CHAN 10190 Front.qxd 31/1/07 10:41 am Page 1 CHAN 10190 CHANDOS CHAN 10190 BOOK.qxd 31/1/07 10:54 am Page 2 Gioachino Antonio Rossini (1792 – 1868) Complete Piano Edition, Volume 1 premiere recordings Unpublished Works 1 Valzer in mi bemolle maggiore (Firenze, 1 ottobre 1849) 2:13 in E flat major • in Es-Dur • en mi bémol majeur 2 Thème 2:59 Lebrecht Collection Lebrecht in E flat major • in Es-Dur • en mi bémol majeur • en mi bemolle maggiore 3 Allegretto 0:31 4 Scherzo in la minore (Firenze, 28 luglio 1850) 3:44 in A minor • in a-Moll • en la mineur 5 Un rien (Passy, 1861) 0:47 Andantino From Péchés de vieillesse, Book 3 ‘Morceaux réservés’ 9:19 5 Gammes – des montées et des descentes (rising and falling scales) Deux gammes chinoises, suivies d’une mélodie analogue (Chinese scales followed by a corresponding melody) 6 A. Première montée et descente (montée) 0:47 7 A. Première montée et descente (descente) 1:27 8 B. Deuxième montée et descente (montée) 0:32 9 B. Deuxième montée et descente (descente) 0:42 10 C. Première gamme chinoise, montante et descendante 0:49 Gioachino Antonio Rossini 11 D. Deuxième gamme chinoise, montante et descendante 0:43 12 E. L’Amour à Pékin (Mon cœur blessé): petite mélodie sur la gamme chinoise (Love in Peking [My wounded heart]: little melody on the Chinese scale) 4:00 in A major • in A-Dur • en la majeur • in la maggiore Marina De Liso contralto 3 CHAN 10190 BOOK.qxd 31/1/07 10:54 am Page 4 Rossini: Complete Piano Edition, Volume 1 From Péchés de vieillesse, Book 9 ‘Album pour piano, Enigmatic and problematic, Rossini’s piano which Rossini kept his ‘péchés de vieillesse’ violon, violoncelle, harmonium et cor’ 54:39 music requires significantly more than the (sins of old age) reopened, it is perhaps the 13 1 Mélodie candide, QR xvi/67-73 4:06 cursory glance at the black dots on the page very place we should look to solve the many in A major • in A-Dur • en la majeur • in la maggiore often used by pianists to judge a work’s mysteries of the composer’s personality. It 14 2 Chansonette, QR xvi/87-94 4:15 difficulty. While it is not a problem to find, was to the piano that Rossini told the story in E flat major • in Es-Dur • en mi bémol majeur • in mi bemolle maggiore among modern keyboard virtuosi, one who of his life, at which he reminisced; and only 15 3 La Savoie aimante, QR xvi/74-86 6:23 can cope with the technical demands that in this music, written in his old age with the in A minor • in a-Moll • en la mineur • in la minore Rossini makes of a pianist, the challenge is to complicity of the companionable instrument, 16 5 Impromptu tarantellisé, QR xvi/95-106 5:26 find one who truly believes in the does he bare his soul. in F major • in F-Dur • en fa majeur • in fa maggiore importance of this music and is prepared to The piano pieces composed by the ageing 17 6 Échantillon du chant de Noël à l’italienne, QR ii/102-107 6:20 give it his all. In order to tackle the works Rossini have their forerunners in those in E flat major • in Es-Dur • en mi bémol majeur • in mi bemolle maggiore successfully, a performer must have a deep ‘album leaves’ so fashionable in the 18 7 Marche et réminiscences pour mon dernier voyage, understanding of Rossini’s personal and nineteenth century that were, as the name QR ii/108-16 8:01 musical life: it is at the piano that the key to indicates, intended for inclusion in the in A flat major • in As-Dur • en la bémol majeur • in la bemolle maggiore this understanding is to be found. Rossini ‘album amicorum’ of the more or less notable 19 9 Prélude italien, QR xvi/107-19 6:26 allowed this music to be played only at his and wealthy personages who were patrons of in A flat major • in As-Dur • en la bémol majeur • in la bemolle maggiore Parisian salons in Chaussée d’Antin and the artists. From this practice a genre 20 11 Échantillon de blague mélodique sur les noires de la main droite 7:52 Passy, and then preferably by beardless developed to which every composer of the in G flat major • in Ges-Dur • en sol bémol majeur • in sol bemolle maggiore youths. This was perhaps an attempt to time contributed. The pieces are almost all 21 12 Fanfare. (Autograph, for piano solo, of Petite fanfare à quatre mains) 4:49 deliver to a new generation these last unpublished and some are being heard for in E flat major • in Es-Dur • en mi bémol majeur • in mi bemolle maggiore compositions – which were incomprehensible the first time on this disc. TT 74:48 to his contemporaries, with the exception of The Valzer in mi bemolle maggiore Marco Sollini those few appealing melodies that (Waltz in E flat major) exists in several periodically appear as nostalgic reminders of autograph scores. The version recorded here the irrevocability of the past. is dated Florence, 1 October 1849 and is Now with the bedroom cupboard in dedicated to Signora Elena Bandiera Ricci. In 4 5 CHAN 10190 BOOK.qxd 31/1/07 10:54 am Page 6 brilliant ‘drawing-room’ style, it possesses Un rien, very brief and quite performed for the first time on 18 April these last works, both vocal and many of the elements typical of the extraordinary, anticipates the severe and 1868 by the celebrated Marietta Alboni. At instrumental, evoking the light-hearted, composer’s Péchés de vieillesse such as clashing sacred atmosphere of the ‘Prélude réligieux’ the end of the performance Rossini joked festive rhythms of a past which, although acciacature added to otherwise predictable of the Petite Messe solennelle. with his friends, recent, would never return. notes, and cunning delays that momentarily The arietta L’Amour à Pékin is taken from En somme, que voulez-vous, soit à Pékin, soit à To all intents and purposes the suspend the return of the subject. Morceaux réservés, the third volume of Péchés Quincampoix, l’amour se comporte comme Échantillon du chant de Noël à l’italienne is In clear contrast to the piece that precedes de vieillesse. The arietta is preceded by six tous les amours: dièses au prélude, bémols à la an autograph transcription of ‘La Nuit de it, Thème, which was certainly written later, short preludes for piano solo where the coda. Noël’ for bass, chorus, piano and harmonium is problematic and unsettling. It is composer uses the instrument to experiment (So, say what you like, but whether it’s Peking already included in the Album français. The characterised by an almost obsessive, with the ‘Chinese scale’ to which the or Quincampoix, love always goes the same version for solo piano still retains the pastoral inflexible reiteration – a device often used by invention is attributed: a whole-tone scale way: sharps in the prelude, flats in the coda.) character, at once intimate and solemn, of Rossini when writing for piano – an extreme analogous, according to Rossini, to that used In the Album pour piano, violon, Rossini’s religious style. The addition of the example of an ever-present feature of his in Chinese music. With this in mind, Rossini violoncelle, harmonium et cor, nine of the words ‘à l’italienne’ reveals that Rossini was music. It was the repetition of a rhythmic devises a series of calm ascending and twelve pieces are for solo piano. Rossini seeking to evoke the music and customs of motif that provided the impetus for his descending exercises (montées et descentes) amuses himself by inventing titles such as childhood memory. famous crescendo; here the repetition is exploring the possibilities of his ‘Chinese Mélodie candide and Chansonette with the Marche et réminiscences pour mon directed towards establishing the tonality. scale’. In the first descente, the tune of a idea of conferring a kind of naïveté upon dernier voyage is one of the most All Rossini needs for the Allegretto are a popular French song makes a fleeting works which have actually been painstakingly extraordinary of Rossini’s works for the few bars to achieve a complete composition, appearance. Once he has ascertained the composed at his desk. Besides the titles, piano. ‘Frappons’ (strike), he wrote beside a kind of improvisation, a handful of notes expressive capacity of the scale, Rossini writes Rossini frequently attaches little pointers. the inexorable chords that punctuate the that are an invitation to make music. An a very beautiful melody; ‘L’Amour à Pékin’ is Thus, on the autograph score of La Savoie march that will accompany the composer on arresting opening interrupts conversation to one of the loveliest salon songs he ever wrote. aimante, the passage modulating from his approach to ‘the final reckoning’. focus attention on the instrument whence The elegance of the musical phrase, the A minor to A major bears the words ‘Arrivée Radiant, distant and nostalgic, scraps of the comes the inspiration, the fantasy. quiet, mournful tone that gradually becomes des Zouaves’ (Arrival of the Troops); played melodies with which he himself had The Scherzo in la minore (A minor) also more and more impassioned are – as in the pianissimo, this is an ironic allusion to the gladdened the hearts of all humanity appear exists in several autograph sources dedicated Agnus Dei of the Petite Messe solennelle – a concordat that ceded the Italian region to from time to time: ‘Di tanti palpiti/di tante to ladies of the nobility.