Yuval Waldman, Conductor,
with the St. Petersburg Festival Orchestra

Napoli! is a tone poem for orchestra based on
my own Neapolitan style melodies.

The famed Neapolitan songs, of which
"O Sole Mio" is a classic model, were largely
written during the late 1800's. They have been
kept alive by the great opera singers of this
century. Pavarotti is the latest in this line of "classical" singers who have cashed-in on
these gems.

My piece makes use of a few tunes I've written over the years for various purposes. The "money theme" (which in music school we snobbishly referred to as any crowd pleasing tune) comes after the soft-bell introduction and a quick fiery transition.

Variations on the main theme and a dose of chaos ensue while we wend our way back to the introduction and main theme. The recapitulation is interrupted by a ferocious march of which my advice to conductors is "if you play it fast enough the notes won't matter anyway!"