Wolf-ferrari: Divertimento

MUENCHNER RUNDFUNKORCHESTER; SCHIRMER

During the decades prior to World War I Ermanno Wolf Ferrari, who at the time was not yet thirty years old, was one of the most-performed living opera composers next to Puccini and Strauss. His successes enabled him to enjoy a prosperous existence, but the outbreak of the war and Italy’s entry into it on the side opposing Germany upset these circumstances. This international conflict, which he termed a war of his fatherland against his motherland, burdened him greatly – and not only psychically. A creative crisis ensued, and although he recovered from it after the war, his earlier success would never again return. After the early 1930s Wolf Ferrari largely withdrew from the stage and composed the series of orchestral works now being presented by us on this CD. Even if their titles – Divertimento, Arabesques, Venetian Suite – do not suggest it, melancholy shadows their mirth. These are works of farewell, comparable to the late works of Strauss and Pfitzner. For all three (and other artists of their generation) the world of romanticism and beauty was beyond restoration.

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