Rota! (Random Reviews from the Overflow Room)

His reputation secure as one of the great film composers, Nino Rota's concert music has been making a comeback in recent decades--deservedly so.

[@SO-ym3zs]

I'll always sing the praises of his gorgeous first symphony: by turns pastoral, solemn, high-spirited, and nostalgic--and filled with glorious tunes. Long live melody!

[@presterjohn7789]

I remember in the 2000s, I was Rota obsessed and he made up the bulk of what I listened to and I was taken away by the first two symphonies on BIS. I listened to those symphonies so many times on loop. Now that I have branched out considerably? I expected to see what the critics were complaining about. Derivativeness, maybe plagiarism, maybe something that relegated it to the ordinary status they insisted it deserved. I am still waiting to find justification for disliking them. The second symphony IMO is better than the first. You also have the Sinfonia Sopra una Canzone d'Amore, which is probably an equal to those two although I find it more tiresome on repeat.

[@walterq3]

Oh yes, the finale always gets me, such a gorgeous moment!

[@dmntuba]

What a fantastic & over looked collection 👍

[@HD-su9sq]

I really like his film music. I didn’t know until now that Rota wrote symphonies and concertos. I wish orchestras would play these things sometimes…

[@roberttownson9459]

genius composer!

[@dariocaporuscio8701]

His nonet from the Oxalys album is really cool!

[@ClassicalFilmMusic-vh2wg]

I recommend Rota's ballet "La Strada". It is based (largely, but not only) on the film score for the Fellini movie, but the themes are reworked in a narrative structure that is comparable to that of Prokofiev's ballets - while the music being fully in Rota's style, of course. Beautiful stuff!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I made a video about it.

[@presterjohn7789]

La Strada ballet is actually derived from multiple film scores of his, including Rocco and His Brothers. The most recurring theme is from La Strada (film). There is some stuff there that feels like it should be in a film score but I've never found it outside the music of the ballet, eg. the rhumba. There was a famous 'rhumba' in 8 1/2, but that piece is different and not credited to Rota.

[@ClassicalFilmMusic-vh2wg]

@@presterjohn7789 Yes, there are definitely sections that are derived from other film scores, including some famous examples from 8 1/2. They are never quoted literally, they are always reworked, but the main melodic themes are the same. I also don't know about the rhumba, it might have been written specifically for the ballet.

[@ahartify]

Rota always got into trouble with his contemporaries for writing 'popular' music!

[@Sulsfort]

7:44 "Because we realize at the demise of the serial horribleness, that was going on for most of the second half of the twentieth century and the post-war Avantgarde, that there were these wonderful composers, who worked in Hollywood (because that's how they made a living), that they also wrote terrific concert music" I don't get, why you almost always get so hard on the Avantgarde. Ennio Morricone thought different and was also part of the Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Because 99.9% of them were abject failures. I've made videos about some of the good ones (Ligeti, Crumb, Feldman, etc).

[@SO-ym3zs]

Dave, any other symphonies by (predominantly) film composers that you'd recommend? Korngold's and Herrmann's spring to mind.

[@kylejohnson8877]

You didn’t ask me, but there’s also Jerome Moross’ only Symphony, which is an excellent work in a slightly Coplandesque style.

[@SO-ym3zs]

@@kylejohnson8877 Many thanks! I'll look into it. I'm a symphony collector, always looking for examples from off the beaten path, and I'm happy for suggestions from anyone!

[@ernandotorres2170]

dave, do you like alexandre desplat? do you think is worht it?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I think he's very talented, but I don't think I've heard enough of his work so far.