Piatti: The Operatic Fantasies, Vol.2

Davies, Oliver; Bradbury, Adrian

“It’s clear that, as well as being a great cellist, [Bradbury] really understands operatic declamation, and that’s what makes the recording so very enjoyable.” (Professor Roger Parker, General Editor of the Critical Edition of the Operas of Donizetti on Vol. 1, Piatti Operatic Fantasies) On the present album Meridian presents the second of two releases featuring Adrian Bradbury (cello) and Oliver Davies (piano) playing operatic fantasies – including several world premiere recordings – by the 19th century virtuoso cellist Alfredo Piatti (1822 – 1901). Playing from original manuscripts found in the Donizetti Library in Bergamo, Bradbury and Davies present the repertoire through which Piatti bewitched audiences across Europe with his technical wizardry and peerless cantabile tone. These albums were conceived back in 2011 when the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) and the London Cello Society approached Adrian and Oliver to give a concert celebrating Piatti, a longtime RAM Professor. As Adrian and Oliver explored concert programmes and newspaper reviews from the 1840’s, it became clear that the items most delighting those audiences were Piatti’s own virtuosic display pieces – his Fantasies on operatic arias of the day. One of the Fantasies earning the young Piatti such acclaim - on Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda – lay unpublished, existing only as fragments of manuscript in the Piatti archive in Bergamo. Adrian and Oliver’s reconstruction of it for this concert began a ten-year love affair with the repertoire culminating in these recordings.

Price: $25.98