“Margutti & Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Works for Choir and Guitar” – CD
dynamic, 2024
Available on major digital platforms
ITER Research Ensemble
Nicolò Spera guitar
Giovanni Cestino conductor
Recording, editing e mastering: Marco Taio
Producers: Paolo Ferrara and Corrado Margutti
Auditorium “Bruno Manenti” (former Church of St. Bernardino), Crema
July 14-17, 2023
Running time: 62:44
This album represents the first artistic outcome of a broader project aimed at expanding the repertoire for choir and guitar, conceived by Nicolò Spera and Giovanni Cestino with the support of the University of Colorado Boulder. The program deliberately juxtaposes a new work by the Turin-based composer Corrado Margutti, written specifically for the performers, with the first piece ever composed for this ensemble, Romancero Gitano by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.
Rivers, composed by Margutti in 2020, is currently the most extensive work written for choir and guitar, presenting itself as a sort of secular oratorio on the theme of plurality. This concept is musically represented through a deliberate use of a range of poetic texts, various historically characterized musical styles, and occasionally intentional intertextual references — including an explicit homage to Romancero Gitano. The complex musical organization of the score reflects an implicit symbolic message that addresses the multifaceted theme of migration, the search for a homeland, and the construction of identity through a plural human experience.
Romancero Gitano, written by Castelnuovo-Tedesco in 1951, is a musical album entirely focused on the most intimately Andalusian verses of Federico García Lorca. Initially conceived for a vocal quartet or octet, the piece gained immediate popularity in the choral field, starting from its first performance by the German guitarist Siegfried Behrend. Rather than relying on the published edition resulting from his revision (which is often particularly impactful), this recording benefits from the editorial work conducted on the original sources by two members of the ITER Research Ensemble, Stefano Colombo and Lorenzo Giustozzi, with the collaboration of Giovanni Cestino and Nicolò Spera for the guitar revision. This meticulous editorial work profoundly influences the interpretation of the piece, finally offering listeners a rendition faithful to the nuances and richness of the original manuscript.
tracklist
Corrado Margutti (*1974)
Rivers
for mixed choir and guitar (2020)
world premiere recording
1 — Prologo. Children in Need
lyrics by George Mackay Brown
2 — I. Balada de la placeta
lyrics by Federico García Lorca
Anna Martini, Margherita Bellini, Corrado Margutti, Francesco Bombarda soloists
3 — II. All’ultima sera
lyrics by David Maria Turoldo
4 — III. Noctis partes alteræ
lyrics by Giovanni Pascoli
5 — IV. Rivers
lyrics by Ferdinando Pessoa
6 — V. Le cantique éternel, chanté dès l’exil
lyrics by St. Therese de Lisieux
7 — VI. Herbsttag
lyrics by Rainer Maria Rilke
8 — VII. Cordero de Dios
liturgic text (ordinary of the Catholic Mass in Spanish)
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968)
Romancero Gitano Op. 152
for mixed choir and guitar (1951)
lyrics by Federico García Lorca
new critical edition by Stefano Colombo e Lorenzo Giustozzi (ITER Research Ensemble)
guitar part revised by Nicolò Spera
world premiere recording of this critical edition
9 — I. Baladilla de los tres ríos
Chiara Broggini, Rebecca Favale, Corrado Margutti, Emanuele Cristini soloists
10 — II. La guitarra
11 — III. Puñal
12 — IV. Procesión (Procesión, Paso, Saeta)
Emanuele Cristini soloist
13 — V. Memento
14 — VI. Baile
Alessio Giuricin, Emanuele Cristini soloists
15 — VI. Crótalo