ATMA Classics will be releasing a new recording of Nino Rota's La Strada ballet, as well as two concertos: one for harp, one for trombone.

The Orchestra's website: http://www.orchestremetropolitain.com

Thanks for the heads-up. Great to see that a new Rota cd will be released soon. When you get this cd, be sure to post your critique.

And I can only say that it is weird.

It is a great CD, there is no question about it.

But had I not known the music to be by Nino Rota, I would have first associated it with Prokofiev. The way Nézet-Séguin leads his musicians, and the way they play sounds nothing like Nino Rota's style.

It is far from bad, but it is very different from what I am used to.

For one thing, the LaStrada ballet sounds much more 'classical'... like an actual tone poem, a symphony or Prokofiev ballet. It does not sound like Rota film music arranged into a ballet suite.

The sound is also disconcerting. It is grand, deep, and in your face but with enough breathing space around the instruments to create a nice ambiance. It was engineered by Johanne Goyette - the first female recording engineer (not assistant) that I encounter. And don't get all feminist on me, her being female is not the disconcerting part. The weird part is how natural the orchestra sounds, and how much detail there is. The orchestra sounds on CD almost exactly as it sounds live in concert, and that I find is very different from most CDs out there.
Add the detailed (too detailed?) sonics, to the very 'classical' reading of the conductor, and the non-cinematic/non-balletic playing of the orchestra, and the result is simply weird and unexpected.
On a comparative note, the EMI CD with Gelmetti conducting the Monte Carlo Philharmonic, offers a much more cinematic LaStrada with thinner and more distant sound. A complete opposite to this new version. But Riccardo Muti remains on top. His reading combines both the cinematic aspects of the music, and the balletic approach for the ultimate blend. He also has the advantage of warm and very pleasant sound, as well as the best orchestral playing of the three.

The harp concerto is a bit different being a smaller scale work. The harp and orchestra constantly interact, playing nice Mediterranean sounding tunes and motifs. At one point there is a very nice melancolic melody in Elmer Bernstein style, first played by the strings, then by the woodwinds accompanied by the harp. The whole work is in the classical or romantic modes with frequent stylistic fallbacks on Mozart and Haydn, but with a touch of Rota (duh!) and Beethoven.

The trombone concerto is more 20th century. Not as whacky as most modern music, but not as lyrical as the rest of Rota's output.

If I had to rate this CD, I do not know what to rate it. It does not sound like Rota at all, so it should get lower marks, but it is very finely played, perfectly recorded and offers a completely new and original side to both Rota and LaStrada. So I'll leave it unrated for now, but will highly recommend it to anyone who can find it in stores.

In this case, the music is performed in such a way that it simply does not sound like it was composed by Rota.
It changes his style. And I'm not sure that I like it when an orchestra or conductor change a composer's style. Hence, lower marks.

So, do you recommend it? I love Nino Rota, but if it’s something totally different… I don’t know.

Here ya go: http://www.classicstoday.com/review.asp?ReviewNum=6832

Award 1:
RECORD OF THE YEAR: Classical, Romantic, Post-romantic, and Impressionist music
Nino Rota: La Strada, Concertos
Alain Trudel, trombone
Jennifer Swartz, harp
Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal
Yannick Nézet-Séguin