Brahms & Martucci: Two Sonatas and Two Romances for Cello and Piano Luigi Piovano & Antonio Pappano

• Giuseppe Martucci (1856 - 1909):
• 1 Romance for Cello and Piano in A Minor, Op. 72 No. 1 02:53
• Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897): Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 38:
• 2 Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 38: I. Allegro non troppo 13:51
• 3 Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 38: II. Allegretto quasi Menuetto – Trio 05:08
• 4 Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 1 in E Minor, Op. 38: III. Allegro 06:17
• Giuseppe Martucci:
• 5 Romance for Cello and Piano in A Major, Op. 72 No. 2 04:29
• Johannes Brahms: Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 2 in F Major, Op. 99:
• 6 Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 2 in F Major, Op. 99: I. Allegro vivace 08:24
• 7 Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 2 in F Major, Op. 99: II. Adagio affettuoso 06:49
• 8 Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 2 in F Major, Op. 99: III. Allegro passionato - Trio 06:51
• 9 Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 2 in F Major, Op. 99: IV. Allegro molto 04:37
• Total Runtime 59:19

Info zu Brahms & Martucci: Two Sonatas and Two Romances for Cello and Piano

Even a star of the podium like Antonio Pappano devotes himself with enthusiasm to chamber music: there are more and more concerts and recordings in which he sits at the piano, performing with such eminent artists as Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Diana Damrau, Ian Bostridge and Joyce DiDonato.

Now it is his fifteen-year-old friendship and musical collaboration with Luigi Piovano that is reflected in this new and exciting album, in which the two musicians finally record their interpretation – honed over the years in dozens of performances at leading concert halls such as Rome, Milan, Bologna, Florence and Brussels – of the two Brahms cello sonatas and a gem of late nineteenth-century Italian instrumental music: Giuseppe Martucci’s Two Romances op.72.

Two further elements add life and fascination to this new Arcana release: the instruments used (a sumptuous Alessandro Gagliano cello of 1710 and a splendid piano by Steinway & Sons built in New York in 1875) and the atmospheric surroundings in which the recording was made – not a sterile studio, but the magnificent villa, deep in the tranquil and harmonious verdure of the Tuscan countryside, of a great friend of the two musicians, Nicola Bulgari.

Luigi Piovano, cello
Antonio Pappano, piano

Luigi Piovano
Principal cellist of the Symphony Orchestra of National Academy of St. Cecilia in Rome, Luigi Piovano has been enjoying a constantly growing international recognition both as a cellist and as a conductor. His rapidly expanding career has placed him as soloist under the batons of such conductors as Chung, Pletnev, Nagano, Menuhin, Boreyko and Payare, among others, performing with orchestras as Tokyo Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Seoul Philharmonic, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal.

He first attracted attention on the international music circuit after his participation in the “Pollini Project” in 1999, which brought forth a highly-successful debut at the Salzburg Festival, as well as performances in Tokyo, New York’s Carnegie Hall and Rome.

In addition to regular concerts and recitals throughout Europe, the United States and Asia, as an avid and sought-after chamber musician, Mr. Piovano has taken part in numerous prominent collaboration with such celebrated artists as Pollini, Chung, Sawallisch, Sitkovetsky, Kavakos, Ehnes, Bilson, Lugansky, the Labèque sisters and Antonio Pappano, with whom has been regularly performing in duo setting since 2007, and from 2009 to 2019 he has been a member of Latitude 41 Piano Trio. He made his Newport Music Festival debut in 2000 and has been a regular invitee ever since.

His recordings include Bach Six Cello Suites, the complete music for cello of Saint-Saëns, Schubert Trio op. 100 and the complete Trios of Saint-Saëns with Latitude 41 Piano Trio, all for the French label Eloquentia, and Bach’s Goldberg Variations with Dmitry Sitkovetsky for Nimbus.

Recently he has recorded the two Brahms Sonatas and Martucci Due Romanze op. 72 in duo with Antonio Pappano for a CD which will be released by Arcana in 2020.

Among his most recent engagements as a soloist, duo recitals with Sir Antonio Pappano in Italy and in Brussels at the Bozar, the debuts with Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra under Myung-Whun Chung and with Montréal Symphony Orchestra under Kent Nagano performing Brahms Double Concerto together with Veronika Eberle, the world première of Péter Zombola new Cello Concerto in Budapest, a chamber music program with Dmitry Sitkovetsky at the Penderecki Festival in Poland, Isang Yun Cello Concerto with Japan Philharmonic Orchestra at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo and concerts with Kyoto Symphony Orchestra and Hyogo PAC Orchestra.

Among his forthcoming engagements as a soloist, duo recitals with Sir Antonio Pappano in Rome, Padova and Florence, Beethoven Triple Concerto and Ciaikovskij Rococo Variations in Rome with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia Orchestra.

Mr. Piovano plays an Alessandro Gagliano dated 1710.

Luigi Piovano at age seventeen graduated cum laude upon finishing his studies with celebrated cellist and pedagogue Radu Aldulescu. He then went on to receiving a diploma in cello performance and chamber music from the European Conservatoire of Music in Paris.

After the year 2000 he has been increasingly engaging himself as a conductor, and has held the post of Artistic Director and Conductor of the Musici Aurei since founding the ensemble in 2002 (under the name of “Campania Chamber Orchestra”). With the ensemble he toured Japan and recorded Paisiello’s piano Concertos for Naxos label (2009), Vivaldi Four Seasons with Grazia Raimondi for Eloquentia (2010) and the chamber orchestra versions of Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with Sara Mingardo and Musici Aurei for Eloquentia which immediately won the Elizabeth Schwarzkopf Award from Académie du disque lyrique in France as best Lieder recording for 2012. Other engagements of note as a conductor include the Tokyo Philharmonic String Orchestra and the Seoul Philharmonic String Orchestra, concerts with several Italian orchestras and the recording of Britten’s Violin Concerto with the American violinist Livia Sohn. Notable collaborations from the podium have included such soloists as Francois-Joël Thiollier, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Ingrid Jacoby, Benedetto Lupo, Pietro De Maria, Valeriy Sokolov and Sara Mingardo.

In 2012 he has been appointed Music Director of the Orchestra della Magna Grecia in Taranto and from 2013 to 2017 he has been Music Director of the Roma Tre Orchestra in Rome. After the huge success in 2013 of his debut on the podium of Rome Accademia di Santa Cecilia String Orchestra he has been appointed Principal Conductor of the group. In 2014 Eloquentia issued a CD with Mr. Piovano conducting Santa Cecilia String Orchestra, highly praised by international press, in a program of transcriptions from Schubert: the “Arpeggione” Sonata transcribed by Mr. Piovano and “The Death and the Maiden” transcribed by Mahler.

After this, many concerts in other Italian towns and more concerts in Rome followed, with the Serenades by Dvořák and Tchaikovsky (CD Arcana, 2019) and a program devoted to the music of Rota, Morricone and Piovani (CD Arcana, 2017). In 2017 Sony issued a new CD of the group with Vivaldi Four Seasons and other Concertos. In 2019 Sony international issued a new CD of the group together with cellist Luka Šulić (member of the 2Cellos) with the World première of Vivaldi Four Seasons transcribed for cello and strings by Šulić and, after a new concert in Rome with the complete music of Mozart for String Orchestra, the group has recorded this program for a CD which has been attached to the issue of November 2019 of “Amadeus”, Italian main magazine concerning classical music, and that has been released by Arcana in 2020.

Among his most recent engagements as a conductor, concerts with many Italian orchestras (Accademia di Santa Cecilia Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Sinfonica Abruzzese, Orchestra del Teatro Petruzzelli di Bari, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Orchestra del Teatro Bellini di Catania, Camerata Strumentale Città di Prato, Orchestra del Festival di Bergamo e Brescia, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Orchestra Filarmonica delle Marche…) in a wide repertoire including huge symphonic works and Concertos by Brahms, Čajkovskij, Mahler, Franck, Rimskij-Korsakov, Debussy, Ravel, Prokofiev and Britten, Dvořák Stabat Mater in Catania and, abroad, the début on the podium of New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra.

Among his forthcoming débuts, Puccini’s Tosca in Catania Opera House in May 2020 and concerts with Haydn Orchestra in Bolzano and Trento, in October 2020, and with Mozarteum Salzburg Orchestra, in June 2022.

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