Tramonto

Il Tramonto is one of the very few works conceived, rather than arranged, for voice and string quartet. Its one notable predecessor is Schoenberg’s Second String Quartet, the last two movements of which are settings for soprano of poems by Stefan George. While we cannot be sure that Respighi knew that work – which was completed six years before Il Tramonto – there can be little doubt that he was familiar with the same composer’s string sextet Verklärte Nacht of 1899. While there are obvious fundamental differences between Verklärte Nacht and Il Tramonto, the two works do have a similar nocturnal atmosphere, each animated by two people walking together and, though in different ways, expressing their love under the moon. Both works end in a serene reconciliation.

The vocal part in Il Tramonto is not so much a solo role as a sensitively executed means of integrating the text with the reactions it provokes in the string quartet. Perhaps its most inspired quality is its flexibility, the ease with which it so spontaneously fluctuates through the area between dramatic recitative and lyrical arioso, only occasionally touching on song and generally avoiding anything like operatic word-setting. From the beginning, even before the first entry of the voice in recitative, the melodic interest is in the string quartet, which opens the work with an expressive melody of long-term significance. One of the most alluring episodes is the purely instrumental, and beautifully written, interlude before the couple “mingle,” as Shelley discreetly puts it, “in love and sleep.” No less effective is the contrast between the percussive pizzicato sounds associated with “la nuda tomba” near the end and the caressing violin melody which, reflecting Isabel’s final prayer for peace, so serenely transfigures the earlier material.