Wednesday, February 22, 2012 LUCHESI, PIANO SONATAS AND RONDOS, by Massimo Rolando Zegna (translated by Mic D'Avanzo)

For years, Andrea Luchesi has been at the center of a musical case. Born in Motta Di Livenza (province of Treviso, Italy) in 1741, he then moved to Venice at age fifteen, where he developed and affirmed himself as an organist and composer (concerts, cantatas, sonatas, masses and other sacred music). In 1771, invited by the Prince Elector Archbishop of Cologne Maximilian Friederich, he joined the court in Bonn. In 1774, he was nominated official court Kapellmeister, succeeding the deceased Ludwig van Beethoven, grandfather of the namesake author of the “Eroica” symphony. Luchesi died in 1801, after the Bonn court was ended by the invading French troops in 1794. Appreciated in life, and ignored by history, Luchesi has made a comeback after certain extreme hypothesis have been advanced: that not only was he Beethoven’s teacher and one of the pillars of Viennese Classicism, but also the author of compositions normally attributed to Mozart and Haydn. This discussion has triggered a certain –still somewhat circumscribed—interest amongst musicians and musical producers. In this context arrives this recording by Roberto Plano, the thirty-three year old pianist mostly known in the United States for his victory at the Cleveland International Piano Competition. He offers thirteen Sonatas and two Rondos by Luchesi: almost all edited works where Plano has intervened, correcting a few printing errors. The recording displays linear execution with a dry sound that however moves on a “confidential” registry, with the intent to highlight the profundity of the sentiments expressed by Luchesi.