Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari - 11 Variazioni sul Menuetto del “Falstaff” di G. Verdi

Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari (1876-1948)
11 Variazioni sul Menuetto del “Falstaff” di G. Verdi (1896)
in B minor
Tema [00:00]
Var. I [00:38]
Var. II [01:16]
Var. III [02:05]
Var. IV [02:38]
Var. V [04:20]
Var. VI [05:01]
Var. VII [05:55]
Var. VIII [07:22]
Var. IX [07:52]
Var. X [08:18]
Var. XI [08:53]
Tema [09:40]
Performer: • Wolf-Ferrari: Piano Music
Score (MY EDITION) from: imslp.org/wiki/Category:Wolf-...

[@modernclassicalmusic8942]

I've not hear much of Wolf-Ferrari, so I'm excited to see some of him uploaded here

[@treesny]

Thank you for posting this charming piece! I am familiar with Wolf-Ferrari's operas, especially his Goldoni-based Venice comedies (I even directed a productiom of one of them, Le Donne Curiose, many years ago), but this homage to Verdi's last great work is new to me. It is completely in sync with the intense nostalgia, musical and cultural, underlying so many of this composer's works. (The uncredited pianist appears to be Costantino Catena, who also recorded one of the finest Liszt "concept" albums, titled Venezia e Napoli.)

[@SPscorevideos]

Costantino Catena is credited here. :)

[@treesny]

@@SPscorevideos Sorry, in my haste I must have missed the credit.

[@SPscorevideos]

Played by Costantino Catena.

[@markbell9973]

Here again we have a sometimes famous but more often incognito Italian composer who gets overshadowed by a German(ic) one. Am thinking of
Sweelinck, Scheidt, Tunder+Buxtehude vs. Frescobaldi
Bach vs. Corelli and even the great Vivaldi
Haydn, Mozart, here: Schumann vs. our present composer of these highly imaginative variations.
As a fairly neutral US-American I have worked at universities with Italian colleagues for whom this phenomenon is justifiably maddening. It also happens in Philosophy, Lit, literary theory (Gramsci!), the visual arts and Theology.
I don't know what to say any further than this.
Maybe someone else (Italian, German, Frrench, British, Irish Spanish, Portuguese etc--and especially Russian--does??

[@SPscorevideos]

I think the problem in the History of Music is the opera. Since 17th century until the WW2, "Italian composer=opera", and any composer outside this repertoire was forgotten. It's not a coincidence if the only widely known work by Wolf-Ferrari is the opera Susanna's Secret.
It's also sad you can experience this also in Italian music halls, since you never get the chance to listen to Sammartini, Vitali, Clementi, Sgambati, Martucci, Perosi (!)...

[@SPscorevideos]

[Anyway, I wouldn't say that Frescobaldi is overshadowed by the composers you mentioned: Scheidt and Tunder are very obscure, Sweelinck seems to me to be performed and listened way less that Frescobaldi... But this doesn't undermine your comment, of course.]