Sandro Ivo Bartoli

Sandro Ivo Bartoli (born February 10, 1970 in Pisa) is an Italian musician. Having begun his musical studies at the age of twelve, at fifteen he gave his first public recital. He studied at the Boccherini Musical Institute in Lucca and at the Florence State Conservatory with Giancarlo Cardini, receiving his Professorship in 1991. Subsequently, he moved to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music (where he won numerous prizes and scholarships), and collaborated privately with the late Ukrainian pianist Shura Cherkassky.

Life and career

Since the early Nineties, with Cherkassky’s support and encouragement, Bartoli revisited the Italian literature from the early Twentieth century, establishing a trend and rapidly becoming its leading interpreter. His rediscovery of the concertos of Respighi (Bedford, 1991), Malipiero (London, 1994) and Casella (1995), was followed by the first modern performance in the United States of Ottorino Respighi’s Toccata for piano and orchestra, with the Johnson City Symphony under Lewis Dalvit; the concert was broadcast live by PBS and subsequently included in the station’s Great Performances series. As a result, Bartoli signed his first recording contract, with ASV, for an album dedicated to the piano works of Malipiero, to which followed one year later another recording with music by Casella (performed by "a fantastic pianist", wrote Der Spiegel Kultur). His international career developed rapidly: in 1997 he appeared in Sweden, where Svenska Dagbladet heralded him as "an outwordly virtuoso”; Norway followed, with concerts at the Bergen festival and the Grieg Museum. Meanwhile, he began his collaboration with Italian author Antonio Tabucchi, performing Italian music at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and at the Festival of Aix-en-Provence to rapturous success. In 2000 he appeared in Germany, where his interpretation of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto received significant acclaim ("such a performance of the Emperor concerto had not been heard for more than a decade" wrote the Thüringer Allgemeine), then in the UK, where his rendition of Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Rhapsody with The Hallé under Nicolae Moldoveanu received a standing ovation.

In 2002 Sandro Ivo Bartoli produced the scene music for Fernando Pessoa’s Book of disquiet, performed at the Festival d'Avignon in the adaptation of Antonio Tabucchi, and appeared in the triple capacity of pianist, arranger and composer. The same year, he founded in London Opera Etcetera, a series of concerts devoted to the non-vocal music of opera composers, and the Lyric Club Renato Bruson of Turin awarded him the Gina Rosso Prize for his work in the arts. More significant engagements followed: Shostakovich’s First Concerto in Stockholm, Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto in London, Beethoven’s Third Concerto in Bedford, and a cycle of live concerts for the Spanish National Radio where he performed various works by Malipiero, Casella, Respighi, Pizzetti, the new Sonata of Luciano Berio and the Fantasia contrappuntistica of Ferruccio Busoni. In 2005 Sandro Ivo Bartoli took part in a grand benefit concert at Munich’s Philharmonie with Martha Argerich and Rodion Shchedrin, and completed the world premiere recording of Malipiero’s piano concertos with the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Saarbruecken under Michele Carulli for CPO. The important event was the subject for a documentary film by French director Miroslav Sebestik, "Pianiste-Interpréte", released in 2014. The double CD was received with enthusiasm by the international press in France, United States, Germany, the Uk and Austria, and went on to receive a Diapason D'Or/Découvert award in France. More recently, Bartoli has been involved in a project to bring back to public attention the historic opera houses of Italy. His 2008 tour In Tuscany with Chopin met with unanimous praise from public and critic alike, and earned him a public commendation from the Tuscan Minister of Culture. In 2010 he performed Ottorino Respighi’s Concerto in the myxolydian mode with the Orchestra of the Landesbühnen Sachsen in Dresden to rave reviews, Beethoven’s Fourth Piano concerto with the Teschenphilharmonie in Munich and Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto in Grosseto. The following year Sandro Ivo Bartoli recorded Ottorino Respighi’s Concerto in modo misolidio and Toccata for piano and orchestra with the Landesbühnen Sachsen under Michele Carulli for the Dutch label Brilliant Classics, beginning an artistic partnership with the label that has since seen the release of no fewer than six albums with such diverse repertoire spanning from Busoni's Fantasia Contrappuntistica to an album devoted to Frescobaldi (The Frescobaldi Legacy - 5 De Diapason 2013), and encopassing the Liszt-Busoni transcriptions and the complete Bach-Busoni transcriptions (2 CD, Brilliant Classics, 2014). His discography is available on ASV, NEOS, Timbre, Opera Etcetera, Fenice DM, CPO and Brilliant Classics.

Discography

External links