alegitor wrote:rdem wrote:Excellent! the three missing pieces were: Une pensée à Florence, Valse boiteuse and Marche! The last three of the set. It would be great if you could post those.
Number 5, Prelude inoffensif, was included in the Kalmus edition and here are the others you are missing:-
.......so one Album completed. Are there anymore out there?
Here are the missing ones, nms, tttos. Thank you for the rest of that Album. Are all the different Albums included in Péchés de vieillesse or some of them were thought to be a separate cycle - a question for the musicologists
I have to confess I am no Rossini expert, just going on what I've read in my Masters' Music book on Rossini and various sleeve notes. Certainly, the majority of the piano pieces were written in the last 10 years of his life, grouped by him into the 14 Albums he called Péchés de vieillesse, and performed by himself and various young pianists for the pleasure of his guests at his Saturday night Soireés. Although he was often asked to publish them, he always refused to and those young pianists were required to learn them at his house as he would not allow the manuscripts, which he kept in a bedroom cabinet, out of his sight. After his death his widow did have then published ( I think by Ricordi).
Here's a link to a list of the pieces in those 14 Albums. Those of most interest here would be volumes 4-10, 12 and 14 which are all totally or largely dedicated to the piano solo works:
http://www.rossinigesellschaft.de/data/pdvd.html
There are certainly other various Valses, Album leaves, Riens etc. which remained were not included in those albums and may have remained unpublished - some are included in volume one of Chandos's 4 albums. Those 5 pieces (nms. either and nor do I have the first) are a mystery. Their names don't seem to tie in with the exception of the second which appears in volume 12. Any further help would be much appreciated!
What is certain is that Rossini was not the fourth rate pianist he claimed to be and I am always amazed that more mainstream pianists have not played some of these works. At their best they are witty, harmonically adventurous and show off a vituoso technique - often bringing to mind Alkan, Chopin or Schumann. Perhaps Pollini - famous for the latter 2 and conductor of a recording of La Donna del Lago - could shake off his icy image by playing us some!
I found the Album de château in London's Westminster Library when I lived there some 10 years ago and scanned the majority of it then. At the time, they did have several of the other volumes which I sadly never got round to. I will check if they are still there on my next visit, but if anyone has got there before me, it would be great to see the results.
Could you post
Un pensée à Florence too?
Thanks,
Richard
