Sergio Fiorentino

In this post I will discuss the late, great, Italian pianist Sergio Fiorentino (1927-1998).

Along with Josef Hofmann, he is my absolute favourite pianist. If ever there was an artist after my own heart it was Fiorentino, more specifically the Fiorentino of the 90s after he restarted his international career. After some introductory preliminaries, I will discuss some of my favourite of Fiorentino’s early recordings.

Fiorentino never had the career his talent deserved; instead he devoted much of his live to teaching in his hometown of Napoli. This changed when his friend and supporter Ernst Lumpe arranged for him to appear in Germany, which lead to new recordings being released on APR and renewed international interest. Unfortunately, the second coming of Fiorentino’s career was curtailed by his sudden death in 1998. At that time he was playing as well as ever.

Since then Ernst has continued to preserve Fiorentino’s legacy, maintaining an online presence for Fiorentino and generously providing copious amounts of Fiorentino’s recordings to fans around the world for free. Unfortunately, Fiorentino’s recorded legacy has been tarnished somewhat by the ‘Hatto affair’ perpetrated by his erstwhile record producer William Barrington-Coupe. As such, all recordings released by Concert Artist under Fiorentino’s name after his death have to be treated with suspicion (fans will note the sad irony, given that Fiorentino had spent much of his recorded career as an incognito pianist, recorded as “Paul Procopolis” amongst others). Ernst Lumpe has been doing his best to verify the authenticity of these recordings, please visit his site for more details.

I was introduced to Fiorentino’s pianism through the recordings that Ernst had made available on MP3.com. I think this was around 2003-2004. Sadly I don’t seem to have any of these individually downloaded files anymore. However, I have a particularly vivid recollection of an altogether barnstorming finale of Beethoven’s Appassionata Sonata, which clocked in at 4 minutes + not much (without the repeat).

Later, I got in contact with Ernst, who sent me many CDs worth of Fiorentino’s studio and live recordings. I also bought all the Fiorentino CDs I could find. These recordings date from different periods in Fiorentino’s life and it is interesting to see how much his playing changed as he developed artistically. The primary criticism of the young Fiorentino was that he tended to be quite two-paced, alternating very fast and very slow tempi. To a certain extent I can understand this criticism, for example his early recordings of Schumann’s Carnaval suffers from this. Recording for small independent labels, Fiorentino didn’t have the luxury of time and copious editing; he usually recorded many works on the same day, basically “live”. For example, he recorded the entire Rachmaninoff Preludes on one day! Compare this to recordings made by the current generation of pianists, which are virtually assembled bar by bar! In fact, two things that are beyond reproach are the young Fiorentino’s technique and tone, which is amongst the most beautiful and singing I’ve heard (other contenders are Hofmann and Ginzburg). Indeed, despite his flaws, there are some absolutely incredible recordings amongst these early releases.

The greatest of these is his 1958 recording of the Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor, which unfortunately is only available on youtube in a poor transfer, but which I'll happily send in a good transfer to anyone who wants it. This version has no equal, to my ears, and believe me I’ve many, many versions of this piece. As expected his tone is gorgeous and singing, but beyond this it is his interpretation that makes this recording incomparable. I especially love the way he plays the hushed opening of the development; it is pure poetry, moreover the feeling is 100% genuine, there is no sickly sentimentality or false profundity that so often mars the cantabile playing of lesser pianists. Another high point is the first movement cadenza (which is one of my favourite moments in music). It’s funny because Fiorentino himself thought it come out a mess (I beg to disagree!); he hadn’t realised that it was to be recorded separately and had preferred the way he had played it when the rest of the movement was recorded. What I like the best about it is how he builds to the climax, the way he executes the accelerando and crescendo are perfect, there is no starting super slow then suddenly speeding up towards the end, instead it is expertly gradated poco a poco (as Schumann wanted).

Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor (warning, poor vinyl transfer, skips)

Another amazing recording of the young Fiorentino is his Liszt Transcendental Etude no 6, ‘Vision’. It’s actually a pretty unique interpretation but it works so much better than how pianists usually play this (much slower and a lot more pedantically). Fiorentino’s opening is on the brisk side and strictly no-nonsense. What I love in this recording is the way he builds the intensity towards the euphoric climaxes. At one point he does an incredible piano subito that just takes my breath away. To be honest this is the only version of this piece I want to listen to. It just goes to show how dependant Liszt’s music is on the interpreter; when Fiorentino plays this etude it sounds like a different music, I can really hear the ‘vision’ that Liszt was depicting!

Liszt Transcendental Etude no 6, Vision:

Another incredible Liszt recording is his Funerailles, his octaves might not match Horowitz (whose playing of this piece can only be described as a fiasco) but it is certainly much more controlled, musical and genuine in feeling. Fiorentino was never one to play to the gallery. Indeed, there are many moments of pure tenderness in Liszt’s poetic tribute to his fallen Hungarian comrades.

Liszt Funerailles

A final early recording that I love is his Bach Italian Concerto. I am rather sick of hearing this incredibly hackneyed piece but when I do listen to it, Fiorentino’s is the recording to which I constantly return. He makes this piece sound fresh again to my tired ears.

Well, that’s enough on the young Fiorentino, really I could write all day but I have a programme to prepare. I will write another instalment later, I hope you take the time to listen to his recordings. Frankly, if you consider yourself a classical music lover you’d really be missing out if you don’t.