Sinigaglia / Genot / Genot / Negro - Sinigaglia: Music for Violin & Piano - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

There's an aura of mystery that surrounds the music of Leone Sinigaglia, and yet in his time he was esteemed and supported by the finest musicians of the period, from Dvorák (with whom he studied in Bohemia, and who was responsible for nurturing his interest in folk music) to Nikisch, from Mahler to Furtwängler, from Toscanini to Kreisler. As pianist Massimiliano Génot explains in his liner notes, Sinigaglia was very much a victim of historical circumstance, his Viennese base causing him to suffer after Italy's withdrawal from the Triple Alliance, following the outbreak of the First World War, and the subsequent demise of German culture; he also had to contend with rising anti-Semitism, not to mention the fact that Italian taste of the time was oriented towards opera an singing rather than instrumental and chamber music, his two preferred genres. And yet Sinigaglia's inspiration was profoundly lyrical, with a propensity for melodic writing - one of the best examples is his 'swansong', the second movement of the Violin Sonata Op.44, which features on this album. And Sinigaglia was not without his triumphs his Piedmontese Dances Op.31 for orchestra, performed in 250 cities before 1922, rivalled in popularity the dances by Brahms and Dvorák; and he scored a great success with the Overture Le Baruffe Chiozzotte, whose brio, strength and comic vitality characterize the brilliant four-hand reduction found on this recording. Convinced of what he describes as 'the manifest injustice of an historical judgment that has condemned Sinigaglia for too long to oblivion', Massimiliano Génot has, together with his sister, violinist Alessandra, aimed to bring the composer's cause to the attention of modern listeners, uniting Sinigaglia's entire piano works and presenting them alongside other musical gems and transcriptions as detailed above. Both natives of Turin, the composer's home