Alberto Ferro

Alberto Ferro – Sergey Rachmaninov: Études-Tableaux Op. 33 & Op. 39 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:00:57 minutes | 995 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © MUSO

During the Queen Elisabeth Competition 2016, a young Italian pianist aged 19 garnered a lot of attention. Alberto Ferro, already a laureate of many prizes, won the Audience Prize before winning one year later First Prize, both analytical and sensitive, served by faultless technique, this is what was so promising and it was confirmed with his first recording, devoted by the young Sicilian to Rachmaninov, one of his favourite composers. The Études-Tableaux Op. 33 were composed in 1910 in Rachmaninov’s tranquil country retreat; the others from Op. 39 date from 1916/17 and were the last pieces he wrote in Moscow, shortly before his American exile. At the time Rachmaninov was already the composer of a consequential catalogue for solo piano; the writing for ‘his’ instrument had thus attained a very high level of sophistication and subtlety adding to an incomparable understanding of the instrument’s powers of expression. The designation ‘Étude-Tableau’ is Rachmaninov’s own; close to the formal level of Chopin’s Ballades, they allow poetic interpretation even though they are entirely constructed from musical and technical ideas. The Russian master let slip very few indications concerning the precise extra-musical links that might have been at the origin of his works. He did reveal his precise sources of inspiration in letters to Respighi who orchestrated five of his miniatures; however, for the other, Rachmaninov never provided the slightest context, leaving it to the listener to work on his imagination!
The virtuosity required for these albums is far from being an end in itself, it being rather the means of expression for the feelings. These two albums are marked by the dazzling liveliness of this music: at times virile and imperious, at times subtle and discreet, yet always at the service of an astonishingly broad palette of emotions.

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Alberto Ferro – Liszt: Complete soirées de Vienne (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:15:48 minutes | 658 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Digital Booklet, Front Cover | © Piano Classics

The huge literature of transcriptions by Franz Liszt (1811-1886) has always suffered a mixed reputation: prized by fellow composers from Busoni to Finnissy, performed by virtuosi from Arrau to Zilberstein, yet vilified by many critics. Even the composer’s long-term companion, Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein, considered them “puerilities”. In the composer’s own lifetime they were thought inseparable from his incomparable artistry at the piano: Sir Charles Hallé told the story of a concert given by Liszt and Berlioz in Paris in 1836 in which Berlioz conducted the Marche au supplice from the Symphonie fantastique. At the conclusion of the movement, Liszt sat down and played his own partition of the work “with an effect even surpassing that of the full orchestra, and creating an indescribable furore”.
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Alberto Ferro – Alberto Ferro Live at the Queen Elisabeth Competition 2016 (Live) (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/88,2 kHz | Time – 01:07:34 minutes | 1,01 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Queen Elisabeth Competition

What would classical music in our country be without the Queen Elisabeth Competition? The ‘mother of all music competitions’ is this year given over to the piano. As is customary in recent years the National Orchestra is conducted by the American conductor Marin Alsop during the final of the competition. The musical director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra has also worked with the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouworchestra and the Filarmonica della Scala in Milan. Along with the musicians in the orchestra she accompanies the twelve remaining candidates to the final victory. For the latter, as well as an extremely difficult exercise, it could be a springboard to a great musical career.

In alphabetical order, the finalists are : Alexander Beyer, Alberto Ferro, Chi Ho Han, Atsushi Imada, Aljosa Jurinic, Yoonji Kim, Henry Kramer, Okada Kana, Dmitry Shishkin, Hans H. Suh, Lukas Vondracek and Larry Weng.

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