Symphonies nos 1 & 2 (Filarmonica '900; Conti) (2009)

Nino Rota achieved international recognition as a composer of film music and his work in collaboration with Federico Fellini is universally admired. His orchestral music is much less well known but deserves a re-appraisal. The First and Second Symphonies were written simultaneously during the second half of the 1930s, when Rota had already developed his unmistakably tuneful style. Hints of a tenuous, yet well-balanced modernism are discernable, but he avoids extreme stylistic experimentation. Both symphonies display a directness of expression in a neoclassical style that constantly celebrates a landscape in sound. Marzio Conti conducts the Filarmonica ’900 del Teatro Regio di Torino. (chandos.net)