“Degenerate” Music by Italian Jewish Composers

VITO LEVI (1899-2002): Violin Concerto in D Minor “A mia moglie” (Giacobbe Stevanato [violin]), Adagio for Strings “In Memoria di Mio Padre”, LEONE SINIGAGLIA (1868-1944): Piccola Suite for Flute and String Orchestra, Op. 45 (Roberto Fabbriciani [flute]), 2 pezzi caratteristici for String Orchestra, Op. 35, ALDO FINZI (1897-1945): Pavana for Clarinet and Strings (arr. Giovanni Mazza [b.1944]) (Davide Casali [clarinet]), KURT SONNENFELD (1912-1997): Notturno for String Orchestra.

Description: This release is thanks to the Viktor Ullmann Festival in Trieste where these works were recorded in 2014 and 2018. Levi, born and died in Trieste, taught at that city’s Conservatory, escaping arrest in late 1943 by hiding in Venice. His 27-minute concerto of 1937 is a delicious piece of late Romanticism and is the biggest work here; the better-known Sinigaglia’s 12-minute suite comes from the mid-1930s. Sonnenfeld was an Austrian Jew who moved to Milan in 1939 to escape the Nazis only to be arrested two years later and sent to a Fascist concentration camp; his tender little Notturno dates from 1951. Finzi survived the war only to die in February 1945; his Pavana was originally a piano piece. Orchestra Abimà, Civica Orchestra di fiati “G. Verdi”; Davide Casali.