Almerigo Girotto
Liriche da camera per voce e pianoforte
Tiziana Zoccarato, soprano
Edoardo Lanza, Pianoforte
VELUT LUNA CVLD281 - UPC: 8019349159333 // ISRC: ITW311628101 ..02 ..03
ALMERIGO GIROTTO was born blind in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1897, from Italian parents that had emigrated there, but since the age of two he was brought up by his maternal grandmother in Vicenza. At the age of nine he was sent to the Institute for the blind "L. Configliachi" in Padua, where he remained until 1914; this is where, under the guidance of Luigi Bottazzo, he received his first musical education (Harmony and Organ). After leaving the boarding school, he obtained his Piano diploma as a pupil of the great artists Renzo Lorenzoni (Florence 1924). Since then Girotto would devote himself exclusively, and on his own, with limited resources worsened by his condition, to the tireless study of composition and to broadening his culture.
In 1941, prompted by his friends’ insistence, he suddenly took on, in one session, both the exams of Fugue and Composition at the “Pollini” Conservatory in Padua, passing them splendidly with great ease. He achieved these important goals, but with no practical consequences, as they were thwarted by his retiring character and by his fatal integral pessimism (that was certainly not mitigated by the heavy wartime atmosphere), that conditioned not only the success of his works, but also the simple fact of making these known to the general public.
He lived mostly in Vicenza, a town he was tied to by nostalgia and emotional bonds and where he spent the rest of his life after the war: a long wait, a dignified and aware walk down the path towards the great silence. And his voice did fall silent in April 1967, while his song had already fallen silent for many years.
If Almerigo Girotto’s lifespan was of average length his creative season was extremely brief, lasting about fifteen years between 1915 and 1940: a gradual maturation, (typical of many artists, but in his case explained by his living conditions) followed by complete withdrawal (which is explained by his psychology).
We cannot omit including some passages of the most significant reviews that appeared in the Milan press after the concert held by illustrious performers at the Angelicum in 1947 (the same year Girotto was also presented at the Festival of Contemporary Music in Venice). Franco Abbiati, in the “Corriere della Sera” wrote: “his works for voice, for violin, for piano, show a spiritual and constructive maturity worthy of the best modern composers. Their content is often dramatic, their language is often harsh and violent, their fabric then thinning out reaching out towards chaste, slender and sweetly lyrical expressions..."
Notes relating to the Songs for voice and piano by A. Girotto
What is really remarkable in Almerigo Girotto’s compositions, and above all in his songs, is the admirable combination between tradition and modernity, the respect for classicism and his very personal originality, his firm composition technique and his refreshing melodic spontaneity, that manages to give an effective rendering to the folk character of the texts in Verona dialect.
Despite maintaining a solid tonal layout, Girotto manages with elegance and nonchalance dense and dissonant harmonic combinations, sometimes distinctly polytonal, always making use of varied, interesting and appropriate rhythmic formulas and timbral effects.
