Francesco Nicolosi - Fantasies on Operas - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

A student of Hummel, Sigismond Thalberg was one of the great virtuoso pianist-com-posers of the 19th century, who enjoyed a celebrated rivalry with Liszt that was largely fomented by the press. Thalberg's influence on fellow pianists was enormous and his operatic paraphrases and fantasies, designed for his own use in concert performances, proved exceptionally popular. Even Liszt himself performed several of them. Berlioz praised Thalberg as the creator of 'a new art' and the thrilling examples here, taking the best-known themes from great Italian operas, reveal bravura embellishments and ingenious elaborations.

Sigismond Thalberg was a virtuoso pianist whose training included studies with Mozart's pupil Johann Hummel, and whose rivalry with Franz Liszt became the talk of Paris in the 1830s. Thalberg excelled in the fashionable solo piano genre of operatic paraphrase but, while drawing on themes by the ever-popular Rossini, Les Soirées de Pausilippe avoids ostentatious excess. Instead Thalberg preferred an elegant simplicity in which the piano is allowed to sing in emulation of the operatic originals. With rhythmic dances, expressive arias and more, this is a collection that embraces moods that range from Mendelssohnian charm to Chopinesque pianism. Album Tracks 1. Les Soirées de Pausilippe, Op. 75 Hommage À Rossini 24 Pensées Musicales (1862) 2. Andantino in a Flat Major 3. Moderato in E Major 4. Molto Agitato in a Minor 5. Andantino in D Major 6. Tarentella in G minor 7. Vivace in E Flat Major 8. Lento in C Major 9. Presto in a Minor 10. Andantino in D Major 11. Cantabile in B Flat Major 12. Allegretto in F Major 13. Allegretto in D Flat Major 14. Adagio in B Flat Major 15. Allegretto in D Major 16. Presto in G minor 17. Allegro in D Flat Major 18. Adagio in F Major 19. Marcia in D minor 20. Molto Vivace in B minor 21. Allegro in B Flat Major 22. Allegretto in a Minor 23. Allegretto in D minor 24. Andantino in B Major 25. Polacca in a Flat Major

Album Tracks 1. Fantasia on Semiramide, Op. 51 2. Fantasia on la Donna Del Iago, Op. 40 Bis 3. Fantasia on Il Barbiere Di Saviglia, Op. 63 4. Fantasia on Moise, Op. 33