Paolo Bonomini VIOLONCELLO ITALIANO

Hailing from Frescia, cellits Paolo Bonomini offers a survey of 200 years of musical Italy on his Genuin debut release. The First Prizewinner at the 2016 Leipzig Bach Competition performs works by Joseph Dall'Abaco, Luigi Boccherini, Alfredo Piatti, and Luigi Dallapiccola. In terms of the program, we could hardly imagine a more rich and varied overview, and the young, internationally-successful soloists's playing more than fulfills our expectations - from his lean and buoyant sound in the playful and exuberant Baroque works, to his crystal-clear articulation and bold risk-taking in the modern selections. A brilliant and highly promising debut!

Claudio Bohórquez / Péter Nagy BRAHMS Opus 38 & 99

Brahms - Opus 38 & 99 – a completely new and extraordinary interpretation by the inspiring duo with cellist Claudio Bohórquez and Péter Nagy. The new recording will raise a new star in the Brahms music heaven just today on the occasion of the lunar eclipse of the century. The sonatas for piano and cello by Johannes Brahms, Opus 38 and 99 are masterfully played and interpreted by two musical personalities who make the sonatas shine in a new light:

The German-born cellist Claudio Bohórquez with Peruvian-Uruguayan roots, who is one of the best in his field, makes the virtuosity of the cello sound as Brahms himself would have loved it. For his favourite instrument he has written many moving melodies and compositions, some of which are played on this recording. In the Hungarian pianist Péter Nagy, Bohórquez has the perfect partner at his side who captures the timbre of his homeland with feeling. This becomes particularly clear in the Hungarian dances, which are contrasted - as an encore, so to speak - with the two sonatas.

Especially for the connoisseurs of these Hungarian dances, which have become a success story and are recognized by almost everyone, the true mastery of the duo becomes apparent: in the arrangement by Alfredo Piatti in the version for cello and piano, the dances shine in a completely new, inspiring light. In any case, the mastery of Bohórquez over the special strings of his instrument becomes more than clear here. And one can be glad that this is a discography premiere, which should lead to further recordings. Brahms is consciously the beginning, back-to-the roots to the beginnings of his cellist career. After 30 years as a cellist, Claudio Bohórquez now sees the ideal moment to record his music after he has reached a certain personal maturity thanks to profound life experience, knowledge and personal development. (Berlin Classics)

Joanna Klisowska / Andrea Noferini / Roberto Plano PIATTI Music for Cello and Piano - 2 Songs

Born in Bergamo in 1822, Carlo Alfredo Piatti was to the cello what Nicolò Paganini was to the violin: a musician who extended the possibilities of his instrument in performance and who inspired countless composers to do the same in writing for it. His remarkable talent was immediately evident, to the extent that by 1843 he was already travelling throughout Europe on concert tours, accompanied by his father. It was Franz Liszt who described him as ‘a Paganini of the Cello’, presenting him with an Amati instrument as a token of his admiration.
Piatti’s concert-tours culminated in a visit to London, where he settled in 1846. In the mid-1800s, musical life in the British capital was full of energy and opportunity. When Verdi learnt that it would be Piatti leading the cellos in the first performances of his new opera, I Masnadieri, he wrote a Prelude consisting of a cello solo with an orchestral accompaniment, which he dedicated to the great cellist.
In his own compositions Piatti reconciled virtuoso figurations with a highly lyrical approach to melody which is on show here in two of the songs he wrote for English audiences: O Swallow, Swallow (to a text by Alfred, Lord Tennyson) and La Sera (‘I love the hour of the dying day’), an evening-time, sentimental ballad incorporating a cello solo clearly modelled on the opening of Rossini’s William Tell Overture and astutely calculated to tug at the heartstrings of his well-to-do patrons, who would also want to perform such songs themselves.
However, the bulk of Piatti’s music was designed to show his own skill as a cellist to best advantage. This he triumphantly did with the stupendously virtuosic Capriccio Op.22 on a theme from Pacini’s Niobe. The better-known Capricci Op.25 are not included here; instead, the opportunity has been taken by Andrea Noferini to record some of Piatti’s lesser-known, standalone pieces such as the attractive Op.1 L’abbandono, and Notturno Op.20. Andrea Noferini’s previous recordings include a well-received set of cello duets by Offenbach, released on Brilliant Classics (BC94475). 

Alfredo Piatti was the “Paganini of the Cello”, as his admirer Franz Liszt called him, having given him a valuable Amati cello. Piatti was born in 1822 in Bergamo. His talent was soon evident, and he became a famous cellist, traveling all over Europe, meeting influential artists like Mendelssohn, Joachim, Grieg, Clara Schumann and Liszt. In 1846 he settled in London where he was appointed First Cello in Her Majesty’s Theatre and Covent Garden.
Piatti’s cello works are high quality salon pieces, of a great melodic invention and stunning and ground-breaking virtuosity.
Italian cellist Andrea Noferini and pianist Roberto Plano deliver exciting performances of these highly attractive works. Noferini already recorded several successful Brilliant Classics albums with works by Sgambati, Martucci and Offenbach (Duos with Giovanni Sollima).

Anna Wróbel TUTTI I CAPRICCI DEL SIGNOR PIATTI

Carlo Alfredo Piatti, born at Bergamo, Jan. 8, 1822, died at Crocette di Mozzo – about four miles from Bergamo – at the residence of his son-in-law, Count Carlo Lochis, on July 18, 1901.

His father, Antonio Piatti, born at Bergamo in 1801, was a violinist of some repute, who held the post of leader in the orchestra of his native town. Piatti began in his extreme youth to study the instrument which was destined to make him famous. Given the option – at the age of five – of choosing between the professions of violoncellist and cobbler, he decided in favour of the first, and was promptly sent to his great-uncle Zanetti to receive instruction. Though an old man at the time, Zanetti was an accomplished violoncellist, and a patient teacher. He mode it a rule to seat his diminutive pupil in a chair placed upon a table, and it was in this elevated position that the precocious child easily mastered those ordinary difficulties, which severely tax most students. After two years' study his great-uncle, considering his pupil sufficiently advanced, applied for, and obtained permission for him to play in the theatre orchestra. The only return he received for the serious physical effort of the engagement – which lasted three months – was a present of ten francs from the Impresario, half of which was retained by his great-uncle...