Teresa Procaccini - Chamber Music

Teresa Procaccini

Chamber Music IV

Improvvisazioni
for violino, viola and cello op. 40 (1968) - 8'31" - [Score available]

Demo .mp3 - 30 sec. - 600 Kb

Sonata rapsodica
for cello and piano op. 8 (1957) - 11'15" - [Score available]

Demo .mp3 - 30 sec. - 600 Kb

Nove Preludi
for piano op. 29 (1966) - 12'31" - [Score available]

Demo .mp3 - 30 sec. - 600 Kb

Eagle
for solo flute op. 103 (1983) - 6'20" - [Score available]

Demo .mp3 - 30 sec. - 600 Kb

Evocazione
for soprano, bassoon and piano op. 57 (1972) - 4'25" - [Score available]

Demo .mp3 - 30 sec. - 600 Kb

Meeting
for sax quartet op. 115 (1988) - 8'53" - [Score available]

Demo .mp3 - 30 sec. - 600 Kb

Air
for soprano, flute, oboe, bassoon and piano op. 102 (1983) - 8'05" - [Score available]

Demo .mp3 - 30 sec. - 600 Kb

Fantasia
for violino and piano op. 10 (1957) - 9'45" - [Score available]

Demo .mp3 - 30 sec. - 600 Kb

Duo
for violino and viola op. 96 (1982) - 4'18" - [Score available]

Demo .mp3 - 30 sec. - 600 Kb

Trio d'Archi di Roma:
Antonio Salvatore, violino
Paolo Centurioni, viola
Mario Centurione, cello

Giorgio Ravenna, cello
Teresa Procaccini, piano

Margherita Traversa, piano

Georgeta Stoleriu, soprano
Dorel Baicu, flute
Dorin Gliga, oboe
Pavel Ionescu, bassoon
Mihai Ungureanu, piano

SaxQuartet Accademia:
Gaetano Di Bacco, sax soprano
Enzo Filippetti, sax contralto
Giuseppe Berardini, sax tenore
Fabrizio Paoletti, sax baritono

Edipan Edition
CD PAN 3073 - prezzo 15.00 Euro -

Teresa Procaccini

CD info

Seventh of the eight CD dedicated to my symphonic, sacred and chamber music, released by the Edi-Pan record company, this CD contains 9 chamber music compositions of various structure written from 1957 (when I attended the 9th year of Composition at "S. Cecilia" Conservatory in Rome) to 1988. For their presentation I will use, at time, the opinions given by noted musicologists.
Renato Chiesa says:
"For a poliedric composer like Teresa Procaccini chamber music stays a selected field, in comparison with operistic and symphonic production. Out from each misunderstanding and from each literary alibi, as well as from depth of timbre and mass, the world of chamber music is for his own nature more transparent and defenseless especially if the composer is Procaccini, who is firmly anchored to formal classical values and to irremissible balance also in those cases when the revolutionary tendency of the contemporary language becomes more insinuating, but not exclusive.The parameters of her music do not break with those more consecrated, based on chord and straightforwardness, nor with the always present thematic structure. Sometimes this structure seems to be set in secondary position by the rhythm, and more rarely by the timbre. All Teresa Procaccini's music, and not only the chamber one, have immediate hold over the listener: opposing to solipsistic temptations, it is always involving without becoming blatant and rids itself of each external twinkling thanks to the solidity of his construction".
The 9 compositions included in this CD lead us through the evolutive process I have carried out in 30 years: from the Sonata Rapsodica for cello and piano op. 8 (1957) to Meeting for 4 saxophones op. 115 (1988). The order in which these pieces have been recorded in the CD does not follow their order of composition.
The first is IMPROVVISAZIONI (Improvisations) for violin, viola and cello op. 40 (1968) that I wrote for a lombard trio, but the ensemble was dissolved before I have finished composing the piece. Even though I am grateful to this "ghost ensemble" because without his request I would not have composed a piece I am very proud of for its cheerful atmosphere.The composition is divided in two parts: the 1st Improvvisazione (allegro vivace-scher-zando-allegro vivace, written in the a-b-a form) is characterized by a rhythmic and eccentric theme performed by the violin and continually taken again by the other instruments. To this contrasts the "pizzicato" theme of the cello passing to the other instruments. A more moderate theme (scherzando) follows and then there is the restarting of the 1st theme, performed this time by viola and cello, while the violin performs the "pizzicato" theme. The 2nd Improvvisazione opens with a brief largo, intense and warm, followed by a witty and light-hearted theme on which all the final passage is based.
About the SONATA RAPSODICA (Rapsodic Sonata) for cello and piano op. 8 (1957) the critic Cesare Casellato says: "early work that brings again to the great late-romantic sonata, revisited in modern way. The "rapsodic" character is peculiar to the first movement, whose three sections adagio, andante, presto follow one another without a break. Recitative-meditative moments alternate with others dialectic-concerting, with daring and melodic sudden rises and with fizzy vivacity of rythm. The conclusive allegro vivace, rich of optimistic "verve", gives off tipical italian euphoria that is a mark of the author's musicality".
The NOVE PRELUDI (Nine Preludes) op. 29 (1966) for piano are sheets of album that highlight any possibilities of the instrument as regards timbre, counterpoint and percussion, in a sequence of completed sense. Later on to each prelude was added the name of a winged suggested by the character of each passage. The idea of add them came to my collaborator Nico Parziale who written a history inspired by listening to the Nine Preludes: "Zeffirino and the birds" for a possible performance destined to children.
Is still Renato Chiesa to express his opinion about the four following compositions:
"EAGLE for solo flute op. 103 (1983) it is a free fanciful invention that alternates, in his continuous movement, dramatic and vivacious moments to other much more meditative. It starts from intervals of minimum distance to reach, in the first measures, the whole chromatic body. But the intentions of composition are not of serial nature, although the linguistic articulation sometimes presents a consistency which you could think of. The thematic material suffers continuous and also dynamic variations and in the second half of the composition it finds unpredictable escapes, from the minimalist plays to the bright flashes, for finally subsiding in the high notes of the instrument.
To 1972 belongs EVOCAZIONE (Evocation), vocalise for soprano, bassoon and piano op. 57. In the vocal chamber music the composer has a predilection for the voice in his purity, that means without text, as it exactly happens in EVOCAZIONE. Initially it was thought for two voices (soprano and contralto) with piano, but here the second voice is that of the bassoon that gives the piece an indefinite nostalgic atmosphere in which lines alternate or chase each other in imitative way up to the last measures. At the end soprano voice and instrument sing together, with echo effect as they are going away, a brief ascending fragment characterized by a synchrony of empty parallel fifth.
MEETING for 4 saxophones op. 115 (1988), composed for the Saxophones Quartet Accademia is inside articulated in several moments of different character: from the elegiac phases of the andante espressivo to the colourful rhythms of the prestissimo, up to the finale conceived by a masterly work based on small dynamic transformations in order to reach a sensational solution.
Also AIR for soprano, flute, oboe, bassoon and piano op. 102 (1983) uses the voice like vocalise and has two versions. The first version is for soprano, clarinet and piano, the second one with the above mentioned instruments. In the only time (andantino), from a mysterious beginning within small intervals (between flute and bassoon), the voice presents a subtle charm. As a whole we have a subtle and vague expressiveness, with superposition of prolonged pedals and semitonal movements that develop into wider spirals of new breath. The link to the second part is a very intense moment for the only voice; the conclusion takes back initial situation, as formal classical residue, in a recovered poetic aura."
The FANTASIA for violin and piano op. 10 (1957) is the only composition for violin I have written until now and, although it is a juvenile work, it is already possible to sense tipical characteristics of my style that will be more evident during the following years: extensive form, accurate search of a simplicity more apparent than real that allows whoever to penetrate immediately in the spirit of the composition, melodic line always predominant that alternates quick rhythmic elements. These characteristics contribute to create a melodic-rhythmic-harmonic-atonal language, stable, clear and spontaneous.
The FANTASIA opens with a slow introduction followed by an allegro vivo with a theme that reminds of Bartok; this theme is in contrast whith a second mysterious and evocative theme performed by the violin played using a mute. All the composition is built on these three elements. Some years ago, during a performance of this composition in Berlin, the music critic of the DER TAGESSPIEGEL wrote: "The more meaningful composition in program was without doubt the Fantasia for violin and piano by the Italian Teresa Procaccini. After a slow, very weighty and expressive introduction, the Fantasia goes on with tipical theme dance in which the italian cantabile way is purely expressed in the musical language of our time."
The last composition is a brief one: DUO for violin and viola op. 96 (1982), based on bright and quick themes that bring out the peculiarities of the instruments bound in contrasting and exchanging roles: malicious, comic and testy attitudes follow one another creating a true "divertissement" in literal meaning...
Teresa Procaccini

Teresa Procaccini is the composer of a vast production (about 200 works), including operas, ballets, symphonic pieces, chamber works, band and symphonic band works, teaching works, which have been performed both in Italy and abroad.
After having been awarded her diploma in piano and organ (with Fernando Germani) and in composition (with Virgilio Mortari), in 1971 and 1972 she directed the Foggia Conservatory and up to 2001 she hasa been teacher of Composition at the “Santa Cecilia” Conservatory in Rome.
She has won national and international competitions and has held specialisation courses in composition at the Festival of Città di Castello, at the Respighi Academy in Assisi, at the Internazionale Meisterkursen in Duren (Germany) and the Frentana Music Summer in Lanciano.
;Her works have been published by Sonzogno, Zanibon, Edipan, Carisch, Bongiovanni, Curci, Leduc, Seesaw, Rugginenti, Scomegna, Pizzicato Helvetia, Berbén, Wicky, Carrara.
She has produced a remarkable quantity of music for children (short teaching operas, musical fables with reciting voice, works for boys’ Choir and piano, many pieces for young instrumentalists (strings, winds and percussions) and teaching books with tapes) published by Armando and Gulliver.
She has composed sound tracks for theatrical works and for cartoons for RAI television.
Almost all her works has been recorded by Edipan, Bongiovanni, Edizioni Paoline, Electrecord of Bucarest, Rugginenti, Grammophon AB BIS of Stockholm, Nuova Era Records, Scomegna, Altarus and Crystal Records (U.S.A.), Lira Classica M.A.P.
She has also been successful in organising concerts and since 1972 is Artistic Director of the Foggia Association of “Friends of Music” and consultant of many Association in Italy.
She conceived the touring review of “Ladies Composer of Past and Present”.
She is often guest of Juries (as President or member) of various national and international prizes and as speaker of musicology Conferences.