Alfonso Soldano is professor of piano performance at the Giordano Conservatory in Foggia, Italy, following similar posts at Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome and in Trani. He was a favorite student of Ciccolini and is renowned for his virtuosity. He was awarded the International Gold Medal for 'Best Italian Artist' in 2013 and has won many other competitions, and is also a busy writer and transcriber. His previous recordings for Divine Art, of the music of Rachmaninoff, Bortkiewicz and Castelnuovo-Tedesco, received glowing reviews. He has performed and given masterclasses all around Italy, and in Germany, Switzerland and Romania, and post-Covid is planning a wider international concert schedule, hoping to tour the USA. His Rachmaninoff is especially magical. He has transcribed 15 of the composer's romantic songs for solo piano in three books of 'Romances' which he performs here with works by Debussy which Soldano has also transcribed. The album is a glorious, sumptuous immersion in late Romantic and Impressionist music which will appeal equally to classical experts and the wider general public. It is a collection of sheer beauty.

Tracklist:

Your beauty is that of a flower, Op. 8 No. 2
All was taken from me, Op. 26 No. 2
Morning, Op. 4 No. 2
Dream, Op. 8 No. 5
Do you remember that evening, Op. Posth.
Oh I beg you, do not leave!, Op. 4 No. 1
Dusk was falling, Op. Posth.
Water Lily, Op. 8 No. 1
Do not believe me, friend, Op. 14 No. 7
Night is sorrowful, Op. 26 No. 12
They replied, Op. 21 No. 4
How peaceful, Op. 21 No. 7
Summer nights, Op. 14 No. 5
In the silence of the secret night, Op. 4 No. 3
Spring Torrents, Op. 14 No. 11
Enfant prodigue~Prelude
Nocturnes~I. Nuages
Nocturnes~II. FÃªtes
Nocturnes~III. SirÃ¨nes

UPC: 809730521522
Label: Divine Art
Release Date: 11.12.21
Format: CD

Debussy / Soldano - Metamorphoses (CD)