Gian Francesco Malipiero - Piano Music (Sandro Ivo Bartoli)

Information

Composer: Gian Francesco Malipiero

• Preludi Autunnali
• Barlumi
• Maschere che passano
• Poem asolani
• Omaggi
• A Claudio Debussy

Sandro Ivo Bartoli, piano

Date: 1995

Label: ASV

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Review

Malipiero is one of the most striking among non-French composers influenced early on by Debussy and Ravel. A fine Marco Polo set has already put a case for his symphonies. Now ASV, which won an award for its recording of his string quartets, has come up with an equally desirable disc of his piano music.

Sandro Ivo Bartoli turns in some highly attractive performances of this music, through which peers not just the Debussy of Cloches à travers les feuilles, but that of the Golliwogg’s Cake-Walk too. A wide range of moods and contrasts colours these mainly First World War pieces – often sombre, with more than a hint of the dance of death – but also optimistic and wittily ironic.

There’s a well-voiced rival Nuova Era disc by Victoria Terekiev, who sometimes manages greater clarity. Her capable efforts conclude with the exploratory, early Poemetti lunari.

But few will be less than delighted with Bartoli’s warm-sounding, slightly mellower, more laid-back ASV set, which has the bonus of the evocative La notte dei morti and a disconsolate final homage to Debussy dating from 1920.

— Roderic Dunnett

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Gian Francesco Malipiero (18 March 1882 – 1 August 1973) was an Italian composer and music scholar. Educated in Vienna, Venice and Bologna, he was later influenced by modernist trends in Paris. A key figure in 20th-century Italian music alongside Alfredo Casella, Malipiero rejected verismo and revived interest in pre-Romantic Italian music. His major works include operas, symphonies, chamber music and cantatas. As a scholar, he edited the complete works of Monteverdi and contributed to editions of Vivaldi, Corelli and Frescobaldi, significantly shaping the modern understanding of early Italian music.

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Sandro Ivo Bartoli (born 10 February 1970 in Pisa) is an Italian pianist. A graduate of the Florence Conservatory and London's Royal Academy of Music, he was mentored by Shura Cherkassky, who also encouraged him to explored the early 20th-century Italian piano music. Bartoli subsequently reintroduced works by composers like Casella, Malipiero, Pizzetti and Respighi, performing across Europe with major orchestras and conductors. Renowned for his virtuosity and tonal color, Bartoli's discography includes award-winning recordings of Malipiero, Respighi, Liszt and Bach-Busoni transcriptions.

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