Malipiero - Symphonies Nos.5, 6, 8 and 11

Gian Francesco Malipiero (1882-1973)

Symphony No.6 " Degli Archi"

 Symphony No.5 "Concertante in Eco"

 Symphony No.8 " Symphonia Brevis"

 Symphony No.11 " Della Cornamuse"

Moscow Symphony Orchestra

Antonio de Almeida (Conductor)

The disc opens with the Sixth Symphony of 1947, subtitled "degli archi", which is, as one might expect, scored for strings only, and is followed by #5, composed earlier that year. Without a sense of symphonic momentum, the Sixth strikes these ears as at best a suite for strings, intriguing but not convincing (though this is the most frequently played of Malipiero's Symphonies). So when the two orchestral pianos of #5, which bears the subtitle "Concertante in eco", burst in afterwards, full of contrapuntal purpose, I sat up and took notice: this is music that is going somewhere. The language is also tighter and more purposeful than in #6. Unfortunately, this sense of drive doesn't last (the movement, indeed, is over in under four minutes), and the three following movements are more aimlessly convivial in mood, though occasionally enlivened by more abrasive sections (recalling Havergal Brian at the beginning of the Scherzo, though it's highly unlikely that he knew any of Brian's music)

The Eighth and Eleventh Symphonies, subtitled respectively the "Symphonia Brevis" (though it's longer than most of the later Symphonies) and "Della cornamuse" ("Of the bagpipe"), are in a much tougher, tonally ambiguous language (they date from 1964 and 1969, when Malipiero was into his eighties). Paradoxically, this harmonic freedom also liberates his counterpoint: instead of imaging what Malipiero could have done, where he could have gone, with a better disciplined sense of tonal direction, you listen to the moment in hand, admiring the idiosyncrasy of the polyphony without being distracted by a lack of structural purpose.