Rota: Cello Concertos (Sony)

Nino Rota’s music official sanction within the twentieth-century cultured production is by now something ascertained. Only those critics who circumscribe his working activity within an unique field – the movie soundtrack one, generally considered of a less strong artistic effect but in which, anyway, Rota takes place as one of the greatest representatives ever – still turn up their nose towards the composer from Lombardia, whose, rightly this year, the centenary from his birth occurs.
This new CD published by Sony presents the two Concertos for Cello and Orchestra, both of them divided into the three canonical movements, that he wrote at the end of his career. Instinct to melodism, captivating lyrical inclination, classical sense of the form and a skillful use of the soloist instrument mainly valued through its singing peculiarity show us a musician who is tightly tied to tonality, not interested at all in debate about contemporary music (and that is why he has never been praised by official critics), but provided with competence and fresh, immediate communicativeness. Silvia Chiesa precisely relies on all of her skills concerning intimate, naïve but also extroverted singing, soft and technically exemplary gesture. She is supported by the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI conducted not in a very creative way by Corrado Rovaris.