Suite Veneziana / Tryptichon / Divertimento

Wolf-Ferrari is famous for his operatic works in which he invented a new idiom by transplanting 18th-century Venetian culture into the 20th century. But almost all of the composer's orchestral music dates from his final years and occupies a different expressive realm. The Suite veneziana resonates with melancholy, and the Triptychon is a contemplative, passionate masterpiece of orchestration. Subtle use of counterpoint transforms the Divertimento into a playful exploration of themes, while Arabesken pays tribute to an old friend, the Venetian painter Ettore Tito (1859-1941). His own elegantly simple melody, known as 'Tito's theme', is turned by Wolf-Ferrari into a sequence of sumptuous orchestral variations culminating in a powerful fugue.