Martin Haselbock - Liszt - The Sound of Weimar (9CD) - 2018 FLAC

Fabio Biondi has chosen a selection of delightful virtuoso chamber music pieces by Niccolò Paganini to mark his tenth album for Glossa. Together with his long-term colleague from Europa Galante, the plucked-string specialist Giangiacomo Pinardi (here playing an original romantic guitar from c1825), Biondi delivers one of the most special Glossa albums of recent times. The works, composed between 1804 and c1828, are mainly two-movement sonatas contained in the Centone di sonate collection, although the album also includes the popular Sonata concertata in A major. The album was recorded in Valencia by the engineer and producer Fabio Framba (another well-known component of Biondi s recording setups). In the commentary of this release, includes Pierre Élie Mamou, looks into the Devil/God dichotomy as applied to the figure of Paganini by his own contemporaries. The graphic design for the album takes its inspiration from this idea, for another typically Glossa look, listen and read experience.