Alessandro Marinelli (1865-1951): "Sérénade" (1912) with score

[Martin Jonas]

Alessandro Marinelli (1865-1951): "Sérénade" - Allegretto scherzoso
Pezzo obbligato al Concorso Internazionale Mandolinistico di Bergamo 1912

This romantic serenade for mandolin orchestra was written in 1912 as the compulsory competition piece at the Bergamo International Mandolin Congress that year. Marinelli was a mainstay of the Bergamo mandolin community for many years. I got the score from the Nakano archive (attached).

The piece was revived a few years ago and recorded for a CD by the Estudiantina Ensemble Bergamo with Ugo Orlandi (Link). I haven't heard that recording (there are no sound samples online), and I don't know how similar or different it is compared to my own quartet recording.

The CD booklet is online, and Orlandi's notes have a short biographical sketch of the composer:

"Alessandro Marinelli (Bergamo 1865-1951) studied piano with Citerio, organ with V. Petrali, harmony and counterpoint with A Vanabianchi at the Istituto Donizetti. After studying with A. Ponchielli, in 1887 he took the diploma in composition at the Milan Conservatoire. From 1890 to 1940 he turned out to be one of the chief protagonists of the musical life in Bergamo as a teacher, organizer (Circolo Artistico, Società del Quartetto, Ateneo bergamasco) and musical critic (La rivista di Bergamo). Most of the composers here presented were Marinelli’s students: he taught, in fact, for more than twenty years at the Istituto Donizetti (piano, organ, harmony and counterpoint) and played a leading role for all the contemporary musicians from Bergamo."

My recording is as a quartet of two vintage bowlback mandolins, octave mandolin and tenor guitar, for a more intimate sound than a full orchestral line-up. I wonder what the judges at the 1912 contest would have made of this...

1890s Umberto Ceccherini mandolin
1915 Luigi Embergher mandolin
Mid-Missouri M-111 octave mandolin
Vintage Viaten tenor guitar



Martin