Piano Trios

This recording features rarely performed musical works by three renowned 20th-century Italian composers: Franco Margola, Giorgio Federico Ghedini and Vittorio Rieti. Margola was profoundly influenced by Alfredo Casella, whom he met while still a student of composition. After graduating, Margola began to compose his Piano Trio in A, and on hearing the piece, Casella immediately rated it among the best modern trios, including it in the repertoire of his own piano trio and performing it in Italy and abroad. The composition, in three movements, is characterized by drama and darkness, with moments of great expression but also fleeting, volatile brilliance. It's concision of articulation and form, it's ability to consistently maintain a tight and fully logical discourse and it's modern but comprehensible harmonic language all conspired to make this composition one of the most appreciated in Margola's catalogue. In Due Intermezzi (Two Intermezzos), written by Ghedini at the age of 23, the sublime mastery of counterpoint and use of forms that would become the composer's signature are already evident and accomplished. Each intermezzo has a distinct character: the first, marked "tranquillo" (calm), pervaded by an intimate atmosphere giving in to momentary expressive outbursts; the second tinged with irony and a buoyant spirit. Unlike Margola and Ghedini, who spent their entire professional lives in Italy (both renowned professors and eventually directors of conservatories), the advent of Mussolini's fascism forced Rieti - who had Jewish roots and whose music was considered deviant by the regime - to emigrate first to Paris and then to the United States. He was a composer particularly admired by the American public and often performed there, despite being almost completely ignored in his native country.