Nicolas Flagello (1928-1994) « Flagello’s Flageolet »

[Karl Henning]

Flagello discusses a piece commissioned by the Cornell Wind Ensemble, Odyssey.

http://www.youtube.com/v/YPYorwNr5lE

[Mirror Image]

Thanks for starting this thread, Karl. I've come across this American composer many times in searches in the past. Do you own any of his recordings?

[Karl Henning]

A couple, John, both of them marvelous:

[asin]B000FGGKIU[/asin]

[asin]B0012CJ772[/asin]

[Mirror Image]

A couple, John, both of them marvelous:

[asin]B000FGGKIU[/asin]

[asin]B0012CJ772[/asin]

Thanks, Karl. I've seen both of these recordings before. I think maybe I'll listen to some samples via YouTube.

[snyprrr]

Come ON , Karl. 'Flagello's Bordello' was rejected... why?

[Superhorn]

   I live in New Rochelle , just north of NYC, where  Nicolas Flagello lived .  I've had the opportunity to hear several CDs of his music
recently because the Flagello family donated several CDs of his music to the New Rochelle library , including the Naxos CDs posted .
I particularly like the early piano concerto . You can see  the  stickers  mentioning the donation on the CDs .
Flagello also taught for many years at the Manhattan school of music .

[vandermolen]

I enjoyed both the CDs and had a nice email exchange with Arnold Rosner.

[Karl Henning]

Happy birthday, Nicolas Flagello!

[Daverz]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flageolet

Phew, I was thinking it was some device for self-flagellation.

[Karl Henning]

No, that's Delius, next door.

[kyjo]

Apologies for resurrecting this very old thread, but I thought since I posted all this at the Art-Music Forum, I might as well post it here too:

Flagello was born into a very musical family; his brother Ezio was a bass with the Metropolitan Opera. He studied with Giannini and Pizzetti. He is often grouped with Giannini and Creston, who also shared his Italian ancestry and wrote in a broadly neo-romantic style. Flagello's music is romantic through and through, even at its harshest or angriest. His Italianate sense of singing, bel canto melody is evident in all of his music. Flagello expertly counterbalances his lush lyricism with strident, anxious drama, giving his music an "epic" feel. Not surprisingly, Flagello's style was much at odds with the trendy critics at the time and was not given much exposure at all. Thank goodness the record companies (mainly Naxos and Artek) have recently resurrected many of his works, or we would never have the opportunity to hear his heartfelt music.

Naxos and Citadel have done an excellent job bringing Flagello's music back onto the scene. They never duplicated any works (besides Symphony of the Winds), and the performances on all the discs are passionate and technically top-notch. Overall, the Naxos discs contain Flagello's best works (with the exception of the glorious VC, which was only recorded by Citadel), but once you try one Flagello disc and like what you hear, there's no stopping you from exploring all the Flagello discs on the market! I'll give brief overviews of Flagello's major works below:

-Symphony no. 1 (Naxos): A tragic and stormy work, with a magnificent Passacaglia as a finale in the tradition of Brahms 4. There is much "tortured lyricism" rather reminiscent of Barber.
-Symphony no. 2 Symphony of the Winds (Naxos and Citadel): A rather gloomy work, not one of Flagello's best. The use of winds only rather takes away from the work as well.
-Missa sinfonica (Naxos): An inspirational work which is reminiscent of VW in places.
-Piano Concerto no. 1 (Naxos): A highly emotional work in the spirit of Rachmaninov with some Barberian intensity. A highly accessible piece which would serve as an ideal introduction to Flagello.
-Piano Concerto no. 2 (Citadel): An extroverted and heroic work, with shades of Rachmaninov (again) and Prokofiev with an American vigor and spirit.
-Piano Concerto no. 3 (Citadel): A dark and almost spooky work with more dissonance than the previous two but no abandonment of the romantic ideals that Flagello clinged to.
-Violin Concerto (Citadel): A soaringly lyrical work, very much in the spirit of the Barber and Menotti concertos.
-Concerto Sinfonico for Saxophone Quartet (Naxos): Flagello's last completed work. Don't expect any energetic jazziness here, despite the inclusion of a sax quartet. This a dark and powerful work which makes use of imaginative orchestral colors.
-The Passion of Martin Luther King (Naxos Historical and Koch): A stirring work with expert vocal writing.

Of course, Flagello composed many shorter works, among them darkly lyrical orchestral songs (e.g. Dante's Farwell) and a wide variety of shorter orchestral works, from the rhapsodic Capriccio for cello and orchestra and the nobly passionate Credendum for violin and orchestra to the lovely string orchestra miniature Sea Cliffs and the characteristic orchestral excerpts from his operas.

Naxos and Citadel have done such an outstanding job recording Flagello's music that it would be churlish to criticize them for leaving a few works out. However, I would love to see recordings of these orchestral works: Beowulf, Suite for Amber, Flute Concerto Antoniano, Five Songs for high voice and orchestra, Concerto for String Orchestra, Tristis est Anima Mea for chorus and orchestra, Te Deum for All Mankind for chorus and orchestra, Six Songs An Island in the Moon for high voice and orchestra and Prelude and Fugue for string orchestra.

If you've been missing out on Flagello's music, you've been missing out on a lot!

                   

http://www.flagello.com/

[Mirror Image]

I had quite a Flagello phase many months ago and I bought most of the recordings pictured above. My favorite work of all the ones I've heard is Missa Sinfonica. I felt it was his most personal.

[kyjo]

I had quite a Flagello phase many months ago and I bought most of the recordings pictured above. My favorite work of all the ones I've heard is Missa Sinfonica. I felt it was his most personal.

I, too, consider the Missa Sinfonica to be one of Flagello's best works, along with Symphony no. 1, the VC, PC no. 1 and the Concerto Sinfonico (which I find to be Flagello's most personal work).

[Karl Henning]

Thanks for this post.

[kyjo]

Thanks for this post.

My pleasure Are you familiar with Flagello's music, Karl, and, if so, what do you think of it?

[Karl Henning]

These two discs, love them both:

A couple, John, both of them marvelous:

[asin]B000FGGKIU[/asin]

[asin]B0012CJ772[/asin]

[kyjo]

These two discs, love them both:

Those are excellent discs indeed! You should try the Naxos disc with Symphony no. 1 next. Such a moody and dramatic piece (just the way I like my music)! It reminds me of a stormy sea with the waves thrashing relentlessly on the jagged rocks.