Volume 11 in this series of Gioachino Rossini’s piano music completes Alessandro Marangoni’s monumental project to record all 200 or so individual works comprising the Peches de vieillesse or ‘Sins of Old Age’ (including some preliminary sketches.) Highlights include all four duets from the collection, from the highly operatic Le gittane to Un sou, in which two beggars try to sell the collar of their dead dog. Rossini’s sacred or pious songs, such as the surprisingly intense Ave Maria (su due note) prompted Richard Wagner’s response, “the Parisian salons have turned into prayer cells… extraordinary!” The closing piece of this edition is appropriately a setting by Rossini of his own name. Alessandro Marangoni studied piano with Maria Tipo. A winner of several national and international awards, including the prestigious ‘Amici di Milano’ International Prize, he has appeared throughout Europe, America and China as a soloist and as a chamber musician.
