Carlo Martelli was born in London
in 1935 to an Italian father and an English mother. He studied at the Royal
College of Music with William Lloyd Webber and Bernard Stevens. During the
nineteen-fifties, Martelli composed several orchestral and chamber works which
were performed at a variety of venues including the Cheltenham Festival and the
Royal Festival Hall. With the advent of William Glock at the BBC, Martelli’s
music was regarded as insufficiently avant-garde and was promptly ignored. At
this time, he earned a living as a professional violist playing under Beecham
with the RPO and the Sadler’s Wells Orchestra. During the Glock years Martelli
wrote several film scores and many ‘highly sophisticated’ arrangements for
string quartet. This latter music covered the gamut from 17th century to ‘pop’.
They were instant hits and received many broadcasts. During the
nineteen-eighties, Martelli composed several ‘light’ pieces including ‘Persiflage’,
‘Promenade’ and a ‘Jubilee March’. In the next decade the opera The Monkey’s Paw and a children’s opera,
the present The Curse of Christopher
Columbus were written.
The longest work on this new CD
is Sredni Vashtar for narrator,
soprano and orchestra. It is a setting of a short story by the Scottish author
Hector Hugh Munro, whose pen-name was ‘Saki’. It reveals his characteristic
balance of cruelty and wit.
Sredni Vashtar is a large polecat which the boy Conradin keeps in a
disused tool shed. He begins to worship the cat, offers up prayers to the beast
and subsequently imagines what evil it could wreak on his ‘domineering
guardian’ Mrs De Ropp.
Carlo Martelli’s music is an
ideal fusion of stage, cinema, orchestra, chamber music, and voices with which
he has worked all his career. The work has been ‘under construction’ for many
years. Some of the music dates back as far as 1953 to incidental music written
for a performance of Menander’s play The
Rape of the Locks. The balance between the relative wit of the narrator
(Simon Callow) and the haunting song of the boy himself beautifully sung by the
soprano (Lesley-Jane Rogers) is well-judged. A large orchestra is used. Carlo
Martelli has created a judicious and subtle work.
Despite this praise, it is not a
story that I warm to. It is really about a two people who are downright nasty
to each other: I feel that I have no sympathy for either character nor the
ferret.
The three extracts from Carlo
Martelli’s children’ opera The Curse of
Christopher Columbus whet the appetite to hear the entire work. It was
commissioned in 1992 by the Shropshire County School of Music to celebrate the
500th anniversary of Columbus’ ‘discovery’ of America. The libretto
was by Chris Eldon Leigh. The opera was duly premiered on 14 July 1992. I was
delighted to read that the entire work has been recorded by the Carma Record
label and is due to be released in early 2019. Hopefully, I will be able to
review this disc. Till then, I can recommend these enjoyable extracts.
Meanwhile I will not plot spoil.
The first extract features a
rough-hewn hornpipe from Scene 14 when Columbus sets sail in search of the New
World. The second piece is from the very beginning of the opera. This part of
the story is set in an art gallery where a statue of Christopher Columbus is
about to be unveiled to commemorate the 400-year anniversary of his voyage.
Here the listener will be conscious of Martelli’s skill as a film composer
honed by his work with the Hammer Horror Films. The soprano creates an air of
apprehension with her ‘aria’ Something Stirs.’ The final extract is the fanciful
‘Frigate Bird Duet.’ These two birds, Dogger and Finisterre are sung by two
sopranos, Lesley-Jane Rogers and Olivia Robinson. The liner notes accurately
describe this as a ‘delightfully Vaudevillian duet.’ This tripartite song opens
with introductions, followed by a wry and cynical look at other explorers who
predated Columbus’s Atlantic crossing. The last part is the Frigate Birds’
farewell. The final bars are a brilliant bit of musical seascape with wind and
spray. Oh! that Martelli had written a Sea Symphony!
For me, the most interesting work
on this CD is the Serenade for Strings, op.3. This was composed in 1955 when
the Martelli was only 20 years old. It was subsequently revised before being
given its premiere performance at the 1958 Cheltenham Festival.
The reviewer in the Birmingham Daily Post (12 July 1958)
suggested that the Italian side of the composer’s nature expressed itself in
‘the fluent, lissom melodic lines and his sunny clarity of texture.’ I think I
agree with this reviewer that the Serenade does not display a clear musical
personality. Certainly, many of
Martelli’s themes and musical ideas have considerable character, but somehow
the work just does not quite come together. It may be that there is a little
stylistic imbalance between the movements that the composer has not quite got
around to ironing out. That said, the individual parts of this work make a
splendid contribution to British string orchestra repertoire. My favourite
movement is the ‘Tarantella’. This is a masterpiece in string writing, with
scherzo-like music propelled along by the dynamic staccato accompaniment. The
trio section is much more ‘chilled’, before the driving dance music returns. The
final movement is also a masterclass in string writing. From an almost
negligible tune, Martelli weaves a splendid selection of variations, which
never stray too far from the theme.
This is a fascinating CD that
introduce three works that have never been recorded before. It is handsomely
produced and finely performed. The liner notes by Paul Conway is essential
reading. The text of Sredni Vashtar is
given in full. I look forward to further releases from the composer’ own record
label.
Track Listing:
Carlo MARTELLI (b.1935)
Sredni Vashtar: A
Symphonic Drama after Saki for narrator, soprano and orchestra (completed, 2017)
The Curse of
Christopher Columbus: (excerpts from the opera) Hornpipe, Prelude and Scene
1, Frigate Birds’ Duet (1992)
Serenade for Strings (1955)
Royal Ballet Sinfonia/Ronald Corp, Simon Callow (narrator),
Lesley-Jane Rogers (soprano), Olivia Robinson (soprano)
Rec. Angel Studios London 4-5 January 2018
CARMA Records
CARMA001
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