Composer: Bruno Maderna
Performer: Mario Zeffiri, Simone Alberghini, Coro del Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, Carmela Remigio, Veronica Simeoni
Orchestra: Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice di Venezia
Conductor: Andrea Molino
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Stradivarius
Catalogue: STR37180
Release: 2022
Size: 247 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Requiem
01. I. Requiem
02. II. Kyrie eleison
03. III. Dies irae
04. IV. Domine Jesu
05. V. Sanctus
06. VI. Benedictus
07. VII. Agnus Dei
08. VIII. Lux aeterna
09. IX. Libera me
When buried masterpieces are rediscovered, they hardly succeed to rewrite history. However, Bruno Maderna’s Requiem per soli, cori e orchestra, unearthed sixty years after its disappearance, may well withstand the test, and quite successfully. With all its bulk, and its by no means derivative craftsmanship, it could perhaps be a candidate for the role of the “Riace bronze” of Italian twentieth century music.
At the very least – even with the aid of other rediscoveries, like the Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra of 1941-42 – this score sheds light on a character for long almost unknown: the pre-dodecaphonic Bruno Maderna, a young but perfectly formed and mature artist, whose known compositions were, until the 2000s, limited to just some minor works. For many years we had detailed yet frustrating information about the Requiem: an autograph fragment of the score had survived, consisting of sixteen pages in fair copy that included an introductory note, from which it was possible to infer the overall structure of the work, the arrangement of the choral group and the approximate number of pages, around ten times those that had survived.