Alfredo Casella : Paganiniana - Divertimento for Orchestra

Alfredo Casella

 

 

 (25 July 1883 – 5 March 1947) was an Italian composer, pianist and conductor

Paganiniana: Divertimento for Orchestra 

Allegro agitato 00:00
Polacchetta: Allegretto moderato 04:01
Romanza: Larghetto cantabile amoroso 08:30
Tarantella: Presto molto 13:28

Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana
Christian Benda, conductor

Picture: Attilia Radice in La Rosa del Sogno, Rome Opera 1943

Casella's grandfather, the cellist Pietro Casella, had been a close friend of Paganini and had taught the latter's son Achille. In 1942 Casella completed a Divertimento, under the title Paganiniana, making use of.melodies taken from Paganini, while avoiding the melody so familiar for its use by Brahms, Rachmaninov and others. Paganiniana, Op. 65, was later to be reused For La rosa del sogno (The Dream Rose) in 1943,

for which Aurel von Milloss, director of ballet at the Rome Opera, provided choreography for which the original work is well suited. The Divertimento starts with a Perpetuum mobile, Allegro agitato, followed by a little Polka, a more expressive Romanza and a final Tarantella. In all four movements there is something of Stravinsky in the instrumentation and the chromatic alterations in what still remains fundamentally diatonic harmony.

Paganiniana, Suite for orchestra Op. 65 (1942)  

I. Allegro agitato
II. Polacchetta (Allegretto moderato)
III. Romanza (Larghetto cantabile, amoroso)
IV. Tarantella (Presto molto).

Performed by Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala conducted by Riccardo Muti.