"For too long the vividly original music of Gian Francesco Malipiero has suffered almost total neglect outside his native Italy. Even his own countrymen have done shamefully little to keep his best works in circulation, despite the continuing enthusiasm of a devoted band of admirers who have included such important younger composers as Luigi Dallapiccola (1904-75), Bruno Maderna (1920-73) and Sylvano Bussotti (born 1931). Undeniably the quality of Malipiero's huge, many-sided output is variable, and his weaker works have tended to undermine the demand for his better ones. Yet the sum total of his achievement is more than enough to justify regarding him as the most important Italian composer of his generation, even if the skilful, highly-coloured eclecticism of his near-contemporary Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936) has won much greater international acclaim.
"The four symphonies brought together on the present disc belong to two very different phases in Malipiero's exceptionally long career. The Fifth Symphony and the Sixth were both composed in 1947, in the midst of a richly productive period when most of his best works of the kind were written: no fewer than seven of his seventeen compositions that have the Italian word 'sinfonia' in their titles date from the years 1944-51, which saw the births not only of symphonies 3 to 7 inclusive but also of the remarkable, intensely expressive 'Sinfonia in un tempo' ('Symphony in One Movement', 1950) and the more relaxed, picturesquely episodic 'Sinfonia dello zodiaco' (1951). Neither of the two last-mentioned symphonies was numbered by the composer; yet there are good reasons for regarding them, even so, as part of his 'legitimate' symphonic output (and they are therefore recorded elsewhere in the present series of discs, as are all Malipiero's numbered and unnumbered symphonies apart from the very early, unpublished 'Sinfonia degli eroi' of 1905).
"Throughout 1952-61, however, Malipiero wrote no further symphonies, either with or without numbers. By the time he resumed the practice of using the word 'sinfonia' in his titles (first for the unnumbered 'Sinfonia per Antigenida' of 1962 and then for the confusingly so-called 'Eighth Symphony' of 1964) he had passed his eightieth birthday and his musical language had meanwhile become far more acerbic and angular than it had usually been in the 1940s. Consequently the Eighth and Eleventh symphonies, recorded on the present disc, sound (on the whole) very different from the Fifth and Sixth - although the Fifth, as we shall see, contains striking premonitions of stylistic changes to come.
"It may be wondered why Malipiero suddenly began again to number his symphonies from 1964 onwards, having ceased to do so after the 'Seventh Symphony' of 1948. Judging from his own characteristically whimsical statements, it would seem that his reluctance to number the three intervening symphonies arose mainly from a superstitious 'desire not to pass the fateful number seven': one is reminded of Mahler's famous fear of passing the number nine. However, unlike Mahler's, Malipiero's fears proved sufficiently unfounded to allow him eventually to complete four more numbered symphonies, after the three cautiously unnumbered ones. What seems in due course to have conquered his resistance to such 'fateful' numbering was his completion (in 1963-4) of an explicitly so-called 'Eighth String Quartet': as he put it, the 'Eighth Quartet' broke the spell of the number seven', and once the spell had been broken for his quartets without evil consequences, he at last felt free to break it for his symphonies too!" (From the liner notes.)
Performers: Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Antonio de Almeida
1. Symphony No. 6 'Degli Archi': I. Allegro
2. Symphony No. 6 'Degli Archi': II. Piuttosto Lento
3. Symphony No. 6 'Degli Archi': III. Allegro Vivo
4. Symphony No. 6 'Degli Archi': IV. Lento Ma Non Troppo - Allegro - Lento - Allegro - Molto Triste
5. Symphony No. 5 'Concertante In Eco': I. Allegro Agitato Ma Moderatamente
6. Symphony No. 5 'Concertante In Eco': II. Lento
7. Symphony No. 5 'Concertante In Eco': III. Allegro Vivace Ma Ritmato
8. Symphony No. 5 'Concertante In Eco': IV. Lento Ma Non Troppo - Mosso (Agitato) - Ritenuto (Quasi Funebre)
9. Symphony No. 8 'Symphonia Brevis': I. Piuttusto Lento - Un Poco Più Mosso
10. Symphony No. 8 'Symphonia Brevis': II. Allegro
11. Symphony No. 8 'Symphonia Brevis': III. Non Troppo Lento - Piú Mosso - Allegramente - Tranquillo - Mosso - Lento - Meno Lento, Non Trascinare - Piú Mosso, Gaio - Meno Mosso - Agitato - Lento (Quasi Funebre)
12. Symphony No. 11 'Della Cornamuse': I. Energico Ma Mosso, Non Troppo Però
13. Symphony No. 11 'Della Cornamuse': II. Lento
14. Symphony No. 11 'Della Cornamuse': III. Gaio
15. Symphony No. 11 'Della Cornamuse': IV. Molto Mosso Ma Marcando Il Tempo - Quasi Lento - Molto Mosso
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