Classical Music

HUMMEL POMPA-BALDI (PIANO) PIANO SONATAS VOL. 1- SONATA OP. 2, NO. 3 IN C MAJOR; SONATA OP.13 IN E-FLAT MAJOR; SONATA OP. 20 IN F MINOR

Classical Music

This is an amazing program of piano works by contemporary Italian composer Roberto Piana, brilliantly played by Italian pianist Antonio-Pompa-Baldi, who now has nearly 20 albums on the Centaur label. This album consists of two major works: 25 Preludi Pittorici, and Piano Sonata. Antonio Pompa-Baldi is an award-winning concert pianist and a beloved professor of music at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Maestro Pompa-Baldi’s talent is powered by boundless technical prowess and a genuine love of music. We hope this website gives you a worthy preview of his art. “Pompa-Baldi demonstrated both brilliance and structural insight… He also showed himself to be an ensemble player of considerable sensitivity, seeming to relish the partnership of other instruments.” (The Boston Globe)

Born and raised in Foggia, Italy, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, a top prizewinner at the 1998 Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition, winner of the 1999 Cleveland Int'l Piano Competition, and silver medalist at the 2001 Van Cliburn Int'l Piano Competition, appears regularly at the world's major concert venues. A beloved professor at the Cleveland Institute of Music and a prolific Centaur recording artist, this release marks the second volume in his complete traversal of the piano sonatas of Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1778-1837). "... warmth, exquisite taste and...arresting technique." (The LA Times)

This is Volume 3 in Centaur's cycle of the complete piano sonatas of Hummel, performed by Antonio Pompa-Baldi. This cycle is setting a very high bar for complete Hummel sonata cycles. Born and raised in Foggia, Italy, Antonio Pompa-Baldi won the Cleveland International Piano Competition in 1999 and embarked on a career that continues to extend across five continents. He also won a silver medal at the 2001 Van Cliburn Competition, as well as a bronze medal at the 1998 Marguerite Long Competition in Paris. The New York Times described his playing as “meltingly beautiful.” Pompa-Baldi founded the Todi International Music Masters Festival, of which he is artistic director and faculty member, and sits on the juries of the most prestigious piano competitions in the world.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

This album features three first-rate, greatly underperformed, Italian Sonatas for Violin and Piano. Respighi, Martucci, and Rota are all three wonderful composers, and it shows clearly in these works. Italian artists Fabrizio Falasca and Antonio Pompa-Baldi infuse these three great works with the life they deserve.