Alfano: Suite Romantica, Una danza & Divertimento Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano & Giuseppe Grazioli

• Franco Alfano (1875 - 1954): Suite romantica, Pt. 1:
• 1Alfano: Suite romantica, Pt. 1: Notte adriatica -09:13
• Suite romantica, Pt. 2:
• 2Alfano: Suite romantica, Pt. 2: Echi dell'Appennino -06:39
• Suite romantica, Pt. 3:
• 3Alfano: Suite romantica, Pt. 3: Al chiostro abbandonato -08:25
• Suite romantica, Pt. 4:
• 4Alfano: Suite romantica, Pt. 4: Natale campàno08:31
• Una danza:
• 5Alfano: Una danza14:07
• Nenia:
• 6Alfano: Nenia05:36
• Divertimento:
• 7Alfano: Divertimento: I. Introduzione -03:25
• 8Alfano: Divertimento: II. Aria07:33
• 9Alfano: Divertimento: III. Recitativo e Rondò05:41
• Amour… Amour…:
• 10Alfano: Amour… Amour… (Version for Orchestra)05:49
• Total Runtime01:14:59

Info for Alfano: Suite Romantica, Una danza & Divertimento

Franco Alfano is known today for completing Turandot after Puccini's death. His catalogue of works, which includes operas, orchestral and chamber music, shows him to be a demanding and original composer. Alfano possessed an innate melodic gift combined with a talent for unexpected tonal colours, as can be heard in the lavishly orchestrated Suite romantica, which, according to the composer, is intended to convey "the feelings of two lovers travelling through Italy". From the neoclassical Divertimento to the noirish Nenia from the post-war period and from the lightness of Amour ... Amour ... to the impressionistic and dazzling Una danza, each work shows a different aspect of this versatile composer.

Davide Vendramin, accordion (track 6)
Vittorio Rabagliati, piano (tracks 7-9)
Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano
Giuseppe Grazioli, conductor

Davide Vendramin
accordion and bandoneon player, he performed during important festivals and with culture institutions, such as: CSO ADA in Ankara, Stadttheater in Berne, UFA Film Nights in Berlin, Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, Ferrara Musica, Ravenna Festival, Festival of Lucerne Laac in Lugano, Conservatoire de la Ville de Luxembourg HEMU of Lausanne, Milano Musica, Staatstheater am gärtnerplatz in Munich, Mersin International Music Festival, Teatro Regio in Parma, Amici della Musica in Modena, Pistoia and Trapani, Associazione Filarmonica in Rovereto, Concerti alla Cappella Paolina del Quirinale in Roma, Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Stuttgart, Sofia music weeks, National Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome, MiTo/Settembre Musica and Rai NuovaMusica in Turin, Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, Biennale Musica in Venice, Wettinger Kammerkonzerte, FBW in Wien, Music and Theatre Academy in Vilnius.

As a soloist he played with the Orchestra Sinfonica in Milan, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai in Turin and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome performing, first premiere in Italy, works for accordion and orchestra by Salvatore Sciarrino (Storie di altre storie) and Sofia Gubajdulina (Under the Sign of Scorpio).

With the bandoneon, always accompanied by the Orchestra Sinfonica in Milan, has performed the “Tres Tangos”, Doble Concierto “Hommage à Liege”, “Las quatro estaciones porteñas” by Astor Piazzolla, the “Requiem” by Silvia Colasanti and the “Misa Tango” for soli, bandoneon, choir and orchestra by Luis Bacalov conducted by the composer himself.

He plays in Piazzolla’s “Maria de Buenos Aires” produced by the Ravenna Festival and in Kurt Weill’s “Die Dreigroschenoper” at the Piccolo Teatro Strehler in Milan.

He played Martín Palmeri’s “Misa a Buenos Aires” with the Orchester de Chambre de Toulouse and the famous Astor Piazzolla Concerto “Aconcagua” with the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana in Lugano.

Silva Colasanti’s “Tango for David (e)” is dedicated to him, premiered at the Paganini Auditorium in Parma, accompanied by the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini conducted by Donato Renzetti and broadcast in Live streaming.

Furthermore he collaborated with the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala and I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, the Orchestra Teatro Regio in Turin, the Orchestra Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Berner Symphonie Orchestre, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento, the Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale in Bologna and with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Marco Angius, Stefan Asbury, Oleg Caetani, Tito Ceccherini, Riccardo Chailly, William Eddins, Olari Elts, Beat Furrer, Daniele Gatti, Pablo González, Vinko Globokar, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Francesco Lanzillotta, Antonello Manacorda, Michele Mariotti, Wayne Marshall, Ingo Metzmacher, Maxime Pascal, Luca Pfaff, Maxim Risanov, Dennis Russell Davies, Markus Stenz, Juraj Valcuha just to mention a few.

He worked alongside actresses and singers such as: Valentina Cortese, Lella Costa, Mariangela Gualtieri, Laura Marinoni, Andrea Jonasson, Ute Lemper, Milva.

He played for Radio3 RAI and for Terza Rete Televisiva, for Radio della Svizzera Italiana in Lugano, for Télévision Suisse Romande in Geneva and for Bayrischer Rundfunk in Munich.

He recorded for ECM (Berio), Decca (Rota), Naxos (Alfano), Da Vinci Classic (Piazzolla), Stradivarius (Manca) e LimenMusic (Bosso).

He is graduated from the Conservatorio in Pesaro, the University in Turin and the Hochschule der Künste in Berne (Swiss).

Is teaching accordion and bandoneon in the Conservatory in Vicenza.

Giuseppe Grazioli
After a piano and composition degree, Giuseppe Grazioli learnt orchestral conducting with Gianluigi Gelmetti, Leopold Hager, Franco Ferrara, Peter Maag and Leonard Bernstein. He then led the main Italian orchestras.

In 2001, he was invited to La Scala for the closing Concert before its restoration; he then conducted the final of Operalia Competition in Paris (Théâtre du Châtelet) after which Placido Domingo invited him to Washington Opera for Lucia di Lammermoor and Les Pêcheurs de perles.

With a large repertoire ranging from classical to contemporary music, Giuseppe Grazioli premiered in Italy Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, Paul McCartney’s Liverpool Oratorio, Nicola Piovani’s ballet Fellini, as well as the world première of Marco Tutino's Vita in 2003 leading La Scala’s Orchestra.

Giuseppe Grazioli has appeared in Torino (Orphée aux Enfers, La Tempesta, Le Nozze di Figaro), Rome (Il Gatto con gli Stivali), Yale University (Gianni Schicchi, Suor Angelica, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, La bohème, Don Giovanni), Genoa (Candide), Nantes and Angers (Le Comte Ory, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Il Turco in Italia), Québec (Lucia di Lammermoor, La damnation de Faust in a Robert Lepage's production, Carmen, Falstaff, Nabucco, Tosca), Montréal (Tosca), Nancy (L'Italiana in Algeri), Montpellier (La Traviata), Luxembourg (Il Turco in Italia), Palermo (Orphée et Eurydice), Saint-Etiènne (Semiramide, Don Giovanni, Otello, La voix humaine, Point d'orgue, Macbeth and La Traviata), Florence (Il barbiere di Siviglia and La Cenerentola), Milan's Piccolo Teatro (The Threepenny Opera), Santiago (La forza del destino), Martina Franca (Rota's Napoli milionaria and Paisiello's La grotta di Trofonio for the Festival della Valle d'Itria), Guangzhou (Don Giovanni), Daegu (La Rondine), Cagliari (Palla de' Mozzi by Gino Marinuzzi, Cecilia by Licinio Refice and Le Villi), Reggio Emilia (Don Giovanni).

Among his recordings are some rarities of 20th century by De Falla, Auric, Martinu, Casella, Malipiero, Rieti, Lambert, Bax, Bartok, the first world recording of Zandonai's Quadri di Segantini, Cecilia by Licinio Refice and Palla de Mozzi by Gino Marinuzzi as well as several works by Nino Rota: La Visita Meravigliosa, Lo Scoiattolo in gamba, Cristallo di Rocca and the first world recording of Napoli milionaria. In summer 2011 he has started recording for DECCA the Complete Symphonic Works of Nino Rota with Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi. In 2017 he has recorded for DECCA a tribute to Gino Marinuzzi's music and an homage to Kurt Weill. In 2021 a new CD titled "Italian Soundtracks" and an anthology of Fiorenzo Carpi's music have been released for WARNER. In 2024 Naxos will publish a recording of symphonic works by Franco Alfano.

Programmed for future seasons are: Amleto by Franco Faccio in Verona, Macbeth in Santiago, Il Trovatore and La Bohème in Saint-Étienne and several symphonic concerts with Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, Orchestre Symphonique Saint-Étienne Loire, Tianjin Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Filarmonica de Santiago. ​

In April 2019 he has been appointed Principal Conductor and Casting Manager of Opéra de Saint-Étienne.

Booklet for Alfano: Suite Romantica, Una danza & Divertimento