For 50 years, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Shakespeare Sonnets remained largely unknown to the public, stored in the Library of Congress and only occasionally performed or cited.
Composer Biography
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco was a prolific composer with 210 opus numbers and over 200 film scores, yet he is primarily remembered today for his guitar works.
Interpretation
The performers on this recording chose to alternate female and male voices for the Sonnets to emphasize the intrinsic ambiguity and layered meanings of the amorous relationships in Shakespeare's poetry.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Castelnuovo-Tedesco believed Shakespeare's texts 'asked for musical collaboration as a necessary element for completing the poetic expression,' finding Shakespeare's English to be a 'perfectly musical language'.
Historical Context
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, a Jewish-born composer, emigrated to the United States in 1939 due to Italy's Fascist government passing anti-Semitic racial laws.
Composition History
The Shakespeare Sonnets Op.125, a cycle of 32 sonnets set to music by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, were composed over two decades, primarily during his exile in Beverly Hills.
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