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Works for cello and piano (1921 - 1943)
Works for cello and piano (1921 - 1943)
Artist: Vito Paternoster
Genre:
Music for cello
Category:
XX Cent.
Composer:
E. Mainardi
Supported languages: English , Italiano
Extended description:
A conversation with Giovanni Torlontano and Vito Paternoster
Enrico Mainardi is nearly unknown to the great public of today: what reason induced you to record his music?
G.T.: It is a few years that we dedicated, individually or in duo, to the music of Italian great composers of the "historical twentieth-century" and, after the tribute to Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (the first recording of complete works for piano and cello), we feel obliged to honour Mainardi. He is a well-known composer for violoncellists: in fact he was an acclaimed virtuoso of the cello as well as a good teacher in Italy at the Accademia of S. Cecilia and in Germany at the Hochschule für Musik of Berlin. Perhaps his activity of composer was partly obscured by his good name as violoncellist and teacher.
V.P.: I would like to add that today Mainardi is almost unknown to the great public, but up to twenty years ago he was considered one of the greatest violoncellists of the world and an original and complete artist. My teacher Amedeo Baldovino encouraged me to rediscover Mainardi's works because he was one of Mainardi's students and they were linked by a really close friendship. Their relationship was based on a very sophisticated instrumental and musical research, which was very attentive to the new tendencies and characterised by a great respect and investigation of the original score ignoring stereotyped forms.
Have you had any problems in finding musical scores?
V.P.: No, we haven't, the majority of Mainardi's music is published even if out of print. Fortunately we've found the scores in libraries.
G.T.: I find it's unacceptable that today Enrico Mainardi's compositions are out of print and not available for a larger number of performers.
What selection method have you followed for the production of your CD about Mainardi?
V.P: We've selected those pieces for cello and piano which were more congenial to us and conveyed the idea of his artistic forming between two wars.
G.T: To tell the truth, the starting project was to record the whole Mainardi's collection for cello and piano but the large number of scores and the small recording space of a CD obliged us to make a choice.
Does Mainardi's music present technical or interpretative problems?
V.P.: The main problem is Mainardi's audacious way of composing for cello; he was a virtuoso of this instrument and obviously he wrote his compositions exclusively for himself. Nevertheless, I come from his school where I learned a particular way of fingering and considering the use of the bow so these difficulties were familiar for me.
I would like to ask you: do you think that his music could directly communicate with the public without having particular difficulties at first hearing?
V.P.: This music never gives up ihe idea of having an immediate communicativeness even if Mainardi appreciated modern cultural circles (we can't forget that he was a friend of Hindemith and frequented the Bauhaus).
G.T.: What's more, nothing is an end in itself and the whole composition appears extremely fluent and enjoyable.
Is Mainardi modern or traditionalist? Which are the aspect of modernity and those more conservative in his production?
V.P.: He was modern because he was one of the first who left Romanticism. In this recording we can observe how in the course of the years his language was changing and leaving jBagnerian romanticism for impressionism, mechanistic music, dodecaphony. But, as a matter of fact, at a certain point his modernity ends. Perhaps the velocity of linguistic musical transformation of the twentieth century, even if roused his interest, becomes excessive for his artistic personality. Was he a victim of himself?
G.T.: Mainardi can be considered a conservative because he makes use of classical forms like suite, sonata, novelette etc. although his compositions show an inner stylistic evolution which will lead to serial poetics. The cello is played with great modernity, Vito can explain us that.
V.P.: Mainardi's sonority and virtuosity appear through each single note of the score for cello.
What is the role of rhetoric (considered in its nobler sense) in Mainardi's production?
G.T.: Even though he makes use of classical forms, these ones include new musical arguments, which are supported with passion and modernity.
V.P.: For certain a great part of Mainardi's early production is occupied by rhetoric, he was also linked to the sonorous detailed descriptive style but at the same time he experimented with cold geometric linguistic solutions. He was essentially a curious musician and he liked to evaluate different styles.
How much Italian or international spirit is possible to find in Mainardi's music?
G.T.: What's more, nothing is an end in itself and the whole composition appears extremely fluent and enjoyable.
Is Mainardi modern or traditionalist? Which are the aspect of modernity and those more conservative in his production?
V.P.: He was modern because he was one of the first who left Romanticism. In this recording we can observe how in the course of the years his language was changing and leaving jBagnerian romanticism for impressionism, mechanistic music, dodecaphony. But, as a matter of fact, at a certain point his modernity ends. Perhaps the velocity of linguistic musical transformation of the twentieth century, even if roused his interest, becomes excessive for his artistic personality. Was he a victim of himself?
G.T.: Mainardi can be considered a conservative because he makes use of classical forms like suite, sonata, novelette etc. although his compositions show an inner stylistic evolution which will lead to serial poetics. The cello is played with great modernity, Vito can explain us that.
V.P.: Mainardi's sonority and virtuosity appear through each single note of the score for cello.
What is the role of rhetoric (considered in its nobler sense) in Mainardi's production?
G.T.: Even though he makes use of classical forms, these ones include new musical arguments, which are supported with passion and modernity.
V.P.: For certain a great part of Mainardi's early production is occupied by rhetoric, he was also linked to the sonorous detailed descriptive style but at the same time he experimented with cold geometric linguistic solutions. He was essentially a curious musician and he liked to evaluate different styles.
How much Italian or international spirit is possible to find in Mainardi's music?
G.T.: The whole early production, that one of this CD, which was produced during the Fascist twenty-year period, is rich of traditions and Italian feelings. Mainardi's musical contents were displayed through a totally new language of the cello. This language was free from academic tradition of former times and rich in creativity and tricks that make him an international composer.
V.P.: I think that the incapability of setting free from our wide cantabite is typical of Italians, in Mainardi's works there is at the same time an international influence from German culture. When he taught and lived in Berlin (Mussolini introduced him as the most important Italian musician personally) he fully absorbed this atmosphere. German period left indelible traces in
his personality.
Do you think that Mainardi was firm in his purpose, during his productive course, or sometimes changed his mind?
V.P.: There isn't continuity except for his talent.
What is Mainardi's place in the survey of the history of music?
V.P.: He is one of the last musicians who, besides being composers, have an absolute control of their instrument, and they lead the instrumental potentiality to the top of expenmentalism, before the abyss of the "after sound".
Today, 26 years after his death in 1976, his compositions are a conspicuous Inheritance for us together with his legendary instrumental school which formed many great cellists. The great part of his compositions are dedicated to the cello which succeeded in mediating his two artistic souls and blending them in a unique rich and creative spirit.
The second piece, taken from Due canzoni a ritmo di danza (1921), is a popular one composed in a lively ternary rhythm. The dancing atmosphere is suggested by a game of double strings, of "pizzicati" and strokes of bow. This atmosphere is also present in the score for piano which shows a flowing alternation of the hands on the keyboard that reminds us of a dance choreography. In the middle of this piece a sweet melody rises from a pentatonic scale and then goes back to tonal chords. Suddenly this tonality breaks up into unexpected change of chords or indefinite and changeable consonances, so the melody appears intense and longing. The dissonance isn't a structural element but serves to give tonal colour to the chords while the structure of the piece is traditionally tonal: at the same time the piano introduction is a long chromatic wandering stretched to the cadenza, there in G minor. The melody goes round itself and then passes from a tonality to another one. There is the presence of a deep rhetoric style of Italian origin: the disintegration of the theme is oriented to communication: repetitio and memory, memory and change, change and return. The structure of these two canzoni is ABA. This pattern gives to the pieces variety, avoids banality and confirms the oratorical tendency again.
Mainardi's style and aesthetic are still present in this first work and they will influence the whole following production for cello and piano before the second world war, which is totally represented in this collection.
We can find in the piece Notturno (1922) the ternary rhythm again: A is repeated on a pedal in D flat which makes it cleat to us that this composition has a function of relaxing landing place. The tonality blends with an enigmatic modality making use of "forbidden" parallelism of fifths in the-score for piano which represents the ancient sense of harmonic progression very well. The change of register in the score for cello gives various lyric shapes to the melody: introspection in the low register and sorrowful communicativeness in the high one.
The Novelletta is a twin composition partly because written in the same year. The same
'features of Notturno recur in Novelletta with renewed intensity. There is a great use of rhetoric figurativeness which is different from Debussy's or Ravel's one but remote and improbable at the same time. The harmonic structure of the exposition and the recapitulation are rather immediate and clear, the central development is attractive because of its irregular harmony which is charming and frightening. The repeat is coveted, a long-desired return to a reassuring deja ecoute. The Ballata e Serenata of 1925 is composed in Mainardi's style: ternary rhythm with recapitulation. The whole Mainardi's poetic is based on ternary rhythm, recapitulation and eloquence. In the first Ballata the eloquence consists of a repeated fragmentation of the phrasing. The melody slowly advances and it often recurs on itself, it .seems to be afraid of becoming.
Nevertheless each repetition is a melodic variation with the use of interpolation, melodic elision or progression. The development draws on this idea of repetition and creates many melodic moments, the harmony is rich and the piano score is intense and vigorous. The following Serenata shows a well-constructed, rhythmic and nervous structure, it is '•composed in tripartite rhythm and the piece is made up of a succession of different rhythmic episodes which form a set of contrasting but, at the same time, consequent images. The lively character of the virtuoso reappears with a delightful dialogue among the instruments. This is the main feature of Mainardi's rhythmic moments. The proportions grow in Rapsodia italiana (1928). The ternary rhythm appears in the opening Adagio, which presents a phraseological structure like the Ballata. The following lively Allegro is a real Neapolitan tarantella with ternary rhythm and the typical chromatic progression on exceeding intervals. In this piece we can find, at the same time, a deep will of interpretation on these particular features: exasperation of percussions, delicacy of a speed melody of the piano over ineffable harmonic chords of the cello and the entry of expressive and improvised melodies which interrupt the rhythmic dance gait that starts in the seriousness of the deep register of both instruments again, like a macabre dance. Mainardi recognizes tarantella's historical semantic value and in the final climax of that piece he seems to recover a few typical consonances of Liszt's tarantella, which is composed in G too.
We could make a comparison between Mainardi's style and Malipiero's poetic: the Suite of 1940 is an example. Mainardi arrives at the top of his creative originality with this piece: he recovers ancient forms. Preludio's melody advances with a great melodic and rhythmic freedom which ends with a final chord in G major that restores order. The following Allegro is apparently more formal but the lively dance favours a rhythmic improvised game among instruments: a playful and sonorous attitude which contains expressive ability rich and original creativity. We can find the same approach in the final rhythmic Giga. The Aria, between Allegro and Giga, presents an original character: many melodic embedded themes which are placed on, interrupted then recovered again; a language of the soul far from the stereotype of baroque dance. The Intermezzo, composed after three years, is a free interlacing of melodies and sonorous expressions of piano and cello, we can discover there a pure improvised game, exchange of accents among the instruments when the Adagio gives way to the Andantino. Mainardi's musical language is changing and a real war arriving: simple game or involving melody which is mark of an acerbic soul?
V.P.: I think that the incapability of setting free from our wide cantabite is typical of Italians, in Mainardi's works there is at the same time an international influence from German culture. When he taught and lived in Berlin (Mussolini introduced him as the most important Italian musician personally) he fully absorbed this atmosphere. German period left indelible traces in
his personality.
Do you think that Mainardi was firm in his purpose, during his productive course, or sometimes changed his mind?
V.P.: There isn't continuity except for his talent.
What is Mainardi's place in the survey of the history of music?
V.P.: He is one of the last musicians who, besides being composers, have an absolute control of their instrument, and they lead the instrumental potentiality to the top of expenmentalism, before the abyss of the "after sound".
The evolution of a poetic talent
Enrico Mainardi was born in 1897 in Milan. His early childhood, towards the end of the century, was influenced by the last years of the nineteenth century which left a clear and limpid mark on his artistic personality. During his childhood he began the study of the cello in Milan and then in Berlin with Hugo Becker. His studies went on parallel to a brilliant concert career, started when he was thirteen. He won .international fame of virtuoso and good teacher (he was a teacher in the Academy of S.Cecilia in Rome, Berlin, Salzburg, Lucerne, Edinburgh, Helsinki, Stockholm and Bonn) but he was, above all, a great composer (he studied with Giacomo Orefice in the conservatory of Milan) and he revealed an original and dynamic musical inspiration sensitive to contemporary aesthetics and languages from Italy and France (he wasn't enthusiastic about German serialism).Today, 26 years after his death in 1976, his compositions are a conspicuous Inheritance for us together with his legendary instrumental school which formed many great cellists. The great part of his compositions are dedicated to the cello which succeeded in mediating his two artistic souls and blending them in a unique rich and creative spirit.
The second piece, taken from Due canzoni a ritmo di danza (1921), is a popular one composed in a lively ternary rhythm. The dancing atmosphere is suggested by a game of double strings, of "pizzicati" and strokes of bow. This atmosphere is also present in the score for piano which shows a flowing alternation of the hands on the keyboard that reminds us of a dance choreography. In the middle of this piece a sweet melody rises from a pentatonic scale and then goes back to tonal chords. Suddenly this tonality breaks up into unexpected change of chords or indefinite and changeable consonances, so the melody appears intense and longing. The dissonance isn't a structural element but serves to give tonal colour to the chords while the structure of the piece is traditionally tonal: at the same time the piano introduction is a long chromatic wandering stretched to the cadenza, there in G minor. The melody goes round itself and then passes from a tonality to another one. There is the presence of a deep rhetoric style of Italian origin: the disintegration of the theme is oriented to communication: repetitio and memory, memory and change, change and return. The structure of these two canzoni is ABA. This pattern gives to the pieces variety, avoids banality and confirms the oratorical tendency again.
Mainardi's style and aesthetic are still present in this first work and they will influence the whole following production for cello and piano before the second world war, which is totally represented in this collection.
We can find in the piece Notturno (1922) the ternary rhythm again: A is repeated on a pedal in D flat which makes it cleat to us that this composition has a function of relaxing landing place. The tonality blends with an enigmatic modality making use of "forbidden" parallelism of fifths in the-score for piano which represents the ancient sense of harmonic progression very well. The change of register in the score for cello gives various lyric shapes to the melody: introspection in the low register and sorrowful communicativeness in the high one.
The Novelletta is a twin composition partly because written in the same year. The same
'features of Notturno recur in Novelletta with renewed intensity. There is a great use of rhetoric figurativeness which is different from Debussy's or Ravel's one but remote and improbable at the same time. The harmonic structure of the exposition and the recapitulation are rather immediate and clear, the central development is attractive because of its irregular harmony which is charming and frightening. The repeat is coveted, a long-desired return to a reassuring deja ecoute. The Ballata e Serenata of 1925 is composed in Mainardi's style: ternary rhythm with recapitulation. The whole Mainardi's poetic is based on ternary rhythm, recapitulation and eloquence. In the first Ballata the eloquence consists of a repeated fragmentation of the phrasing. The melody slowly advances and it often recurs on itself, it .seems to be afraid of becoming.
Nevertheless each repetition is a melodic variation with the use of interpolation, melodic elision or progression. The development draws on this idea of repetition and creates many melodic moments, the harmony is rich and the piano score is intense and vigorous. The following Serenata shows a well-constructed, rhythmic and nervous structure, it is '•composed in tripartite rhythm and the piece is made up of a succession of different rhythmic episodes which form a set of contrasting but, at the same time, consequent images. The lively character of the virtuoso reappears with a delightful dialogue among the instruments. This is the main feature of Mainardi's rhythmic moments. The proportions grow in Rapsodia italiana (1928). The ternary rhythm appears in the opening Adagio, which presents a phraseological structure like the Ballata. The following lively Allegro is a real Neapolitan tarantella with ternary rhythm and the typical chromatic progression on exceeding intervals. In this piece we can find, at the same time, a deep will of interpretation on these particular features: exasperation of percussions, delicacy of a speed melody of the piano over ineffable harmonic chords of the cello and the entry of expressive and improvised melodies which interrupt the rhythmic dance gait that starts in the seriousness of the deep register of both instruments again, like a macabre dance. Mainardi recognizes tarantella's historical semantic value and in the final climax of that piece he seems to recover a few typical consonances of Liszt's tarantella, which is composed in G too.
We could make a comparison between Mainardi's style and Malipiero's poetic: the Suite of 1940 is an example. Mainardi arrives at the top of his creative originality with this piece: he recovers ancient forms. Preludio's melody advances with a great melodic and rhythmic freedom which ends with a final chord in G major that restores order. The following Allegro is apparently more formal but the lively dance favours a rhythmic improvised game among instruments: a playful and sonorous attitude which contains expressive ability rich and original creativity. We can find the same approach in the final rhythmic Giga. The Aria, between Allegro and Giga, presents an original character: many melodic embedded themes which are placed on, interrupted then recovered again; a language of the soul far from the stereotype of baroque dance. The Intermezzo, composed after three years, is a free interlacing of melodies and sonorous expressions of piano and cello, we can discover there a pure improvised game, exchange of accents among the instruments when the Adagio gives way to the Andantino. Mainardi's musical language is changing and a real war arriving: simple game or involving melody which is mark of an acerbic soul?
Marco Della Sciucca
Translation: Debora Duval
Translation: Debora Duval
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