Mitropoulos Conducts Malipiero and Bach-Casella

Dimitri Mitropoulos made his first postwar tour of Italy in 1950. One stop was for a concert in Turin on June 2, where he also recorded two compositions for the Italian company Cetra.

With the RAI Orchestra in that city, the conductor set down scores by two contemporary Italian composers, Gian Francesco Malipiero and Alfredo Casella. According to his biographer, William Trotter, Mitropoulos programmed Malipiero's Seventh Symphony during the tour, presumably during the stop in Turin. Also taped during the June 2 session was Casella's transcription (actually more a reworking) of the Chaconne from Bach's violin Partita in D.

Malipiero (left) and Casella flank Manuel de Falla

Malipiero and Casella were almost exact contemporaries, although Casella had died at age 63 in 1947, and were leading figures in 20th century Italian musical life. The two were colleagues and both were instrumental in reviving the music of Vivaldi, but they were very different composers.

The RAI Turin orchestra was not a great ensemble - Trotter says that Mitropoulos found the orchestral playing in postwar Italy in considerable disrepair - but the Greek conductor was able to elicit committed playing, especially in the Malipiero.

The recording is lively, but the pressing has a few thumps. This is from the US Cetra-Soria issue of the set.

I could not resist including the Stokowski transcription of the Bach Chaconne in the download, for the sake of contrast. There is little of Stoky's ostentatiously reverential approach in Casella's transcription. The Stokowski is from the His Symphony Orchestra recording of 1950 - it's not my transfer.