Sollima: Orchestral Works (1945-1997) [CD]

Outside Italy - perhaps beyond the shores of his native Sicily - the name of Eliodoro Sollima (1926-2000) has not travelled wide, beyond the accomplishments of his five musical children, and in particular the cellist Giovanni Sollima. On a previous Brilliant Classics album (96287) from 2022, Giovanni paid a touching tribute to his father's memory with a collection of chamber music.'This album is a winner!' reported Fanfare magazine, and noted how the 'compositional style of this substantial and serious composer developed significantly' between 1945 and 1995. This new album of Eliodoro Sollima's orchestral music covers a similar period, between the Aria for cello and strings (1945) and Attesa (1997). Attesa ('Waiting') is the most substantial piece on the album, scored for the unusual combination of piano, horns, strings and percussion: a powerful seven-movement suite inspired by the suffering of a man given the death penalty in the US state of Virginia and executed in 1997. Sollima worked within a tonal framework to evoke, in his words, 'the frantic sequence of images, memories and emotions that torment the last hours of a condemned man's life.'The pianist and musicologist Anna Maria Sollima (sister to Giovanni) supplies insightful annotations, which trace the course of Eliodoro's life and career through the works recorded here. World premieres on record include the early Ouverture da camera (1948/50) and Rondo burlesco (1951) for piano and orchestra, carried forward by strong, cinematically flavoured melodies. From 1968, the Concerto per archi (Concerto for strings) is another work with a political subtext, inspired by the shock arising from the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. But Sollima always stayed true to his Sicilian roots, and continued to translate the idioms of local folk music in his own, contemporary style: a commitment exemplified by Nenia e recitativo, a concertante piece for cello and strings. Seekers of 20th-century tonal voices will find in Eliodoro Sollima a distinctive and compelling personality, to which these performers do full justice.