Various Artists - Rediscovered - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Various Artists - Discover Classical Music / Various [COMPACT DISCS] date 02/15/1994

A new enlightening box of mostly live and radio recordings by the intellectual among the pianists Pietro Scarpini. InchA sterling achievement.Inch InchFor me, the whole series has been a voyage of discovery [...] In terms of production quality and presentation. The Pietro Scarpini Edition gets my wholehearted recommendation for resuscitating the memory of a long-forgotten artist.Inch (MusicWeb) Pietro Scarpini was called Incha pianist of prodigious capacitiesInch by New York Times critic Olin Downes after the performance of the Prokofiev 2nd concerto. Though he studied conducting at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, as well as composition with Casella, to whom the Busoni Op 54 is dedicated, and with Respighi, it is as a pianist that realized his ultimate talent. Scarpini was a rare combination a highly intellectual pianist with a virtuoso technique. He was a dignified and solitary person with a serious approach to music, single-mindedly following the course of his artistic convictions without compromise.

Ruggiero Ricci followed the tradition of Vasa Prihoda, the Czech virtuoso, who performed Paganini as a central part of his repertory (Ricci gave the US premieres of both the 4th and 6th Violin Concertos). Giving so much attention to the works of the Genoese composer, as he later said, he learned much of the violin-technique from Paganini's works. Mainly for this reason, Ricci was often associated with Paganini, but during his life he was firmly opposed to any categorization, and indeed he was known to say InchA specialist is somebody who plays all the other types of music worse.Inch This 4-album set presents live and studio recordings, ranging from 1946 to 1970, including some rarities, which have never before been commercially released.