Quodlibet

Colleagues who had the opportunity to hear Niccolò Castiglioni play can vouch for his excellence as a pianist, in particular his skill in performing Cangianti, a work he presented in Darmstadt in September 1959. It is a highly demanding work, not only due to it's keyboard acrobatics but also because of it's broad-ranging timbres. It is clear Castiglioni possessed an acute sensitivity for the instrument's qualities which he developed during his studies in Salzburg under Gulda and Zecchi. His was a conscious yet primarily "natural" pianism, in a Chopinesque sense, endowed with precious distillations of timbre that are no longer mere ornament but a surprising and mysterious creative element. This development was to extend to Debussy; the late Debussy would not have eluded Castiglioni's prehensile hands when he was attracted to the spell of Webern's labyrinths. This release collects all operas that this great author has written for piano and orchestra.