you will love this disc.
— Robert Moon
