LISZT: On His Favourite Piano [CD de audio] Michele Campanella (piano) and Liszt

Franz Liszt's own Bechstein piano was donated to the Chigiana Musical Academy in Siena as a result of a warm friendship that was established in 1938 between the piano's owner, Roberto Almagia, and the Academy's founder, Count Guido Chigi Saracini. Almagia had bought it for his wife, but she had died, and he was so impressed with the count that he instinctively felt that the Academy was the right place for the piano. Furthermore, Almagia knew that Liszt had ties to Siena, as he had stayed there with Wagner and his family. This is a remarkable recording of the Italian pianist Michele Campanella performing a selection of Liszt's late works on this historic instrument, in the grand and sumptuous Liszt Hall within the 14th-century Chigi Saracini palace, home of the Chigiana Musical Academy. This collection of Liszt's late works reflects the composer's feelings about old age, the virtuoso brilliance of his earlier works replaced by sparser textures and experimental harmonies, including the dark and brilliant Valses Oubliées, the impressionistic Nuages Gris and En Rêve, and the series of musical memorials to Hungarian artists and statesmen, Historiche Ungarische Bildnisse. Michele Campanella is a piano teacher at the Academy. He is internationally known as one of the leading interpreters of Liszt's repertoire and was awarded the Grand Prix of the Record three years in a row by the Franz Liszt Academy in Bucharest.