One of the many privileges of being the ICA Librarian is to distribute and discuss music with members from across the world. In recent weeks I have been corresponding with concertina players in the USA, Canada, Ireland, The Netherlands, Germany, Australia, France, Italy and the UK.
I am particularly pleased that David Gardiner from New Zealand, kindly accepted my invitation to discuss and play extracts from one his favourite pieces from the library – the Intermezzo from Pietro Mascagni’s one act opera Cavelleria Rusticana. Premiered in 1890, this popular work is set in Sicily and tells a passionate story of love, betrayal, jealously and death!
The arrangement is made by Henry Stanley, a prolific music arranger for the concertina, who during the 1940’s and 1950’s made hundreds of beautiful hand written arrangements for players on request.
On the link below you can hear, David play some extracts from the piece. Wonderfully expressive, this is only a glimpse of what’s to come as David’s full version will be available on the forthcoming CD Duet International – which we all look forward to.
David Gardiner on the Intermezzo from Cavelleria Rusticana
A copy of this music for Duet is available at Concertina.com:
stanley-intermezzo-from-cavalleria-rusticana.pdf
And a brand new arrangement of the piece for English Concertina by Stephen Taggart is available to ICA members by emailing librarian@concertina.org – and lots more music too.
Jeremy Hague