Giorgio Federico Ghedini - Complete Piano Music, Vol. 1 (Massimo Giuseppe Bianchi)

Information

Composer: Giorgio Federico Ghedini

• Mazurka
• 29 Canoni
• Tema con variazioni sulla parola 'Fede'
• La ballerina del circo equestre che danza sulla corda
• Minuetto del galletto nano
• Gavotta
• 9 Pieces
• Minuetto-caricatura

Massimo Giuseppe Bianchi, piano

Date: 2010

Label: Naxos

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Review

These world premiere recordings offer a traversal of Giorgio Federico Ghedini’s early piano works, composed between 1908 and 1916. An obscure composer on these shores, Ghedini was an eclectic, basically lyrical composer of some fame in mid 20th Century Italy who claimed to base his aesthetic on 16th and 17th Century masters, though these pieces reveal an infatuation with the 19th Century as well. The longest work, a theme and variations, has a melancholy, Schumannesque songfulness and quirkiness.

Many moods are represented. Although the music is often slight, the ‘Preludio alla Fantasia’ has a Rachmaninoff-like grandiosity. A soft melancholy pervades the lovely little ‘Elegia’. Many of these pieces—the charming ‘Tempo di Valtzer’ and the lighthearted ‘Pagina D’Album’ are examples—have a simple, unassuming inventiveness. Others have a splashy sense of humor, such as the ‘Umoresca’ and the ‘Minuetto-caricatura’. Sometimes we are treated to an atmosphere of exotic antiquity, as in the Musette section of the Gavotta. Most striking of all are 29 tiny but varied and expressive canons written when Ghedini was a teenager. Assimo Guisseppe Bianchi plays these youthful, pleasant miniatures with simple grace and intelligence. The recording, made in Perugia, is warm and inviting.

— Jack Sullivan

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Giorgio Federico Ghedini (11 July 1892 – 25 March 1965) was an Italian composer. Born in Cuneo, he studied in Turin and graduated from the Bologna Conservatory under Marco Enrico Bossi in 1911. After a brief conducting career, he dedicated himself to teaching composition at conservatories in Turin, Parma and Milan. His notable students include Marcello and Claudio Abbado, Luciano Berio and Guido Cantelli. A passionate admirer of early music, Ghedini transcribed works by Frescobaldi, Monteverdi, and the Gabrielis. His most famous composition is the Concerto dell'Albatro, among many chamber and vocal works.

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Massimo Giuseppe Bianchi is a pianist and composer who studied under Bruno Canino and further specialized in chamber music with mentors like Franco Rossi and the Trio di Trieste. He also studied composition with Vittorio Fellegara and attended a masterclass by György Ligeti. Bianchi performs internationally at prestigious festivals and has collaborated with notable musicians and ensembles. He is known for tackling technically demanding and rarely performed works, including the complete Liszt transcriptions of Beethoven's symphonies. A skilled improviser, he also collaborates frequently with Italian jazz artists.

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