FUNKHAUSORCHESTER KÖLN · FELIX BENDER, MICHAEL SEAL, CONDUCTOR

When Toscanini encouraged Nino Rota to study at the Curtis Institute, where instructions by Fritz Reiner and a friendship with Aaron Copland awaited the precocious composer, it was already clear he would have a massive career. Only the direction wasn’t certain yet. It turned out to be classical music and film music, the former informing the latter. Notable when you listen to the delicious waltz from War & Peace or the darkly humorous snippets from the very apropos Orchestra Rehearsal. And while the de-facto horn concertino Castel del Monte, inspired by King Frederick II’s famous medieval castle in southern Italy, isn’t technically film music, it very much sounds like music to a fantasy film of Rota’s imagining.

WAR AND PEACE (11 Tracks)
1. Introduzione [03:13]
2. Momento musicale [01:40]
3. Valzer di Natascha [01:38]
4. Polonaise [01:48]
5. La rosa di Novgorod [01:59]
6. No. 54. Esoda da Mosca [03:23]
7. Andrea e Natascha [02:50]
8. No. 66. La ritirata della Grande Armée [02:43]
9. No. 67. Prigionia [04:18]
10. Ritorno a Mosca [02:17]
11. Finale [02:44]

12. Castel del Monte [11:32]
13. I. Preludio: Allegro ben moderato [04:08]
14. II. Scherzo: Allegretto comodo [03:57]
15. III. Aria: Andante quasi adagio [04:20]
16. IV. Finale: Allegrissimo [03:04]
17. I. Allegro moderato [08:13]
18. II. Andante [06:33]
19. III. Allegro [06:32]
20. Risatine maliziose [02:08]
21. Valzerino No. 72 [01:55]
22. Galop [02:18]