SERGIO CALLIGARIS
at Piano
[LP: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, stereo LEV 004]

SIDE A
CHOPIN:
Impromptu, in G flat major, Op.51 (6'00")
Impromptu, in F sharp major, Op.36 (6'51")
Brilliant Waltz, in A flat major, Op.34 N.1 (5'37")
Nocturne, in E flat major, Op.9 N.2 (5'15")

SIDE B
CHOPIN:
Etude, in C minor, Op.10 N.12 "Revolutionary" (2'48")
RACHMANINOV:
Prelude, in C sharp minor, Op.3 N.2 "The Bells" (4'50")
VITALINI:
Fantasia 1949, for piano and orchestra (12'49")

Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alberico Vitalini
Recording Engineer: Ulderico Merluzzi
A Radio Vaticana recording

Concert offered by the Vatican Radio to the European Broadcasting Union - EBU
Companies requiring this concert:
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC); Bayerischer Rundfunk; Emissora Nacional de Radiodifusao (Portogallo); K.F.A.C. (Los Angeles); Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; Radio Nacional de España; Korea Broadcasting System; Broadcasting Corporation of New Zealand; Turkiye Radyo Televizyon; Australia Broadcasting Commission; Radiotelevizija Ljubljana; Cleveland's Fine Arts Station (Ohio); Telemalata Corporation; Rádio Ministério de Educaçao e Cultura (Rio de Janeiro); RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana.

 

This record opens with Fryderyk Chopin (1810-1849), the Polish composer to whom piano-music owes its real, new and technically revolutionary language far removed from the modesty observed by such as Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. Not that Chopin is "inmodest". In this record we hear him in all his romantic candour - from Impromptu in G Flat Major Opus 51 (1843) to in F Sharp Minor, Opus 36 (1839). These are the main compositions of his four Impromptus, in which, eventhough the major key is prevealing, we hear that typical melancholy of the artist which is visible in Delacroix's famous portrait painted during the most tragic moments of the musician's sickness, when he had already been struck by the tuberculosis that ended his life at an early age of 39.

There follows another piece by Chopin - his brilliant Waltz in A Flat Major Opus 34 N.1, composed in 1839, ten years after his visit to Vienna, where he got to know the Waltzes of Johann Strauss, Senior. Chopin was fascinated by the lively "steps" and he thought at least to give a helping hand in encouraging people to dance.
There follow the Nocturne in E Flat Major Opus 9 N.2 (1831), one of his sweetest and most popular works and the Study in C Minor Opus 10 N.12, famous as Revolutionary Etude, for it was meant as a reaction to the defeat of the Polish National Revolt on 8th of September 1831.
Then, Sergio Calligaris passes to Prelude in C Sharp Minor Opus 3 N.2 by Serghei Rachmaninov (1873-1943). In this piece boldness of performance blends with the Russian composer's emotional warmth.

The record ends with just over 12 minutes of good piano music by the renowned Alberico Vitalini (1921). Here, we seem to be listening to the poetic view of Liszt, unfortunately forgotten and snubbed by recent generations. The piece is a Fantasy for piano and orchestra, not unjustly entitled "romantic", written in 1949. It might be called Fantasy of joy, song, love, sorrow, life and hope…, all moments of feelings and emotions and all exquisitly "romantic" in that they belong to man, man of yesterday, today and all time.

LUIGI FAIT