Search - Ottorino Respighi, Ferruccio Busoni, Johann Sebastian Bach :: Busoni: Complete Works for Cello and Piano

Eccellente !

jean couture | Quebec city - Canada | 10/23/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Relatively few people know about the European composer Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924), who was also a great pianist, conductor, music scholar and teacher. If i used the term "European," it is because Busoni dwelled almost everywhere in Europe, including France, Finland, Austria, Germany, England and Russia... He also lived for a while in the United States where he was hired as a teacher and virtuoso piano performer. His musical gifts are ample and his "style" is attractive.



The disc starts off with the admirable Adagio con variazioni by Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936). The work expresses warmth, great beauty and a dignified maturation of the classical bequest of Italian composers of the late nineteenth century. The music was composed after an original theme by Antonio Certani, one of Respighi's friends. The well-known setting is for Cello and Orchestra. The chamber (piano-cello) setting of that work is seldom seen and heard on discs: Arturo Bonucci and Pietro Spada (Arts CD) have produced a really good account of it, but not quite enough so as to readily displace Angelo and Francesco Pepicelli's sheer brilliance and intuitive melodiousness. Alternately, you might find Stefano Malferrari and Mauro Valli (Tactus CD); Marco Vincenzi and Enrico Bronzi (Dynamic label CD); Francesco Nicolosi and Luca Signorini (Nuova Era CD). In all equally fine performances, those offerings are more or less competitive with the Naxos.



Just as for Respighi's Adagio, the Busoni works are played with all the gamut of emotion and proficiency one would expect. Busoni's famous piano transcriptions of J.S. Bach are enthralling little chefs-d'oeuvre: With graceful musicality, the `Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue' (after Bach) is a prime example of this. The Kleine Suite is a nicely done lyrical piece which looks back to the thriving era of Bach and Vivaldi. The `Ten Variations on a Finnish Folk Song' should hark back to the composer's years in Helsinki, where he was a piano instructor at the then-newly founded Conservatory (circa 1888-89) and became acquainted with Jean Sibelius with whom he shared a lifelong friendship. Helsinki was also the place where Busoni first met his wife, Gerda Sjostrand, and some other friends who, for the most part, identified with the cultural elite of the nation.



The Pepicellis play with cohesion and with conviction--on each track their virtuosity is obvious. Their "touch" goes with grace, naturalness and without any strain. I like, in particular, the variety of colors they produce out of Respighi's Adagio. And their take on Busoni's transcriptions are clearly excellent. Producer Walter B. Neri has captured the musicians in decently good sound, though falling short of detail and transparentness. This is a very good, though "imperfect," album--but the minor quibblings as regard sonics won't prevent it to take place among my favorite discs."