FrancK/BLoch/Giannini
(1996)
CONNOISSEUR SOCIETY 4208
“A revelatory release.”
“Silberstein is my kind of pianist. He plays the music, rather than the notes.”
[click below for full review]
I was barely twenty years old when I recorded this album, but I was already committed to playing music by composers who hadn’t gotten the attention they deserved.
Ernest Bloch’s Piano Sonata (1935) is a masterpiece. It is three continuous movements of great depth and raging pessimism. It had only been recorded a handful of times when I began working on it.
Vittorio Giannini’s piano music had never been recorded before I programmed it on this album. Giannini was among the most beloved American opera composers of the mid-20th century, with a style descended from Puccini and other great Romantics.
Bloch and Giannini had much in common with Franck in their approach to composition. In fact, Bloch was a student of one of Franck’s students.
I was honored for such a fine label as Connoisseur Society to invest in me as an unknown young pianist. Alan Silver was the ideal producer for my first album: knowledgeable, supportive, and gentle in manner.
This album was a lovely way for me to start a lifetime of recording.