You will probably know the name of Adriano as the conductor of
a substantial collection of recordings on Marco Polo. He has been
especially prominent in championing the neglected works of Respighi
and many film scores by Honegger. In these projects he has worked
with the Slovakian Bratislava Symphony and the Moscow Symphony
orchestras.
Background on Adriano
is not in short supply. Try Ian
Lace’s interview from 2004. I knew that Adriano was a composer
from having interviewed
him by email in 2001-2. Until now I had not heard any of his
music. This collection of three compact orchestral concertante
pieces and one work for brass quintet leaves us in no doubt
as to his concentration, clarity of thought and assertive expression.
His orchestration
in the first three works is very resourceful and transparent
and this imparts a stark dazzle to every bar. While Adriano
uses much of the resource palette of twentieth century musical
expression - including dissonance - he also casts the lyrical
net across his listener's field of awareness. If you are looking
for examples - which are not in short supply - try the third
movement of the Piano Concertino. The seamless
weave of piano with other non-percussive instruments of the
orchestra is remarkable as is the wonderfully resolved swirl
of harp, pizzicato and piano which whirls the work into action.
His single movement
Obscure Saraband might, very crudely, be likened
to a sometimes Bergian, sometimes Bach-like, ‘take’ on Martinů's
Concerto for Double String Orchestra and piano. Its potent Gothic
sensibility conveys the sensation of standing at the edge of
a dark chasm. By contrast the music sometimes expresses a devotional
spirit. Obscure Saraband is a fascinating piece.
The Concertino
for Celesta – again the composer steers clear of the
word ‘concerto’ - juxtaposes the solo instrument with a hummingly
active Bergian string band. The solo instrument takes the part
of a luminous yet vulnerable commentator. The work inhabits
a surreal and delicate world in which a pilgrim appears to be
shouldering aside the heavy tendrils of some dream forest. Great
repose is to be found in the tendresse of the central
Andantino. The Allegro Giocoso finale bustles
with earnest Bartókian expostulations by the strings. The whole
movement is superbly painted in. Its buzzing frantic activity
alternates with precious episodes of melancholy delight as at
tr.8, 2:10.
The virtuosic Cryptic
Sketches for brass quintet is in ten movements of which
VII and VIII play without intervening break. The movements are
short and – similar in mood. They are gaunt, bitter, triumphal
and often full of gratingly rhythmic activity – redolent of
the eldritch grotesquerie of the Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures
at an Exhibition.
Original and haunting
music that draws the listener back and makes one wonder what
else there is in the Adriano catalogue.
Rob Barnett
Sylvia Čápová-Vizváry
(piano); Marek Vrábel (organ); Tomáš Nemec (celesta) 
