A recording of piano music by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: What an original and fascinating way for a young pianist to embark on a career which in a short time grew to span Europe, the US, North Africa and the Far East! Mark Bebbington recorded this stunning debut album for SOMM in 2003, now newly available. Even before embarking on a series of recordings for SOMM now running to over 30 albums, Mark had been looking for fresh and unusual repertoire, both for recording and concert performance. Guided by his cherished teacher and mentor Aldo Ciccolini, he was already becoming known as a passionate advocate of unjustly neglected composers. A fifteen-concert European recital series several years ago featured premieres by Sir Malcolm Arnold and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Judith Bingham, Toru Takemitsu and Julian Anderson. Hi sErik Satie Cafe Concert, featuring the UK premiere of 'Sprts et Divertissements' in its original version for narrator and piano toured festivals in this country before playing two sold-out performances at 'le chat blanc' cabaret club in Paris. In typical late-romantic style, Castelnuovo-Tedesco's music can be tender, rhapsodic and passionate and presents formidable challenges for the pianist as it was often conceived in orchestral terms. It also reveals his fondness for the music of Rachmaninov, Granados and Albeniz and Ravel.
