Thalberg: Fantasies on Operas by Verdi, Rossini and Bellini
8.555503 (Naxos Records, CD)
DDD
REISSUE (10 June 2022)
Playing time: 60'47"
Tracks: 6
Booklet pages: 4
℗ 1994, 2021 Naxos Rights US Inc
© 2022 Naxos Rights US Inc
Main country of recording: Hungary
Country of manufacture: Germany
Reviewer: Gerald Fenech
Review of Thalberg: Fantasies on Operas by Verdi, Rossini and Bellini published on 25 June 2022
Francesco Nicolosi, piano
Sigismond Thalberg (1812-1871):
1 Grande fantaisie de concert sur l'opéera La traviata de Verdi, Op 78 (1862)
2 Grande fantaisie de concert sur l'opéera Il trovatore de Verdi, Op 77 (1862)
3 Souvenir de Un ballo in maschera de Verdi, Op 81 (1864)
4 Souvenir de Rigoletto de Verdi, Op 82 (1864)
5 Impromptu sur des thèmes favoris de l'opéera Le Siège de Corinthe de Rossini (1828)
6 L'Art du chant appliqué au piano, Op 70 – No 19: Casta diva, cavatine de Norma de Bellini (1853)
Recorded 10-14 November 1993 in Budapest, Hungary.
Previously issued as Marco Polo 8.223367 and also included in the Naxos boxed set 8.506042.
A student of Hummel, Sigismond Thalberg was one of the great virtuoso pianist-composers of the nineteenth century, who enjoyed a celebrated rivalry with Liszt that was largely fomented by the press. Thalberg's influence on fellow pianists was enormous and his operatic paraphrases and fantasies, designed for his own use in concert performances, proved exceptionally popular. Even Liszt himself performed several of them. Berlioz praised Thalberg as the creator of 'a new art' and the thrilling examples here, taking the best-known themes from great Italian operas, reveal bravura embellishments and ingenious elaborations.