Roberto Perroni

The Goldberg Variations are the most complex of J. S. Bach’s works from a technical point of view. All the harpsichord’s technical and expressive resources are thoroughly explored and used to great effect. The complexity, imagination, richness of ideas and internal references that animate this work make it a monumental piece of immeasurable depth. The instrument that Roberto Loreggian plays for this recording is a copy of a harpsichord made by Michael Mietke in the early years of the 18th century; exchanges between the maker and Bach are historically documented. Consequently, Loreggian is able to fully convey the complexity of this legendary work. An outstanding scholar in organ and harpsichord performance, Loreggian has appeared at some of the most important international music venues and at renowned festivals. Both as soloist and accompanist, he has collaborated with numerous performers and orchestras, recording his performances on several music labels and receiving praise from music critics, in addition to several awards.

On 7th February 1857, after a delay of one year due to problems of copyright on a possible production of King Lear, Verdi accepted and signed a new agreement with the Teatro di San Carlo of Naples for an opera to be staged in January or February 1858. Not long after he had put behind the experiences of Simon Boccanegra (June 1857) and Aroldo (August), Verdi, then, had to face the issue of a new subject for Naples, which would no longer be King Lear, discarded for various reasons, and not even El tesorero del Rey by António García Gutiérrez or Ruy Blas by Hugo, to which he had given more serious thought, but Gustave III by Eugène Scribe, a play written in 1833 for Daniel Auber in which the king of Sweden is assassinated, in 1792, by a group of noblemen led by Jacob Ankarström. The composition of the score, between October 1857 and January 1858, went hand in hand with Verdi’s complex relationship with the Neapolitan censors, who would end up distorting the libretto and unnerving the composer to the point that he ended up refusing to stage the opera and breaking his agreement with the theatre.