A guitar great proves his mettle in the quintet medium
The Strad Issue: April 2026
Description: A guitar great proves his mettle in the quintet medium
Musicians: Adorno Quartet, Alessandro Marangoni (piano)
Works: Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Piano Quintets nos. 1 and 2
Catalogue number: NAXOS 8574692
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco may be better known to guitarists, who can explore around 100 pieces by him, but in addition to Segovia he also knew Heifetz, for whom he wrote a concerto, I profeti (‘The Prophets’) in 1931. Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Piano Quintet no.1 was his first major work to follow the concerto, written before his move in 1939 to California after the rise of Fascism in Italy.
The first of his two piano quintets may be the less immediately appealing but the writing, falling into his own brand of 20th-century Neoclassicism and post-Impressionism, is distinctive.
The players here give an ardent performance, highlighting the enigmatic string chorale and open, sometimes bluesy harmonies of the first movement and the ghostly return of the opening theme at the end of the second. As sweet as the playing can be, it is muscular too, as in the tempestuous unison writing in the finale.
The Second Piano Quintet comes from 20 years later, during Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s time as a film composer. It’s little surprise, then, that – subtitled ‘Memories of the Tuscan Countryside’ – there’s a programmatic element, its movements progressing through hills, cypresses, a church procession and the harvest. To their other qualities the players here add rich colouring and fine imagination.
EDWARD BHESANIA
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