Thorp, Bill A Neapolitan Six for Viola Duet

Canzone Napolitana, or Neapolitan Song, is a rich and attractive musical genre. Institutionalised in the 1830s by the annual songwriting competition for the Festival of Piedigrotta, Naples, and flourishing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, its songs have been much popularised and championed by the great (not always Italian) singers of the last hundred years from Caruso, Gigli and De Stefano, through the ‘Three Tenors’ (Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras) to more ‘popular’ artists such as Mario Lanza and Andrea Bocelli, and even unlikely ones such as Elvis Presley, Bono and Meat Loaf. Often nostalgic and sentimental yet displaying broad musical variety (as this selection demonstrates) they possess an enduring charm, transporting both performer and listener to the Naples of their imagination.

1. Santa Lucia
2. Torna a Surriento
3. Funiculì, Funiculà
4. O Sole Mio
5. Core ‘ngrato
6 ‘O surdato ‘nnammurato