Live in Taiwan 1998 by Sergio Fiorentino

Various composers

Sergio Fiorentino

Live in Taiwan 1998

Price: € 19.95
Format: CD
Label: Rhine Classics
UPC: 4713106280097
Catnr: RH 009
Release date: 02 August 2019
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Label
Rhine Classics

UPC
4713106280097

Catalogue number
RH 009

Release date
02 August 2019

Album

Artist(s)

Composer(s)

About the album

The Italian pianists who have made the history of interpretation are well known, starting from Busoni through Zecchi, Benedetti Michelangeli, up to Pollini and others…
But there are many other very great Italian pianists, who due to a series of more or less clear circumstances, slipped away unnoticed, without the deserved recognition. In particular, Sergio Fiorentino stands out above all of them, an incomparable pianist and musician, who had a discontinuous career and that only post-mortem began to be universally ranked as one of the greatest pianist of the 20th Century.
He was, above all, a soulful musician, who always avoided virtuosity for its own sake, and could thus return profound interpretations of Bach, Schubert, Franck or of the last Beethoven’s sonatas. He was a balanced pianist, faithful to the score, but, at the same time, still tied to certain freedom of expression, typical of the pianists of the late 19th century but always with great taste, elegance, musicality and respect of the musical style.
Fiorentino, for his perfect technique, clear sonority, vast musical culture and broad repertoire (from Bach to Stravinsky, including also the main compositions for orchestra and chamber music) represents in many aspects the archetype of the “perfect pianist”.

Artist(s)

Sergio Fiorentino (piano)

Sergio Fiorentino was one of the greatest pianists I have ever heard. I realize that this is a big statement, especially since my listening and loving pianists over a period of over half a century. I heard Backhaus, Cherkassky, Kapell, Landowska, Moiseiwitsch, Schnabel and Solomon. I knew Horowitz personally. And I introduced to America in their debut recitals such pianistic luminaries as Bella Davidovich, Andrei Gavrilov, JeanPhilippe Collard, Mikhail Pletnev, Igor Zhukov, Ekaterina Novitskaya, Maria João Pires, Andrea Lucchesini and more than twenty others. I returned to America after absences of many decades such artist as Maria Tipo, Magda Tagliaferro, Dubravka Tomšič, Vlado Perlemuter and Dame Moura Lympany. But it was Sergio Fiorentino’s return after forty odd years of first playing in New York City that brought me the greatest satisfaction and moved me deeply… Sergio was immediately loved by Newport and New York audiences. Critics from Boston and New York wrote that his was a throwback to the golden age of Lhevinne, Godowsky and Rachmaninoff himself. Sergio was generous with his time, his artistry and his concern for others. His fellow artists at the Festival revered him; one seasoned pianist even wanted to travel to Naples for further study with him. He was an impresario’s dream: always playing like a god with no hidden agenda of personal difficulties. His needs were simple: a light meal and a glass of Coke. He was impeccably dressed even though his concert suit spanned the decades. The Festival made him a gift of a new set of tails; he accepted it graciously, and it is now a poignant reminder that he played his very last recital in that new suit. As a matter of fact, the very last piece he played in public was at the Newport Music Festival --- Beethoven’s Sonata Op.26, prophetically containing the “Marcia funebre sulla morte d’un eroe.” For me, Sergio was that “hero”. He will be forever missed and never forgotten.

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Composer(s)

Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn is often compared to Mozart. Both of them were child prodigies, both had a talented sister and they both died at a young age. Mendelssohn, who as a child also painted wrote poetry, was born in small family which converted to christianity from judaism. As a composer he preferred looking back, rather than forward: his main examples were Bach, Handel and Mozart. It was Mendelssohn who retrieved Bach from oblivion and pushed for a revival of his music, which still lasts today. One century after its premier, Mendelsson performed the St Matthew Passion for the second...

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period.

Mendelssohn is often compared to Mozart. Both of them were child prodigies, both had a talented sister and they both died at a young age. Mendelssohn, who as a child also painted wrote poetry, was born in small family which converted to christianity from judaism. As a composer he preferred looking back, rather than forward: his main examples were Bach, Handel and Mozart. It was Mendelssohn who retrieved Bach from oblivion and pushed for a revival of his music, which still lasts today. One century after its premier, Mendelsson performed the St Matthew Passion for the second time ever, in 1829.

Three years, earlier, on his 17th, he had already composed his masterfully overture A midsummer night's dream op. 21, based on Shakespeare's play. Today, it is still considered as one of the absolute masterpieces in all of the orchestra reperoire. His Violin Concerto op. 64 belongs to the most beautiful works of the 19th century as well. During his travels through Europe, he wrote his brilliant Italian Symphony, Scottish Symphony and the overture The Hebrides.

Although Mendelssohn had a prosperous career, his weak physique made him emotionally vulnerable. The death of his favourite sister Fanny became fatal: Mendelssohn died in the same year, at the age of 38.

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Alexander Scriabin

Alexander Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist. He began playing the piano at the age of five, but received his first lessons only at the age of eleven. He could not play from sight, but studied the score and played the compositions by heart afterwards. He was also a gifted improviser.
During the rest of his live Scriabin made a living as a composer and concert pianist.He established contracts with publishers and also had a patron in his former student Margarita Morozova for some time. In addition, he annually won a money prize in the context of the Glinka-prize for new compositions that was set up by Beljajev.
Scriabin primarily wrote for solo piano and orchestra. His music progressively evolved over the course of his life, although the evolution was very rapid and especially brief when compared to most composers. His earliest piano pieces resemble those of Frédéric Chopin. The works from his middle and late period use very unusual harmonies and textures.
From 1904 till 1910 Scriabin lived in western Europe, primarily in Switzerland, but also in northern Italy, Paris and Brussels. After his return to Russia he found himself in the middle of a circle of admirers who were attracted to his exalted and mystic ideas. During the last years of his life he worked on a grandiose manifestation, a Gesamtkunstwerk, Mysterium, in which all arts and all people would have been united. He left only sketches of the prelude to this piece (L'action préalable) and large amounts of text.

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Ferruccio Busoni

Busoni was a man with many faces. He was born in Tuscany from a German mother and Italian father, and settled down in Berlin, after visiting Leipzig, Helsinki and Moscow. There he established himself as a composer, but above all a phenomenal pianist. His music shows some discrepancies. On the one hand, he looks back on the Romantic period with his giant pianoconcerto with male choir as the absolute pinnacle. On the onder hand, he looks forward to the future and found that music had to be freed of the chains of outdated ideas. In his much-read manifest 'Entwurf einer neuen Ästhetik der Tonkunst’ (1907), Busoni sketches his ideal image of music, and in his Six Sonatinas for piano he...

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Frédéric Chopin

Frédéric Chopin is one of the greatest composers of the Romantic piano tradition. He was a master in making the small form great. His ballades, mazurkas, polonaises, preludes, etudes and nocturnes all belong to the most popular standard works for piano ever written. As a child prodigy, Chopin grew up in a middle class family, who lived among the literati of Warsaw. When in 1830 the November Uprising broke out in Poland, the twenty year old Chopin stayed in Vienna. He became an exile and never returned to his mother country. He eventually settled in Paris. He avoided public concerts, but he did like performing in small settings, such as salons and at home for his friends. This way, Chopin built a reputation as an exceptional pianist, teacher and composer.
Chopin brought a unique synthesis between the Viennese bravado and the French/English lyric style. Even though his pieces often are technically very demanding, the focus was always on creating a lyric expression and poetic atmosphere. He invented the instrumental ballade, and brought salongenres to a higher level with his many innovations and refinements.

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Moritz Moszkowski

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninov was a Russian pianist, composer, and conductor of the late-Romantic period, some of whose works are among the most popular in the classical repertoire.
Born into a musical family, Rachmaninov took up the piano at age four. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1892 and had composed several piano and orchestral pieces by this time. In 1897, following the critical reaction to his Symphony No. 1, Rachmaninoff entered a four-year depression and composed little until successful therapy allowed him to complete his enthusiastically received Piano Concerto No. 2 in 1901. After the Russian Revolution, Rachmaninov and his family left Russia and resided in the United States, first in New York City. Demanding piano concert tour schedules caused his output as composer to slow tremendously; between 1918 and 1943, he completed just six compositions, including Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Symphony No. 3, and Symphonic Dances. In 1942, Rachmaninov moved to Beverly Hills, California. One month before his death from advanced melanoma, Rachmaninov acquired American citizenship.
Early influences of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Balakirev, Mussorgsky, and other Russian composers gave way to a personal style notable for its song-like melodicism, expressiveness and his use of rich orchestral colors.[3] The piano is featured prominently in Rachmaninov's compositional output, and through his own skills as a performer he explored the expressive possibilities of the instrument.

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