These songs of the late nineteenth century (and early twentieth) are little known outside Italy (and may remain that way, for their texts are given only in Italian in the booklet). The "musica vocale da camera" or chamber vocal music billed here simply indicates songs for voice and piano. They may confirm speculations about what Italian art song might be like -- they are Italianate in melody and vocal style, but with piano parts that make a great point of asserting their independence, often simply through an elaborate introduction. The brief, mostly sober Pagine sparse, Op. 68 (Sparse Pages), of 1888 is simpler and more effective than the other songs, but the essentially operatic voice of soprano
Chiarastella Onorati, there and in the paired Sogno d'amore (Dream of Love) and Sogno di morte (Dream of Death), is more suited to the wider scope of La canzone dei ricordi (Song of Memories), an ambitious group of songs with both cyclical aspects and references to other Martucci works. The booklet goes into extensive detail about these particular compositions without doing much to illuminate basic questions (for non-Italians, at least): what was the status of art song in Italy? what kind of contact might Martucci have had with German or French models? and who was Martucci, anyway? (An opera conductor, a lover of German music, and the teacher of Respighi, he is said to have been a favorite of
Arturo Toscanini.) This disc is probably of most interest for listeners specifically interested in national schools of art song.