Dallapiccola: Sonatina Canonica su Capricci di Niccolo Paganini

Luigi Dallapiccola is the role model of Italian music in the 20th century. These piano works are important in the creative development of this composer.

Luigi Dallapiccola is one of the most celebrated Italian composers of the twentieth century. This disc features chamber music and songs alongside his complete works for solo piano. Whether drawing on the music of the past to inspire the contrapuntal organisation of his own, or concentrating on the opportunities for gentle lyricism afforded by bell-like instrumental and vocal sonorities, Dallapiccola’s commitment to traditional expressive nuance has been seen by critics as a powerful aspect of his Italian insistence upon cantabilità – songfulness.

Paganini’s appearance on the European musical scene was a sensational event, generating a wave of enthusiasm in audiences and musicians. The admiration that he stirred up is witnessed by the great number of compositions based on Paganinian themes that were printed throughout the 19th century, as well as in the 20th. The present CD features some of the piano works dedicated to the Genoese violinist, some of which are rarely performed and almost all decisively virtuosic. Marco Pasini interprets them with the necessary elan and technical brilliancy.