January 2, 2014

  • Patrick Gallois Surveys Early Mercadante Concerti

     

    Mercadante: Flute Concertos Nos. 1, 2, and 4
    Sinfonia Finlandia Jyvaskyla/Patrick Gallois, flute
    Naxos 8.572731
    Total Time:  57:344
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: (*)***/****

    With the shadow of orchestral music from Germany and Austria, most music lovers tend to forget that there was an equally long tradition from Italy that, though often overshadowed by the flourishing opera tradition, often includes a number of delightful works.  Saverio Mercadante (1795-1870) is one of these great Italian composers of the 19th Century whose work is overshadowed by that of Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini at the beginning of his life and Verdi’s toward the end of it.  He wrote some 60 operas admired by his contemporaries though less performed today.  His influence was also felt as the director of the Naples Conservatory from 1840 until his death.  Early in his career, he embarked on writing a series of concertos inspired by the students and virtuosi in Naples at the then Royal College of Music.  The studies there focused much on instrumental music, particularly influenced by French music and the result was often a series of instrumental concerts.

    Mercadante’s first concerto, which actually concludes this disc, was completed in 1813 for a fellow student, Pasquale Buongiorno, and is an interesting exploration of the flute, still itself developing at this time.  As with the other concerti, this early example has a strong virtuosic first movement, slightly darker central section and folk dance like final movement.  Here Gallois offers his own cadenza in the second movement.  Perhaps it may be that the other two slightly more assured works that precede this one on the release are really that much better than this initial effort.  The first movement does seem to be just a bit too long in general.  The same brilliant displays are all here.  The second movement moves into a bit more of that beautiful melodic writing against darker colors.  The orchestral writing though is less interesting in this work.

    The second concerto was completed in 1814 and is perhaps one of the better of the genre.  It features gorgeous bel canto style thematic ideas and a full orchestral sound that perhaps is closer to Mozart at times, but whose slow central movement feels a bit like Haydn and Beethoven.  The highlight of the work, and one of its more popular reasons for its being programmed by soloists, is the “Rondo russo”.  Here shifts between minor and major keys coupled with a touch of Romantic “exotic” flavor of the epic Northern empire make for an engaging finale with great dance like rhythms and exciting technical displays for the soloist.

    The fourth concerto serves as the centerpiece in this release.  It comes from this same student period with his studies under composer Nicola Zingarelli finding him further exploring the flute’s capabilities.  More assured orchestral writing can be discerned here as well.  The final movement again brings in an “exotic” dance flair and is marked “Polacca brillante.”

    Patrick Gallois gets a chance to show off his virtuoso skill in these nice little concerti, favorites of his own teacher Jean-Pierre Rampal whose recordings of the second concerto were my own introduction to the second concerto.  It sounds like here he is playing an instrument of the period without some of the richer sounds of the modern flute though this is not detrimental to the performance.  His virtuosity is simply breathtaking to hear in these performances.  The Finnish orchestra has a good chamber orchestra sound with strong wind playing and good full sound from the string section.  In some of the faster sections, it sometimes feels like the orchestra is a bit behind the soloist though not distractingly so.  The approach helps place these works firmly as late Classical period concertos with touches of the Romantic style that would begin to emerge in the 1820s and therein lies the appeal of hearing these light concerti.