Piano Music: Opera Fantasies & Paraphrases 1

As an internationally admired opera composer, William Vincent Wallace was perfectly placed to provide brilliant fantasies and paraphrases from the operatic repertoire, refashioned for the domestic piano market. He did not neglect his own works—there is an especially lovely aria from his opera Lurline, as well as an extensive fantasia on themes from Maritana, perhaps his best-known work. His instinct for the perfect transformation also included such favourites as Verdi’s Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves and Donizetti’s Una furtiva lagrima. Rosemary Tuck’s playing of Wallace has been acclaimed for her “ideally deft and scintillatingly assured performances.” (Gramophone). The legendary scholar and conductor Richard Bonynge performs at the piano on two of the tracks.