THE PIANO AT THE OPERA: Fantasias [CD de audio] Portenaw Piano Duo and Czerny, Thalberg, Listz, Glinka

The piano was an essential element of musical entertainment in the 19th century, and it was through this instrument that many became familiar with opera music, as fantasies based on various piano operas were composed, allowing those who did not were regular opera goers to be exposed to his music. This collection brings together selected opera themes adapted for two pianos. The fantasies and variations of Carl Czerny, who was a name known throughout the world at the time, were extremely popular; This disc includes his Introduction and Variations op.398 based on Donizetti's cavatina Don Pasquale, as well as the Variations on a Theme by Rossini, La Cornetta del Postiglione op.282. Czerny was the sole teacher of the young virtuoso Franz Liszt, whose characteristically elaborate funeral martial and cavatina s398 of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor appears in this collection, along with the Great Fantasy s393 on Bellini's La Sonnambula. Liszt's main pianistic rival and antithesis, with his calm demeanor and more delicate playing style, was Sigismond Thalberg, whose Fantasia op.33 on a Theme by Rossini Mosè in Egitto is as complex as Liszt's offerings. Mikhail Glinka, often known as the father of Russian classical music, spent time in Italy during his youth, where his studies at the Milan Conservatory included Italian opera. His Impromptu en Galoppe on Donizetti's famous barcarolle L'Elisir d'Amore also appears on the album. The works are performed by the celebrated Portenaw piano duo: Franco Calabretto and Eddi de Nadai.