Venice Festival
MODERN Italian music was the main theme this year. The inaugural concert, conducted by Sergiu Celibidache, was devoted to Casella, who might be accepted as the father of the young Italians. But the intended 'portrait' was disappointing, already very pale, and lacking in memorable personal lines. Franco Caracciolo conducted a programme of three new Italian works: Vlad's imaginative Varia- tions on a 12-note Series from Mozart's 'Don Giovanni,' for piano and orchestra, with the. composer as soloist; Franco Margola's pleas- ing and unproblematic Kinderkonzert for piano and orchestra, in which a Hindemithian idiom is leavened with Italianate melody; and Peragallo's moving and effective In Memoriam, in the form of an aria and choral for mixed chorus and orchestra. Another of the most gifted and serious young Italians, Zafred, was represented by a new Sinfonia breve for strings, in a programme by the Zurich Chamber Orchestra under Edmond de Stoutz, who also played the Swiss Paul Muller's Symphony for Strings, Op. 40, a very well and economically laid out work of charming lyricism combined with spontaneous invention and drive. The Belgian 1NR Orchestra under Franz Andre also introduced a new Italian work, G. F. Malipiero's sur- prisingly lively, almost light-hearted Fantasia Concertante for violin and orchestra, superbly played by Grumiaux. In addition, they played three new works written for and dedicated to themselves: Milhaud's Symphony No. 7, breezily non-committal, though less frivolous than some of his earlier music; Sauguet's Sinfonia 1NR, modern-romantic, with popu- lar accents and big gestures; and Tansman's Concerto for Orchestra, antiseptic and insipid. Berta's Wonderful Mandarin 'ballet suite, in the second half of the concert, now forty years old but still very much alive, valid and exciting, made them all sound very feeble. Other non-Italian new works in the festival were played by the Gorini-Lorenzi two-piano team : a neo-classic, motoric Sonatina by Conrad Beck; a superbly conceived, lively and amusing Sonata by Klebe; and a well-written Sonata by a newcomer, David von de Woes- tijne.
The theatrical productions this year were less interesting. Prokofiev's The Fiery Angel. the first stage performance of which, thirty years after it was written, was intended as the main 'draw' of the festival, proved obscure and disappointing. There were also some feeble performances by the Opera Ballet of Paris, musically very bad and ineptly staged, and some productions by the Peking Opera, ad- mirable but not properly within the province of a music critic.
JOHN S. wsissmANN
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