This world première recording of the second volume of José Antonio Bottiroli’s complete piano music, is performed once again by his award-winning protégé Fabio Banegas. The nocturnal themes heard in this album were inspired by the clear skies over the composer’s holiday home in Los Cocos, Cordoba Province, Argentina – these spellbinding works transcend earthly romantic concerns and venture into the stillness of the universe. Dedicated to Banegas, the Album Pages represent Bottiroli’s distinctive impressionist style, while the unique Five Piano Replies connects music with poetry written by the composer, and read on this recording by the renowned actor George Takei.

REVIEW:

Of Italian parents, José Antonio Bottiroli was equally to enjoy a busy life of a solo pianist, his portfolio of competitions numbering some seventy-three pieces by the time of his death in 1990. Their presence has only been revealed by his pupil, Fabio Banegas, whose initiative has lead to this Grand Piano series. They were never to engage with the use of atonality, but were tuneful and usually quite short, mostly gathered together to form scores of some length, the present release containing five works numbering 20 tracks. They covered the period between 1974 to 1984, the quiet nature of the Six Album Pages (Seis Hojas de Album) being particularly attractive, while much of the disc is taken up with Five Piano Replies (Cinco Replicas para piano). That work takes its name from the words of Bottiroli’s poems which then drew his own piano reply. Here the words are spoken by George Takei in English translations by Banegas, his diction is impeccable, though the words also come in the enclosed booklet. Much of the music on the disc only requires a modest technical ability and offer uncomplicated charm, Bottiroli being particularly drawn to the nature of the ‘Nocturne’, of which four are included here.

– David's Review Corner (David Denton)

Maltese composer Karl Fiorini is a European without frontiers – the compositions in this album reflect his early detachment from a Mediterranean identity towards a more varied and intense sound world. Trio Lamina features elements of Bartók’s ‘night music’ in its complex sub-sections, whereas Fiorini’s two piano studies, which predate his move to Paris, already exude a Gallic ambience. Influenced by North African folk music, the Piano Trio expands his global reach, and the Piano Sonata, a gritty virtuoso concert piece, shifts geographical influence towards Eastern Europe to powerful effect. All of these world première recordings were recorded in the presence of the composer.

REVIEWS:

This program is a shining example of a 21st-century composer who has stepped back from the extremist styles of the mid-late 20th century to re-embrace communication with an audience, but has taken elements from those styles into his own armory.

Karl Fiorini (b. 1979) references Minimalism alongside Lisztian bravura in the first of his Piano Études (2007–08), Middle Eastern syncopation in his 2017 Piano Sonata, and Neoclassical momentum plus Webernian fragmentation in the Trio Lamina (2002).

He draws on the characteristics of recent schools without adhering to their strict rules or specific aims. He knows his instruments, and his chamber music on this showing is bracingly virtuosic. Like other contemporary composers such as Francisco Coll, he has created a strong voice by synthesizing disparate elements so they emerge as subtle flavors, to use a cooking metaphor. (Much 21st-century music resembles modern fusion cuisine.)

The latest work on this program is a quartet, In the Midst of Things (2019), utilizing the same instrumental combination as Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. I think Fiorini deliberately echoes that seminal work in the first movement, which begins with a languorous cello melody accompanied by full, stately chords from the piano, but he soon turns away from it. By the time we reach the closing Presto movement we are in a bustling world of earthy joie de vivre of a type Messiaen never attempted. Again, Eastern rhythms feature.

I greatly enjoyed these examples of Fiorini’s work. He may be an instinctive composer as he claims, but his instinct is clearly based in a solid grounding of acquired knowledge and continual exploration. The sound and performances are excellent. For those interested in new music, this disc is an exciting and not overly demanding example.

-- Fanfare

The early Trio Lamina (2002) for violin, clarinet, and piano sports an arch form and a spooky atmosphere reminiscent of Bartok. The Two Piano Etudes (2008) have a Gallic neo-Impressionism; and the Piano Trio (2005) has echoes of North African folk music in the use of hexachords and modes in retrograde and inversion. The Piano Sonata (2017) is a dense and demanding concert piece inspired by the music of Eastern Europe.

In the Midst of Things (2019) is a four-movement work for clarinet and piano trio that takes a Beethoven-like approach to structure, balancing intricate theory with carefully timed emotion. The performers bring out the best in the scores, rendering them all with marvelous skill, vigor, transparency, and commitment[.]

-- American Record Guide

Alexey Stanchinsky was considered an outstanding student by his teacher Taneyev, his work anticipating Stravinsky, Prokofiev and others, paving the way towards many aspects of twentieth-century style. His tragic early death and publishing difficulties meant that his music was hidden for decades. Volume 1 of this complete edition contains his entire output until 1910, including several world premiere recordings and revealing his early melodic gift and sophisticated virtuosity. Pianist Olga Solovieva was born in Moscow, graduated from the Russian Academy of Music, Moscow, and took a postgraduate course as an assistant to Leonid Blok. Since 2004 she has been a professor at the Gnessin State Musical College, and has given masterclasses in Ireland and Belgium. Solovieva was a prizewinner of the 1999 Taneyev Competition of Chamber Ensembles, a finalist of the 2000 XX Chamber Music Competition in Trapani, Italy, a 2010 Boris Tchaikovsky Society Award Winner, and was awarded the Best Accompanist Prize at the XII International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. In May 2019 she received the Russian public award for her contribution to the development of the musical art and the Glinka Medal.

Tchaikovsky wrote over 100 lyric art songs or Romances, a sequence of diaries of the soul that embrace moods from euphoria to despair. They were unusually important to him, and he, or his editors, commissioned piano transcriptions by eminent musicians such as Laub and others, all of which were revised by Tchaikovsky. These poetic and melodically beautiful songs, many of which are here recorded for the first time, include the ravishing None but the Lonely Heart and reveal a ‘new’ body of Tchaikovsky’s piano repertoire. The album concludes with an opera fantasy on themes from Eugene Onegin by the Austrian composer and pianist Carl Fruhling. Julia Severus graduated from the Berlin University of Arts and from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where she studied piano with Mikhail Voskresensky and Lev Naumov. Wishing to explore piano ensemble repertoire, she founded the Aurora Duo and Quartet, performing numerous premieres and world premieres, among them Rodion Shchedrin’s Hommage a Chopin in the presence of the composer.

REVIEW:

The range of songs is wide. The most famous of the set, generally known in English as None but the lonely heart, is arranged by Severus. She has replaced the syncopations of the original accompaniment with triplets that meander around the vocal line. In general, I find that the extra little touches of fantasy in Severus’s transcriptions make for more effective piano solos than the others on the disc. That said, Tchaikovsky’s gift for melody and drama make all these pieces worth hearing.

Severus finds the mood and style effectively, and generally plays very well. Overall, this is a very enjoyable and well-balanced recital.

– MusicWeb International

This third volume of Erik Satie’s complete solo piano music using Satie scholar Robert Orledge’s new Salabert Edition focuses on music composed between 1892-1897, including theatrical scores such as the revolutionary uspud, and the Danses gothiques and famous Vexations written while the composer was hiding from a tempestuous love affair. The period closes with Satie composing in what he called “a more flexible and accessible way withthe final Gnossienne and the six Pieces froides.” Recognized at once as a great interpreter of Liszt’s music, Nicolas Horvath became in recent years one of the most sought after pianists of his generation. Holder of a number of awards, like the First Prize of the Scriabin and the Luigi Nono International Competitions, he frequently organizes events and concerts of unusual length, sometimes over twelve hours, such as Philip Glass complete piano music or Erik Satie’s Vexations.