Francesco Mazzonetto - Italian Piano Works (2017)

Tracklist
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01. Kammer-Fantasie über Bizets Carmen, BV 284
02. Piano Sonata in A Major
03. Piano Sonata in C Minor
04. Piano Sonata in B Minor, Op. 40 No. 2: I. Molto adagio e sostenuto, Allegro con fuoco e con espressione
05. Piano Sonata in B Minor, Op. 40 No. 2: II. Largo e patetico, Allegro, Tempo primo, Presto
06. 15Preludes for Piano: I. Allegro molto
07. 15Preludes for Piano: II. Allegro ma espressivo e delicato
08. 15Preludes for Piano: III. Allegretto con spirito
09. 15Preludes for Piano: IV. Andante sostenuto e espressivo
10. 15Preludes for Piano: V. Con impeto
11. 15Preludes for Piano: VI. Andante
12. 15 Preludes for Piano: VII. Allegro con spirito
13. 15Preludes For Piano: VIII. Lento Con Accento
14. 15Preludes for Piano: IX. Allegretto quasi andantino
15. 15Preludes for Piano: X. Allegro mosso e marcato
16. 15Preludes for Piano: XI. Andante senza lentezza
17. 15Preludes for Piano: XII. Allegro
18. 15Preludes For Piano: XIII. Andante Cantabile
19. 15Preludes for Piano: XIV. Allegro non troppo e marcato
20. 15Preludes for Piano: XV. Allegro robusto
21. Melody from Orpheus


An album of solo piano music makes an audacious choice for a debut by the teenage Italian pianist Francesco Mazzonetto, and indeed he brings a good deal of flair to this music from his native country. Most successful is his reading of Muzio Clementi's Piano Sonata in B minor, Op. 40, No. 2, an energetic performance that shows clearly how much Clementi was part of the compositional world in which the young Beethoven worked. Mazzonetto shows superior technical equipment in the Kammer-Fantasie über Bizets Carmen, BV 284, not one of the more common Busoni works and a clever riff on the old Romantic-era opera paraphrase. He also makes a strong case for the short pieces by Domenico Cimarosa and Baldassare Galuppi, the latter all but forgotten since Robert Browning's poem, but well worth new exploration. The only disappointment is the set of 15 Preludes by Nino Rota of Godfather fame, who also wrote scores for films by Federico Fellini and other Italian directors. These short pieces sound like neither of those; they derive from styles from Debussy up to about Prokofiev, as if Rota was seeking an escape from the modernist rule he had survived at Darmstadt. He found it in film composition, but not here. Still, the individuality and talent shown on this debut mark Mazzonetto as a young pianist to watch.

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