Britten & Shostakovich: Music based on texts by Michelangelo

Transcending the barriers of time, two 20-th century composers dialogue with a genius who lived centuries earlier. An immense painter, sculptor, architect, Michelangelo (1475-1564) wrote poetry expressing turmoil, restlessness, personal and professional anger, written in an energetic and passionate language. Both Dimitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten found inspiration in his texts, and by setting them to music they show their own feelings in a highly personal and characteristic way.

Artists: Mark Milhofer (tenor), Mirco Palazzi (bass), Marco Scolastra (piano)

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Among the approximately 300 Sonnets composed by Michelangelo Buonarroti, seven were chosen by Benjamin Britten and eleven by Dmitri Shostakovich to be set to music in works for male voice and piano. Each of these unions of music and poetry is a pinnacle in the 20th-century art song literature. Transcending the barriers of time, the two Modern composers dialogue with a Renaissance genius from centuries earlier, the immense painter, sculptor and architect, Michelangelo (1475–1564). Also a poet, he channelled into his writing all his life’s turmoil, restlessness and personal and professional anger, preferring an energetic, passionate, bristling language closer to the lexicon of Dante than to that of Petrarch, both of whom he met while frequenting the circle of humanists at the court of Lorenzo de’ Medici.
Shostakovich’s first inspiration for his Suite on Verses of Michelangelo can be traced to his hearing Britten’s 7 Sonnets sung by Peter Pears in Moscow in 1966. Shostakovich, who dedicated his work to his wife Irina Antonovna, was so impressed with Britten’s settings that he immediately sought out Michelangelo’s verses in Russian translation (by Avram Efros). He chose eleven of the sonnets, adding a title of his own to each and rearranging them in a personal sequence. The first performance took place on 23 January 1975, seven months before the composer’s death. The eleven sonnets contain different cues, both personal and political, from Michelangelo’s life, and in the musical settings one hears a reference to Shostakovich’s own condition as an artist in a conflictual relationship with authority.

Tracklist:
Composer: Benjamin Britten
Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo Buonarroti, Op. 22:
00:00:00 I. Sonetto XVI. “Sì come nella penna” - Tempo giusto
00:02:05 II. Sonetto XXXI. “A che più debb’io mai” - Con moto appassionato
00:03:39 III. Sonetto XXX. “Veggio co’ bei vostri occhi” - Andante tranquillo
00:08:02 IV. Sonetto LV. “Tu sa’ ch’io so” - Poco presto ed agitato
00:09:56 V. Sonetto XXXVIII. “Rendete a gli occhi miei” - Allegretto quasi una serenata
00:11:51 VI. Sonetto XXXII. “S’un casto amor” – Vivace
00:13:26 VII. Sonetto XXIV. “Spirto ben nato” – Largo

Composer: Dmitri Shostakovich
Suite su versi di Michelangelo Buonarroti, Op. 145:
00:18:11 I. Verità (Sonetto III per il papa Giulio II) – Adagio
00:22:01 II. Mattino (Sonetto XX) – Allegretto
00:24:51 III. Amore (Sonetto XXV) – Allegretto
00:28:48 IV. Separazione (Madrigale) – Moderato
00:30:46 V. Rabbia (Sonetto IV su Roma durante il pontificato di Giulio II) – Allegro non troppo
00:32:23 VI. Dante (Sonetto I su Dante Alighieri) – Moderato
00:35:26 VII. All’esiliato (Sonetto II su Dante Alighieri) – Largo
00:39:43 VIII. Creazione (Sonetto LXI sulla morte di Vittoria Colonna) – Moderato
00:42:43 IX. Notte (Dialogo tra Giovanni Strozzi e lo Scultore) – Andante
00:45:59 X. Morte (Sonetto LXIX) – Adagio
00:49:54 XI. Immortalità (Epitaffio per Cecchino Bracci Fiorentino) – Allegretto

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