This first of four recordings of Alfredo Casellas orchestral music couples his first and last purely orchestral works.
Completed the day before his 23rd birthday, the Symphony No. 1, which here receives its world premire recording, exudes a self-confidence few composers could match at such an age.
Although it abounds in echoes of other music, at its best above all in the beautiful central slow movement the Symphony has a truly distinctive identity: Casellas fondness for dark, even crepuscular sonorities can be heard in the sometimes stunningly imaginative orchestration.
After that, the driving motoric rhythms and astringent harmonies and timbres of the Concerto, Op. 69 erupt like the work of a different man entirely.
Casella:Symphony No. 1 in B minor, Op. 5 (World Premiere Recording)
Concerto for Strings, Piano, Timpani and Percussion, Op. 69