George Frederick Pinto : intégrale de l'oeuvre pour piano

Description

This is the only complete inventory of the piano works of an English prodigy contemporary of Mozart. According to the impresario Salomon, had George Frederick Pinto not died at the age of 21, "England would have had the honor of giving birth to a second Mozart." In early 1806, he likely succumbed to tuberculosis, a disease greatly aggravated by a dissolute life; Pinto's "very questionable" character, his penchant for intemperance, and his somewhat lax principles were notorious among his contemporaries. Yet, despite the praise of Salomon and Samuel Wesley, who claimed that "no greater musical genius has ever been known," Pinto's music fell into obscurity, only to be revived in the 1960s. In the two or three years preceding his death, he composed works of astonishing maturity, centered on the instruments for which he was also a renowned performer: the violin and the piano. It is undoubtedly in the piano sonatas recorded here by Marek Toporowski that his most remarkable works are found: particularly the two sonatas Op. 3 and the Grande Sonate in C minor "Dedicated to his friend John Field" (1803). A Fantasia and a Sonata in C minor, left unfinished and completed by Wesley and Wolfl, as well as three sets of Variations, are also on par with Pinto's finest compositions. These works abound with magnificent and original ideas; while the influence of Mozart, Dussek, and Cramer is clearly perceptible, numerous original touches can be detected, as well as astonishing anticipations of Beethoven, Schubert, and even Chopin. Anyone even remotely interested in the piano music of the Classical era will find in Pinto's highly inventive music a body of work worthy of deeper exploration. This new recording is the first complete overview performed on instruments contemporary to Pinto. Marek Toporowski plays on three pianofortes, all modern copies of prestigious late 18th-century German models. He also contributes a detailed essay, in booklet form, on Pinto's life and work, informed by his practical and academic experience as one of the most renowned musicians of the Polish historical performance movement.