Vacatello

The Debussy-year 2012 brought a wealth of reissues on the market, but surprisingly few new recordings. Reason the more to welcome this new recording of a generous selection of Debussy piano works, centred around the substantial “12 Etudes”.These works, written in the later stage of Debussy’s creative life, form the apotheosis of his style. Far from any evocative “impressionistic” Tonmalerei or picturesque atmosphere painting they are Debussy’s answer to the Etudes of Chopin, purely abstract creations of melody, harmony and rhythm. Fiercely uncompromising and difficult, they form the summit of Debussy’s piano oeuvre, and one of the highest challenges to any performing pianist. The exciting young Italian pianist Mariangela Vacatello is a Liszt specialist, renowned for her passionate performances and technical ability. She has given concerts at prestigious venues across the USA and Europe, and she has won many awards. These include second prize at the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in 1999, and the Internet Audience Award at the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. ‘A very exciting player’ Musical Opinion, 2008.

Vacatello comes from a musical family: her mother, Pina, was a pianist and now is a piano teacher and her father, Antonio, is a piano tuner as well as a professor and musician.

"…and even when Ginastera gives you one piece with a close family likeness to another, you listen with a sense of renewal thanks to performances by Mariangela Vacatello of a super zest, brio and imaginative scope… she has technique in spades, making her a front-runner with Argerich's legendary live Three Argentinian Dances… no praise could be high enough for Vacatello's achievement" (Gramophone 2016)

A friend and fellow student of Rachmaninov in Moscow, the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin enjoyed a different and much shorter career, at first as a concert pianist; he was encouraged by Belyayev, who published his earlier compositions.

"…and even when Ginastera gives you one piece with a close family likeness to another, you listen with a sense of renewal thanks to performances by Mariangela Vacatello of a super zest, brio and imaginative scope… she has technique in spades, making her a front-runner with Argerich's legendary live Three Argentinian Dances… no praise could be high enough for Vacatello's achievement" (Gramophone 2016)

A new and precious chapter is added to the collaboration between the Stradivarius record company and the famous pianist Mariangela Vacatello. After the ample response of the Facets CD dedicated to Schumann and Chopin, Stradivarius is now pleased to announce the release of the CD Scriabin The Complete Piano Sonatas vol.1, the first volume of the new project that will see Mariangela Vacatello perform the entire cycle of piano sonatas of the Russian composer and pianist Alexander Scriabin.

Brilliant Classics s'est fait connaître à la moitié des années 2000 par de spectaculaires coffrets, proposant les intégrales de grands compositeurs dans des réalisations artistiques remarquablement soignées. Il faut dire que Pieter van Winkel, le directeur artistique de Brilliant Classics est sans aucun doute l'un des meilleurs professionnels du disque classique au niveau mondial. Il n'avait pas son pareil pour dénicher dans les fonds de catalogue parfois oubliés de grandes versions qu'il intégrait dans ses grosses boîtes.