Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Complete String Quartets (Naxos)
★★★★☆
If it’s summer music you’re after, it doesn’t come much sunnier than this. Castelnuovo-Tedesco — it translates as Newcastle German — was a Florentine who traced his lineage to the Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492. Oppressed by Mussolini’s racial laws, he migrated to the US in 1939, his visa sponsored by Jascha Heifetz.
Toscanini conducted several of his premieres. Piatigorsky and Segovia sustained him with commissions. Mario eventually settled his family in Los Angeles, where his pupils included Andre Previn, Henri Mancini and John Williams. All three owe something to his collagist approach.
Although the concertos occasionally get a hearing, I don’t remember ever being exposed to his chamber music. The first quartet, dated 1929, is a cheerful, tricksy piece of work, with plenty of tunes and an awareness of modern technique without the nasty noises.
The second, written in Hollywood in 1949 and numbered opus 139, is a nostalgic reminiscence of his lost Florence. The third, opus 203, is dated 1964 is a travelogue of Italian beauty spots before the tourists got there — an abbey, a little train, a perfect sunset.
Mario cannot resist a good tune, whether his own, or someone else’s heard in passing. These string quartets are indulgent treats, perfect on a lounger with a prosecco in hand.
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