Search - Dallapiccola :: Canti Di Prigionia

Superb music in good performances and decent sound

G.D. | Norway | 01/26/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a rewarding disc for which we should be very grateful. The most important part of Dallapiccola's output is his vocal music, and this release gives us a wide selection ranging from the early, approachable style of the Cori di Michelangelo Buonarroti il Giovane to the stirringly powerful late Tempus destruendi - Tempus adificandi.



The music is overall delicately constructed, beautiful and profound, and very contrapuntal, the exception being the Canti di Prigionia, scored for chorus with percussion, harps and pianos which brings the thoughts to Les Noces, a strikingly forceful utterance despite its restraint. In the later work Webern is the most obvious model, yet Dallapiccola's approach is surely his own and the high quality of the music prompts the question of why it isn't more often performed. The New London Chamber Choir seems to be at home in the idiom, but apparently more so in the more austere later works, and the sound is generally ok, but unfortunately a little non-transparent. A very fine issue still, but if you are unfamiliar with the composer and can get hold of his opera Ulisse, start there."