ANDREA LUCHESI: Piano Sonatas and Rondos – Roberto Plano – Concerto Classics

by | Sep 26, 2012 | Classical CD Reviews

ANDREA LUCHESI: Piano Sonatas and Rondos – Roberto Plano, piano – Concerto Classics 2069 [Distr. by Naxos], 79:17 ***:
Luchesi (1741-1801) apprenticed in Vienna, where he concentrated on sacred music, opera, and keyboard works. He was Kapellmeister in Bonn, where his tenure overlapped the residency of the young Beethoven. Despite the evident effusion of the notes, which consider him a “genius” and “second Cherubini”, I hear little in these short sonatas that justify the praise. Certainly he is talented, and there are a few moments of wonderment in some of these works, but without hearing more of the composer’s music in other guises it is impossible to make a fair assessment.
It will have to suffice that the very perceptive and crisp accounts given here by Roberto Plano, a superb pianist, offer the composer all of the interpretative finesse and technical wizardry he deserves and more. I can’t say that this is a particularly enlightening discovery, and I sincerely doubt that history’s judgment is a false one, but for those interested in fresh discoveries of at least commendable talents from the classical-romantic divide, this might perk your ears a bit. All others definitely listen to it first.
—Steven Ritter

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