Cilea: Concertante Suites I Virtuosi del Teatro alla Scala & Filippo Arlia

• Francesco Cilea (1866 - 1950): Suite in E Major for Violin & Orchestra:
• 1 Cilea: Suite in E Major for Violin & Orchestra: I. Andante appassionato 03:39
• 2 Cilea: Suite in E Major for Violin & Orchestra: II. Tempo di minuetto (Allegretto) 01:40
• 3 Cilea: Suite in E Major for Violin & Orchestra: III. Andante sostenuto 03:58
• 4 Cilea: Suite in E Major for Violin & Orchestra: IV. Allegro 02:48
• Raffaele Cacciola (b. 1965): Il Canto Dell'Amore (arr. Cacciola):
• 5 Cacciola: Il Canto Dell'Amore (arr. Cacciola) 04:12
• Leonardo Leo (1694 - 1744): Cello Concerto in D Major (arr. Francesco Cilea):
• 6 Leo: Cello Concerto in D Major (arr. Francesco Cilea): I. Andante sostenuto e grazioso 04:06
• 7 Leo: Cello Concerto in D Major (arr. Francesco Cilea): II. Larghetto 03:57
• 8 Leo: Cello Concerto in D Major (arr. Francesco Cilea): III. Allegro con bravura 02:41
• Francesco Cilea: Piccola Suite for Cello & Orchestra:
• 9 Cilea: Piccola Suite for Cello & Orchestra: Introduzione alla danza 01:58
• 10 Cilea: Piccola Suite for Cello & Orchestra: I. Danza moderato 04:30
• 11 Cilea: Piccola Suite for Cello & Orchestra: II. Notturnino andante sostenuto 05:20
• 12 Cilea: Piccola Suite for Cello & Orchestra: III. Alla marcia allegro giusto 05:34
• Total Runtime 44:23

Info for Cilea: Concertante Suites

First recordings of unpublished instrumental works by a master of verismo.

Several recent albums on Brilliant Classics have expanded our understanding of Francesco Cilea beyond his status as the composer of L’Arlesiana and Adriana Lecouvreur. His piano music, chamber music and songs all bear witness to a quintessentially Italian voice and aesthetic philosophy.

Cilea abandoned writing for the stage after the failure of his opera Gloria in 1907, despite the presence of Toscanini in the pit, and his lyric gifts cut against the grain of the prevailing trends of modernism. He turned to teaching, but he did not entirely abandon composition. Instead, he turned back to instrumental music, and the works on this album are among the fruits of this revived inspiration.

Apart from Cilea’s celebrated melodic vein, the Suite for Violin and the Piccola Suite for Orchestra reveal his (perhaps un-Italian) talent for counterpoint, as well as an approach to tonal harmony that reflects his awareness of innovation, especially among French composers of the period. Cilea orchestrated the Suite in 1946 from his Suite for violin and piano of nine years earlier. The four brief movements are cast in a neoclassical vein, enclosing an elegant minuet followed by an Andante sostenuto in the very un-classical key of C sharp minor.

The Piccola Suite (1931) more thoroughly absorbs the idioms of French music of the period such as the early works of Messiaen, with its modal harmony, whole-tone scales and sequences of seventh and ninth chords: again, far from what we would expect from the composer of Adriana Lecouvreur. The arrangement, revision and scoring of the Concerto in D major for cello by Leonardo Leo (written in 1737) bears witness to Cilea's deep connection with the Conservatoire in Naples where he had studied and where he became director until his retirement in 1935. Its generous orchestration, and yet respect for the 18th-century idiom of the writing, makes an intriguing and almost unknown parallel to the Cello Concerto in D recomposed by Schoenberg in 1931 after a 1746 work by Georg Matthias Monn.

Completing this unique survey of Cilea’s output is a modern work, the first recording of the Canto dell’amore by Raffaele Cacciola, born in 1965. The style of this sinfonia concertante in all but name is a homage to the example of Cilea: tonally unpredictable, yet always melodic. These Milanese musicians draw out its intrinsically Italian character in the tradition of Cilea’s verismo.

Italian composer Francesco Cilea (1866-1950) is best known for his operas, particularly "Adriana Lecouvreur." However, his contributions to instrumental music should not be overlooked. Though less renowned than his operatic output, Cilea's instrumental works exhibit a melodic richness and emotional depth characteristic of the Romantic era.

Cilea's orchestral works show his mastery of lyrical themes and dramatic expression. His works are imbued with a sense of Italianate warmth and passion, reflecting the composer's deep connection to his native land.

This new recording presents the Suite for Violin & Orchestra, Il Canto dell’Amore, Cilea’s arrangement of a Cello Concerto by Leonardo Leo and the Piccola Suite for Cello & Orchestra.

Played by one of the foremost cellists of Italy, Enrico Bronzi, violinist Massimo Quarta, and the Virtuosi Della Scala, conducted by Filippo Arlia.

Massimo Quarta, violin
Enrico Bronzi, cello
I Virtuosi della Scala
Filippo Arlia, conductor

The Virtuosi del Teatro Alla Scala
were formed from the desire of the first soloists of the Teatro's orchestra to share the musical experience gained through years of collaboration with the world's best conductors, and set themselves the goal from the outset of guaranteeing the highest possible artistic quality in their performances, thanks to a careful selection of their members. The group's repertoire, which is very flexible and versatile, ranges from the great Baroque repertoire to Mozart's chamber music repertoire of serenades, divertissements and symphonies, from the soloist and orchestra concertos of the 18th century to period transcriptions of Italian operas, and the entire 20th century and contemporary repertoire for small chamber orchestra. The group has so far performed in the most important Italian theatres and at festivals such as the Torrechiara Festival, dedicated to Renata Tebaldi, and the Bologna Festival in whose closing concert they performed with soprano Barbara Frittoli. This latest collaboration also resulted in the orchestra's first record product, live, for SONY, released in March 2009.

Filippo Arlia
(* 1989) is an Italian pianist and conductor. He is considered one of the most brilliant and versatile Italian musicians of his generation. He completed his piano studies with Lethea Cifarelli at the “F.Torrefranca” Conservatory in Vibo Valentia at the age of 17. He then completed his law studies at the “Magna Graecia” University in Catanzaro. He made his debut as a soloist on the international stage with a European tour dedicated to G. Gershwin. Filippo Arlia feels a special connection with Gershwin, also because of his collaboration with Michel Camilo.

Together with Cesare Chiacchiaretta, Filippo Arlia forms the ensemble “Duettango”, which debuted at Carnegie Hall in 2015. In 2017, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Piazzolla’s death, Duettango released a CD with works by Piazzolla, which won the “Piazzolla Award” and the “Orpheus Award” in 2018 .

In 2011, Arlia founded the Philharmonic Orchestra of Calabria, of which he remains conductor and director to this day. Under his leadership, the orchestra has worked with some of the most famous musicians of our time, including Sergei Krylov, Yuri Shishkin, Michel Camilo, Sergei Nakariakov, Ilya Grubert, Giovanni Sollima and Danilo Rea.

Arlia has given more than 350 concerts as a soloist and conductor in more than 20 countries around the world and has conducted prestigious orchestras, including the Cluj De Tineret Orchestra, the Adana Cukurova State Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonic Orchestra “M Jora” of Bacau, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra of Vladivostok, the City of Ferrara Orchestra, the New Scarlatti Orchestra of Naples, the Sanremo Symphony Orchestra, the Akademik Baskent Orchestra of Ankara, the Symphonic Orchestra of the Estado de Mexico, the Orchestra of the University of New Leon in Monterrey, the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, the South Czech Philharmonic, the Odessa Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hungarian National Symphony Orchestra, the New England Symphony Orchestra, the Astana Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre do Norte di Porto, the Plovdiv State Opera Orchestra, the Lower Silesian Philharmonic, the Hradec Kralové Philharmonic Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra.

At his debut at the Verona Theater he conducted the Berlin Symphony Orchestra with Stefano Bollani at the piano (Rhapsody in Blue by G. Gershwin).

Since 2014 he has been director of the musicological institute “PI Tchaikovsky” in Nocera Terinese (CZ), where he holds a chair for piano and orchestral conducting. In 2018 he directed the International Festival “R. Leoncavallo” in Montalto Uffugo.

In 2017, Filippo Arlia was awarded the Gold Medal for orchestral conducting and the interpretation of the great symphonic repertoire of the twentieth century by the University “La Sapienza” in Rome.

Booklet for Cilea: Concertante Suites