Bach Nostalghia Francesco Piemontesi

• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750): Prelude & Fugue in E-Flat Major, BWV 552 "St. Anne" (Transcr. F. Busoni for Piano):
• 1 Bach: Prelude & Fugue in E-Flat Major, BWV 552 "St. Anne" (Transcr. F. Busoni for Piano): I. Prelude 08:32
• Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 659 (Transcr. F. Busoni for Piano):
• 2 Bach: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland, BWV 659 (Transcr. F. Busoni for Piano) 04:42
• Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645 (Transcr. F. Busoni for Piano):
• 3 Bach: Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme, BWV 645 (Transcr. F. Busoni for Piano) 04:03
• Italian Concerto in F Major, BWV 971:
• 4 Bach: Italian Concerto in F Major, BWV 971: I. Allegro 04:00
• 5 Bach: Italian Concerto in F Major, BWV 971: II. Andante 04:16
• 6 Bach: Italian Concerto in F Major, BWV 971: III. Presto 03:54
• Flute Sonata in E-Flat Major, H. 545:
• 7 Bach: Flute Sonata in E-Flat Major, H. 545: II. Siciliano (Attrib. J.S. Bach as BWV 1031) [Transcr. W. Kempff for Piano] 03:16
• Kommst du nun, Jesu, vom Himmel herunter, BWV 650 (Transcr. M. Schnaus for Piano):
• 8 Bach: Kommst du nun, Jesu, vom Himmel herunter, BWV 650 (Transcr. M. Schnaus for Piano) 03:07
• Ferruccio Busoni (1866 - 1924): Toccata, BV 287:
• 9 Busoni: Toccata, BV 287 09:16
• Johann Sebastian Bach: Prelude & Fugue in E-Flat Major, BWV 552 "St. Anne" (Transcr. F. Busoni for Piano):
• 10 Bach: Prelude & Fugue in E-Flat Major, BWV 552 "St. Anne" (Transcr. F. Busoni for Piano): II. Fugue 07:00
• Total Runtime 52:06

Info for Bach Nostalghia

On Bach Nostalghia, his second PENTATONE album, pianist Francesco Piemontesi presents original works of Bach, alongside Bach transcriptions and works inspired by Bach from Ferruccio Busoni, Wilhelm Kempff and Maximilian Schnaus. Whereas many modern-day musicians aim to revive the instruments used in Bach’s own time, Piemontesi explores the tradition of Bach transcriptions for piano. This tradition started in the nineteenth-century, found its most prominent exponent in Busoni, and is still alive today, as Schnaus’s transcription of Kommst du nun, Jesu, vom Himmel herunter demonstrates.

Despite using an instrument not yet existing in the composer’s time, Busoni and others sought to interpret Bach’s music with utmost reverence and study, expanding our notions of authenticity and Werktreue. For Piemontesi, playing Bach through the eyes of Busoni and Kempff incites a sense of nostalgia, re-establishing the ties to a rich pianistic tradition. The album title alludes to Andrei Tarkovsky’s Nostalghia, a 1983 film about the untranslatability of art and culture. Francesco Piemontesi is among the most-cherished pianists of our age, and presents the second fruit of his exclusive collaboration with PENTATONE, having released the acclaimed Schubert - Last Piano Sonatas in 2019, which was crowned as Classica’s Choc of the Month in February 2020.

Francesco Piemontesi, piano

Francesco Piemontesi
is a pianist of exceptional refinement of expression, which is allied to a consummate technical skill. Widely renowned for his interpretation of Mozart and the early Romantic repertoire, Piemontesi’s pianism and sensibility has a close affinity too with the later 19th century and 20th century repertoire of Brahms, Liszt, Dvořák, Ravel, Debussy, Bartók and beyond. Of one of his great teachers and mentors, Alfred Brendel, Piemontesi says that Brendel taught him “to love the detail of things”.

Francesco Piemontesi appears with major ensembles worldwide: Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, DSO and Berlin Radio Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Vienna Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Danish National Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonic, London Symphony Orcherstra, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, The Hallé, Tonhalle-Orchestra Zurich, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de France, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Israel Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Dallas Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic.

He has performed with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Nicholas Collon, Charles Dutoit, Sir Mark Elder, Iven Fischer, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Manfred Honeck, Marek Janowski, Neeme Järvi, Ton Koopman, Andrew Manze, Zubin Mehta, Sir Roger Norrington, Gianandrea Noseda, Sakari Oramo and Yuri Temirkanov.

Piemontesi is also a natural and keen chamber musician and plays with a variety of partners – Leif Ove Andsnes, Yuri Bashmet, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Emmanuel Pahud, Heinrich Schiff, Christian Tetzlaff, Tabea Zimmermann and the Emerson Quartet.

In solo recital, he has appeared in many prestigious venues including London’s Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Rotterdam De Doelen, Berlin Philharmonie, Zürich Tonhalle, Vienna Konzerthaus and Musikverein, Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall in New York, and Suntory Hall Tokyo. In January 2016, Piemontesi launched his complete Mozart Odyssey at the Wigmore Hall, performing the sonatas in a series of recitals over the course of three seasons:

“[The D-major Fantasia] was a good introduction to Piemontesi’s balance between musical intelligence, judgement and intuition, which poured into his reading of the K284 Sonata… The detail of decoration and dynamics Piemontesi released in the penultimate section – a full-scale Adagio vocalise of great intensity – made Mozart’s supernatural eloquence soar”

Piemontesi has performed at the Verbier Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, La Roque d’Anthéron, Chopin International Music Festival in Warsaw, Lucerne Festival, Schubertiade, Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival, Rheingau and Schleswig-Holstein festivals and New York Mostly Mozart Festival.

Francesco Piemontesi has released a number of fine recordings, including three recordings for Naïve Classique: the Debussy Préludes, released in autumn 2015, Mozart Piano Works, and Schumann and Dvořák‘s Piano Concerti with BBC Symphony Orchestra and Jiří Bělohlávek. His recording of Mozart Piano Concertos Nos. 25 & 26 with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Andrew Manze were released on Linn Records in August 2017.

Born in Locarno, Francesco Piemontesi studied with Arie Vardi before working with Alfred Brendel, Murray Perahia, Cécile Ousset and Alexis Weissenberg. He rose to international prominence with prizes at several major competitions, including the 2007 Queen Elisabeth Competition, and between 2009-11 he was chosen as a BBC New Generation Artist.

Since 2012, Piemontesi has been the Artistic Director of the Settimane Musicali di Ascona.

Booklet for Bach Nostalghia