Rossini: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 3 (2009)

Gioacchino Rossini's Péchés de vieillesse (Sins of Old Age) have gained new admirers in a time appreciative of irony and satire, and several cycles of recordings are underway. What strikes one in exploring any of them is how extensive the repertoire is in total, and how completely wrong the conventional narrative has it with the suggestion that Rossini's career "ended" with William Tell. The Péchés de vieillesse extended to 14 volumes, requiring around as many CDs for a complete set as Beethoven's sonatas do, and Rossini ... Read More

Gioacchino Rossini's Péchés de vieillesse (Sins of Old Age) have gained new admirers in a time appreciative of irony and satire, and several cycles of recordings are underway. What strikes one in exploring any of them is how extensive the repertoire is in total, and how completely wrong the conventional narrative has it with the suggestion that Rossini's career "ended" with William Tell. The Péchés de vieillesse extended to 14 volumes, requiring around as many CDs for a complete set as Beethoven's sonatas do, and Rossini wrote several major sacred pieces besides. What is in question here is a new phase of a composer's career, not an addendum to it. At any rate, Naxos' cycle of the Péchés by the young Italian pianist Alessandro Marangoni has been consistently enjoyable. Even if it would be possible to imagine a somewhat broader brand of humor in the parody of pianistic gestures involved such pieces as "Un sauté" (track 11), or, for goodness' sake, "Hachis romantique" (Romantic Hash, track 12),... Read Less