Sgambati's Piano Concerto on Naxos

[raffite33]

Listed on Presto as download only, but I imagine the CD will be listed soon.  The filler is the 9-minute "Sinfonia Festiva."

[Justin]

Including a link to what raffite33 mentioned: https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9542453--sgambati-sinfonia-festiva-piano-concerto

I wonder if these recordings have also been sitting in Naxos' vaults for over 10 years like Symphony No. 2 that was released last year. Chandos shows a recording date of January 2023, so perhaps this is resuming the Naxos series of Sgambati's works by the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma. The Sinfonia Festiva sounds nice from the sample, and it reminds me a bit of Goetz in having that spring-like quality.

[Alan Howe]

See Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0CL5M4ZL5/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_2?smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&psc=1

The recording dates are: 2012 and 2013. The PC was apparently recorded live - it doesn't sound very good to me, sadly.

[Revilod]

Yes. The Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma was disbanded in 2014.

[Ilja]

I've just listened to this recording, and my impression tallies with Alan's. The most remarkable (and not in a good way) is the sonics: the Sinfonia Festiva's sound is almost cavernous, whereas the piano concerto feels almost claustrophobic: very little sonic contrast, and limited reverberation, which combine to make the orchestra sound a lot smaller than it is, almost as a chamber ensemble. The microphone placement may lay at the root of this - there's the piano and strings in the foreground, and you are almost surprised when the rest of the orchestra suddenly pops up. The playing in the Sinfonia is not stellar but absolutely competent, but the same is not the case in the concerto, in my view. Damerini's fine, but the orchestra sounds quite scratchy here and there. The overall approach to the concerto is perhaps a bit too relaxed, too - it never feels anywhere near as exciting as it does with Bolet or (particularly) Giordano at the keyboard.

A bit of a disappointment for me. The Sinfonia is a fun little Rossini-esque piece and worth having because there's no other recording that I know of, but there are at least three other recordings of the concerto, all better.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, Ilja. I won't be buying this myself.

[terry martyn]

I still enjoy the Bolet immensely,so thank you,Ilya, for the heads- down on this one.

[Alan Howe]

This is a real missed opportunity - a non-starter of a recording of the still undervalued Piano Concerto coupled with an unrecorded piece of little interest. Naxos could surely have done better than this...

[Jonathan]

I won't be buying this one either!

[Mark Thomas]

I had no need to duplicate Sgambati's Piano Concerto but, out of curiosity, I downloaded the Sinfonia Festiva. I could have saved myself the trouble as, irritatingly, it's already been posted by Naxos on YouTube.

[Alan Howe]

I wonder how close we are to everything being available on YouTube?

[John Boyer]

I wonder how close we are to everything being available on YouTube?

I saw your question on YouTube yesterday.   

[Ilja]

I had no need to duplicate Sgambati's Piano Concerto but, out of curiosity, I downloaded the Sinfonia Festiva. I could have saved myself the trouble as, irritatingly, it's already been posted by Naxos on YouTube.

Yeah, I bought it as something of an impulse buy before it was released but between the quality of the concerto and it being freely available I could've saved myself six euros. Not the end of the world, but still.

[Mark Thomas]

Rankles, doesn't it?

[Ilja]

Partly. I wouldn't have minded so much (given the slightly better audio quality) if I'd liked the recording. I subscribe to Presto, so I could've listened to Karl Stöhr's Symphony No. 1 for "free" (or on YouTube, for that matter), but I still bought the recording because I wanted to show support for what is one of my favorite recent discoveries. In this case, it just seemed like a waste.