Nino Rota Symphony No 3, Concerto festivo and Le Moliere imaginaire

ROTA's 3rd Symphony opening movement rattles along with a sparkle that hints at the composer's tireless occupation of film score writer.

The allegro fairly roars into life with a foot-tapping jauntiness that wins over the listener from the start.

Curiously, however, although from the pen of a movie man, this 3rd Symphony - his last - is the least cinematographic of the three.

Although composed in 1956, when Rota was bashing out film music at every conceivable opportunity, the composer shows in his work a clear enthusiasm for Prokofiev's Classical Symphony (1917).

Yet there is nothing outmoded in Rota's work. If anything, the strains of Prokofiev have been given a new and more original lease of life.

The maturity of Rota's final symphony is matched with considerable drama by his Concerto festivo (1958-61).

It didn't take four years to compose but it was subjected to several rethinks and amendments.

This is a grand, highly-charged, piece of music and each of the five movements, from overture to finale, are powerful musical miniatures.

Oddly enough, there is another comparison here, for there are strong suggestions of Mussorgsky's Pictures from an Exhibition.

But then, he was a favourite composer of Rota.

The final piece in this hour-long disc by the Swedish Norrkoping Symphony Orchestra is the ballet suite Le Moliere imaginaire.

This was completed a year before Rota died and was a celebration of the tercentenary of the French writer's death.

There are strong Gallic influences, naturally, and there is much humour and more than little irreverent melancholy.

I suspect Moliere would have enjoyed this work.

This well-recorded CD is conducted by Ole Kristian Ruud and Hannu Koivula.

BIS-CD 1070