Alberto Mazzucato – Quattro Melodie

The renown of a person does not always correspond to his importance, and the case of Alberto Mazzucato, composer of this volume’s Quattro melodie, is a confirmation of this: for though, indeed, history name is not among the most well known in the musical panorama of the 1800s, the role he played in Italian (and especially Milanese) musical life of the nineteenth century was far from secondary, influencing various aspects of the musical culture of his age more than might be imagined. […] With the genre of vocal chamber music his approach, not totally observant of convention, seems to have borne more interesting fruit, which merits rediscovery. […] Turning to the music itself, the first observation to be made is that these Melodie give no specific indication as to the type of voice for which they are intended, only a generic indication “per canto”, although the vocal range (C3 – B4) would suit a soprano or tenor voice; they require a sophisticated capacity for interpretation, which the composer takes the trouble to highlight with numerous expressive and technical directions (Il lago: «tutto di portamento», «cantando», «grande», «con abbandono»; Il bacio: «sempre spiegato», «grande»; Il pensiero della sera: «sempre spiegato e religioso», «con grandezza»).