Da Vinci Classics
Physical and Digital Release: 23 June 2017
Paolo Vergari brings together Schubert, Schumann and Brahms in a programme of late piano works, exploring their contrasting approaches to reflection, musical memory and expressive concentration.
13.67€
The Last Piano Works · 15 tracks
Track timings refer to the digital edition on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and TIDAL. Some platforms round durations differently.
Paolo Vergari was born in Falerone, in the province of Fermo, Italy, in 1964. He studied piano and composition at the “L. D’Annunzio” Conservatory in Pescara with Giovanna De Fanti, and subsequently continued his studies with M. Della Chiesa D’Isasca, E. Hubert, A. Ciccolini, T. Nikolajewa, E. Murano and A. Hintchev.
He has given concerts as a soloist and chamber musician at major concert halls and for international organisations, including Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Sala Nervi in Vatican City, Teatro Regio in Parma, the Reggia di Caserta, Teatro Regio in Turin, Teatro Verdi in Salerno, Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza and Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome. Outside Italy, he has performed at the United Nations Auditorium in New York, the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, the Dante Alighieri Cultural Centre in Moscow, the Klementinum and B. Martinů Hall in Prague, Salle Cortot and IRCAM in Paris, the Manoel Theatre in Malta and the A. Williams Concert Hall in Buenos Aires.
His performances have been broadcast by RAI, TMC, Radio France, RSI, Radio Maltese, Blu Sat 2000 and ORF. He has toured Asia regularly since 2004, particularly China, performing in major concert halls in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Shenyang. He has appeared as a soloist with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Salta, the Windkraft Orchestra, the Orchestra of Radio Sofia, the Lublin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bacău Philharmonic Orchestra in Romania, the State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra, the Fiati di Parma wind orchestra, the Brno Philharmonic and the RAI National Symphony Orchestra. Conductors with whom he has worked include Giorgio Bernasconi, Mirjam Schmidt, Marco Della Chiesa D’Isasca, Petr Altrichter, Kaspar de Roo, Michele Santorsola and Jorge Lhez.
His interest in chamber music has led to collaborations with the Szymanowski Quartet, violinist Nicolas Chumachenco and the Oggimusica Ensemble of Lugano. He was also a founding member of the ADM Ensemble of Modena. He has participated in international festivals including the Montpellier–Radio France Festival, the Stresa Festival, Musica Riva in Riva del Garda, Giardino della Musica in Milan, BadiaMusica in Bolzano and the Festival Pontino in Latina. He founded BadiaMusica in 2000 and served as its artistic director, presenting orchestral and chamber music with distinguished performers. He has taught masterclasses at Kunming University in Yunnan, China, the “G. Enescu” University in Iași, Romania, and the Magnificat School of Music in Jerusalem, where musicians from Jewish and Arab communities share their musical experience.
His numerous recordings include the complete piano concertos of Gian Francesco Malipiero, performed in 2005 with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Iași and released in 2007. In 2006 he recorded My Love to China, which includes traditional Chinese music. In 2003 he made the first complete recording of Gino Tagliapietra’s forty Studi di perfezionamento, issued as a double CD and praised by critics. He has recorded Enrique Granados’s Goyescas for Clarius Audi and works by Olivier Messiaen, Lino Liviabella and Claudio Rastelli for Phoenix and Altrisuoni.
In 2010 he composed the music for Fernando Muraca’s film Duns Scoto.
His interest in improvisation developed through workshops with François Rossé. He has given improvised performances for solo piano and with other musicians, including tamburello virtuoso Carlo Rizzo, singer Elisa Tonelli and percussionist Massimiliano Dragoni, with whom he recorded Taka’s Question in 2010. Following a series of concerts with Ladin poet Roberta Dapunt, he recorded Perdono in 2001, with improvisations inspired by her poetry. He has taught piano at the “G. Braga” Conservatory in Teramo, “Nicola Sala” in Benevento, “Niccolò Piccinni” in Bari and “Domenico Cimarosa” in Avellino.
Franz Schubert: (b Vienna, 31 Jan 1797; d Vienna, 19 Nov 1828). Austrian composer. The only canonic Viennese composer native to Vienna, he made seminal contributions in the areas of orchestral music, chamber music, piano music and, most especially, the German lied. The richness and subtlety of his melodic and harmonic language, the originality of his accompaniments, his elevation of marginal genres and the enigmatic nature of his uneventful life have invited a wide range of readings of both man and music that remain among the most hotly debated in musical circles.
Johannes Brahms: (b Hamburg, 7 May 1833; d Vienna, 3 April 1897). German composer. The successor to Beethoven and Schubert in the larger forms of chamber and orchestral music, to Schubert and Schumann in the miniature forms of piano pieces and songs, and to the Renaissance and Baroque polyphonists in choral music, Brahms creatively synthesized the practices of three centuries with folk and dance idioms and with the language of mid- and late 19th-century art music. His works of controlled passion, deemed reactionary and epigonal by some, progressive by others, became well accepted in his lifetime.
Robert Schumann: (b Zwickau, Saxony, 8 June 1810; d Endenich, nr Bonn, 29 July 1856). German composer and music critic. While best remembered for his piano music and songs, and some of his symphonic and chamber works, Schumann made significant contributions to all the musical genres of his day and cultivated a number of new ones as well. His dual interest in music and literature led him to develop a historically informed music criticism and a compositional style deeply indebted to literary models. A leading exponent of musical Romanticism, he had a powerful impact on succeeding generations of European composers.
The Last Echo of the Myth By Edmondo Filippini The myth often associated with an author's late works typically equates to the renown garnered over the centuries. The prevailing narrative suggests that these compositions, perceived as a prelude to life's denouement or embodying tranquil inner peace, continue to captivate scholars. These individuals, influenced by their temporal context and personal disposition, frequently fail to discern the subtlest nuances within the music. Indeed, "masterpiece" is an overused term yet aptly describes the three works herein, with their enduring malleability that, almost two…
By Edmondo Filippini
The myth often associated with an author's late works typically equates to the renown garnered over the centuries. The prevailing narrative suggests that these compositions, perceived as a prelude to life's denouement or embodying tranquil inner peace, continue to captivate scholars. These individuals, influenced by their temporal context and personal disposition, frequently fail to discern the subtlest nuances within the music.
Indeed, "masterpiece" is an overused term yet aptly describes the three works herein, with their enduring malleability that, almost two centuries on, still convey varied, and occasionally novel, messages that even their creators might not have anticipated. However, interpretative boundaries are inherently fluid, a notion exemplified by Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms. The three composers featured, though not virtuosos in the Lisztian sense, have each contributed emblematic pieces to the musical canon and have explored distinct spiritual dimensions through their artistry.
Commencing with Schubert, arguably the most emblematic of the trio, we consider his Sonata in C Minor, D. 958, one of the final three penned during the twilight of his life. Its dramatic intensity, structural anomalies, and the period of its inception closely align it with subsequent works and others like the "Winterreise" song cycle. In recent years, D. 958 in C Minor has become a favored piece among pianists striving to unravel its elusive essence, guiding listeners on a journey through a dreamscape of shadows and reverie, hinting at a solution to a conundrum that even the author might not have comprehended.
The enigma of Schumann's Op. 133, written shortly before his tragic descent into mental illness, presents a more complex case. Where Schubert's world remains accessible to all intrepid wanderers, Schumann's music encases the listener in a finite realm from which no journey can truly depart. It is challenging to reconcile this work as both a new expressive foray and a reflection of the composer's deep-seated turmoil. Described by his wife Clara during those fraught months as "very original as ever, but difficult to understand," Schumann's piece conveys a desire to transcend the ineffable, its profound harmonies cloaking an undercurrent of profound frustration.
Completing the record is Brahms' Op. 118, a stark contrast to the explorative wanderings of Schubert and the enigmatic finality of Schumann. Brahms appears more concerned with forging a distinct path, one less tethered to bygone virtuosity and more attuned to the introspective and the listener's experience within a tangible reality. Particularly in the sixth intermezzo, which concludes the collection, the sublimation of melody may resonate with intense poignancy.
Throughout these works, one perceives a consistent, grounded reality, echoing the Dantean aspiration to "see the stars again" and the culmination of a personal odyssey that engages with each individual's spiritual quest. In contemporary times, as ever, the search continues for that which remains undefined and may forever elude discovery. Yet, these composers suggest that it is not the attainment but the pursuit itself that encapsulates life's true beauty and grandeur.
Paolo Vergari, piano. Recorded at Paolo Vergari Studio, Albano Lake, Rome, in 2016. Piano: Yamaha CFX. Sound engineer: Massimo Marchese. Music advisor: Pasquale Punzo. Cover artwork: Utagawa Hiroshige, Full Moon at Takanawa (Takanawa no Meigetsu), c. 1831. ℗ & © Da Vinci Classics. DDD. Manufactured in Japan.
Selected awards, reviews and interviews. Radio broadcasts and podcasts are listed separately below.
Broadcasts, conversations and listening features dedicated to this recording.
Alia Musica · Armonie in Dialogo
Episode 23: a conversation with Paolo Vergari about the piano, spirituality and poetry in Romantic music, with The Last Piano Works included in the programme’s selected discography.
Listen to the episode ↗ - Alia Musica · Armonie in Dialogo
