Mascagni in concert

This disc focuses on works that Pietro Mascagni, a composer largely known for his operatic output, composed for the concert hall. It forms part of Chandos’ ongoing series devoted to Italian music, the music performed by Gianandrea Noseda and Filarmonica ’900 Teatro Regio Torino with the tenor Luciano Ganci. Mascagni devoted his early years to composing sacred works, two such pieces being featured here, the tuneful Padre nostro and Ave Maria, the latter adapted from the Intermezzo of his operatic masterpiece Cavalleria rusticana. Two other works were written for the orchestra in Cerignola, Puglia where Mascagni had founded the local Philharmonic Society: the symphonic Danza esotica and Mein erster Walzer which presents Mascagni’s unique take on the Viennese waltz. Mascagni himself described La gavotta delle bambole as a ‘charming little thing’ for which he had hopes of popular success. Soon after, he composed the incidental music to Hall Caine’s play The Eternal City, the Suite from which focuses on the love between the two protagonists. Two further works represent a much later period in Mascagni’s compositional life, the small-scale symphonic poem Visione lirica and L’apoteosi della cicogna, his last orchestral work.