ANTONIO BIBALO
Concerto da Camera No 3
“to the Telemark Chamber Orchestra and Prof. Stefano
Sacher”
Antonio Bibalo was born in Trieste, Italy, in 1922, and he
studied piano at the local conservatory. As a 19-year-old he
was called up to the Italian army, which also gave him a taste
of life inside a prison camp when his country lost the war.
Subsequently he continued his career as a pianist, as well as
studying composition in London. In 1955 he took a holiday to
Norway; he decided to stay, and settled near Larvik. He died in
Norway on 20 June 2008.
Concerto da Camera No 3 was premiered at the Vestfold
International Festival that same year by the Telemark
Chamber Orchestra and the Norwegian Wind Ensemble.
When I called the composer in April 2008, to inform him that
Concerto da Camera No 3 was finally going to be premiered,
he was clearly surprised and delighted. That was because
the piece, which had been commissioned by the Telemark
Chamber Orchestra, had been left unused since its completion
in the autumn of 2005 – due to various unfortunate
circumstances. During the intervening years, the orchestra
had somewhat anxiously wondered whether someone else
would perform the work first, as the publisher had meanwhile
made it available on the Internet. The original score had been
safely kept in storage since it reached the orchestra on 6
December 2005, but in 2008 the time had finally come to dust
it off in preparation for the premiere.
In Concerto da Camera No 3, Antonio Bibalo uses an unusual
ensemble: woodwind, horn and trumpet soloists, together
with percussion, kettledrums, strings and concertante piano.
In this work of three movements, or “Etudes”, the composer
takes great delight in virtuoso orchestration. The piano is
particularly evocative of a Baroque concerto grosso, but
concertante elements can also be discerned from time to time
in several of the wind voices.
The Norwegian composer Lasse Thoresen said that “There
is a depth to Bibalo’s life that we are given a glimpse of
through his music. His encounter with the extremes of
existence left traces in his works.” I never met Antonio
Bibalo. At the premiere, which took place two weeks too late
for the composer to hear his last orchestral work performed,
Thoresen’s description seemed strangely apt, and when I
introduced the work to the public, I said: “I feel that I have
been able to meet Bibalo through my work on Concerto
da Camera No 3, and he keeps revealing new sides of his
personality in different parts of this piece. Particularly in
the second movement you sense a depth that gives the work
an additional dimension – one which makes it tempting to
describe it, on an occasion like this, as the composer’s requiem
for himself.”
Bibalo left behind an extensive oeuvre, with musical drama
being the genre that he dedicated most of his energy to.
His great sense of musical dramaturgy is also one of the
prominent qualities of his instrumental works. In this third
chamber concerto, where he draws inspiration from the
golden age of music in his homeland, this quality combines
with musical creativity and a highly personal expression to
produce a striking legacy to posterity.