Guido Alberto Fano : Piano Sonata, Quattro Fantasie

Album review

Apart from a few vocal works and some chamber music, little of Guido Alberto Fano's output has been released on CD, and his music is largely unknown outside Italy. The two works for piano on Pietro De Maria's 2016 release on Brilliant Classics are late-Romantic in flavor and virtuosic in technique, which is to be expected when one considers Fano's reputation as a pianist. The Sonata in E major (1895-1899) is rather conventional in its four-movement form and dramatic style, with more than a few reminders of Schumann and Brahms scattered about, though it frequently erupts with extremely difficult passages worthy of Liszt. The Quattro Fantasie (1896), which consists of evocative character pieces, offers a sample of Fano's lyrical side, strongly influenced by his teacher, Giuseppe Martucci. While these early pieces don't reflect the direction Fano was to take in the next decade, with experiments in tonality and a growing interest in writing orchestral works under the influence of Richard Strauss, they are highly accessible and make an appealing introduction to this unjustly neglected composer. De Maria's performances are muscular and sparkling by turns, and his connection to Fano's music is apparent in these live recordings from 2013.
© TiVo