Chopin: Late Piano Works Edoardo Torbianelli

• Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849):
• 1 Prélude in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 45 03:55
• 2 Mazurkas, Op. 50: No. 3 in C-Sharp Minor 04:21
• 3 Nocturnes, Op. 62: No. 1 in B Major 06:03
• 4 Nocturnes, Op. 62: No. 2 in E Major 05:17
• 5 Polonaise-fantaisie in A-Flat Major, Op. 61 12:18
• 6 Mazurkas, Op. 50: No. 2 in A-Flat Major 03:04
• 7 Barcarolle in F-Sharp Major, Op. 60 08:22
• 8 Mazurkas, Op. 59: No. 3 in F-Sharp Minor 03:21
• 9 Piano Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58: I. Allegro maestoso 09:37
• 10 Piano Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58: II. Scherzo. Molto vivace 02:59
• 11 Piano Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58: III. Largo - Cantabile 08:01
• 12 Piano Sonata No. 3 in B Minor, Op. 58: IV. Finale. Presto ma non tanto 06:15
• 13 Mazurkas, Op. Posth. 67: No. 1 in G Major 01:17
• Total Runtime 01:14:50

Info for Chopin: Late Piano Works

In Chopin Late piano works Edoardo Torbianelli matches once again the poetry of his pianism with the rigour of his scholarly investigations into the music he plays. Together with the booklet essay- writer, Jeanne Roudet, Torbianelli has considered afresh the music written by Frédéric Chopin in the last fifteen years of the Polish composer’s life. To follow on from his Pian e forte collection, Torbianelli has recorded at Fondation Royaumont in France – playing on an 1842 Ignace Pleyel grand piano – Chopin’s A flat Polonaise-Fantaisie, Op 61, the B minor Sonata Op. 58 and a selection of Mazurkas and Nocturnes for this new Schola Cantorum Basiliensis release presented by Glossa.

With this programme Edoardo Torbianelli is situating the compositional approach more directly within Chopin’s Polish heritage; though he later went into exile the composer was present in Warsaw until just before the November Uprising in 1830. Unlike Berlioz and Liszt, it is argued, Chopin eschewed literature as direct inspiration and – again unlike Liszt – the Polish composer’s piano music shares similarities in technique and performative style with the bel canto school of singing, the descendant of the art of eighteenth-century castrati and perpetuated in the 1800s by Italian singers as heard by Chopin himself in Paris. The resulting “vocality” of Chopin’s piano music finds echo in Edoardo Torbianelli’s interpretations for a recording which can be considered both for its fresh approach but also as a masterly reflection of the composer’s genius.

Edoardo Torbianelli, piano

Edoardo Torbianelli
born in Trieste, 1970, took his first music lessons privately. In 1988, at the conservatoire in his home town, he was awarded a piano diploma and, in 1990, a harpsichord diploma. He continued his studies at the Scuola di Alto Perfezionamento Musicale dei Filarmonici di Torino, with Prof. Jean Fassina, at the Koninglijk Vlaams Muziekconservatorium Antwerpen, with Profs. Robert Groslot, Jacques de Tiège and Jos van Immerseel, and at the Music Section of the Catholic University of Dutch Brabant, where he obtained diplomas in concert performance for piano, harpsichord, and chamber music. In addition, he has studied literature and linguistics at the university level.

He has studied the history of performance techniques, especially in the Classical and Romantic periods, taking part in numerous seminars, analysing early-twentieth-century sound recordings, and carrying out intensive research in the field of treatises on historical performance.

As a laureate of international competitions (the Emmanuel Durlet International Piano Competition in 1993 and 1996; the Bruges Musica Antique Pianoforte Competition in 1995), Edoardo Torbianelli gives concerts that are a consistent success with the audiences and critics of numerous countries (Italy, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, France, Denmark, Spain, Slovenia, and Columbia), where he has performed at renowned venues.

He has been given the opportunity to play at concerts and to record CDs using historical instruments from the collections of the Deutsches Museum München, the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg, the Vleeshuis Museum in Antwerp, the Beethoven Haus in Bonn, the Palazzo Monsignani-Sassatelli di Imola, Accademia B. Cristofori in Florence, the Schloss Kremsegg in Kremsmünster, and the Historisches Museum in Basel.

He has made recordings for various radio and television stations (RAI 3, BRTN/Radio 3, BRT 2 TV, RTBF/Musique 3, Radio Slovenija, De Concertzender/Amsterdam, Bayerischer Rundfunk, DRS 2, RSREspace2), as well as recordings with Pierre-André Taillard on historical clarinet and Thomas Müller on natural horn, for the Harmonia Mundi France Label. Recordings of the piano works of Muzio Clementi and Nils Wilhelm Gade as well as a recording with Sergio Azzolini on historical bassoon for the PANCLASSICS label.

His work has been enthusiastically received by international critics (the Disque du mois and Recommandation of Répertoire review, 5 Diapason and a Diapason d’or from Diapason review). Between 1993 and 1998 Edoardo Torbianelli has been taught piano and chamber music at the Royal Academy of Music in Antwerp and since 1998 he has taught piano and chamber music and Aesthetics and Performance of Romantic Piano Music at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.

Since autumn 2008 he has taught fortepiano at the Hochschule der Künste Bern as well.

Booklet for Chopin: Late Piano Works