Alfredo Piatti (1822-1901)
12 Caprice pour violoncelle seul, op. 25

Luciano Tarantino, violoncelle

Alfredo Piatti (1822–1901) fait partie de ces musiciens à la vie riche, adulés en leur temps, et que l’histoire a bientôt oubliés. Enfant prodige, il commence des tournées comme violoncelliste virtuose, mais qui ne lui assurent qu’à peine de quoi vivre. Malade, il sera contraint de vendre l’instrument qu’il avait reçu en cadeau de fin d’études. Il joue à Londres sous la direction de Mendelssohn, rencontre Liszt, qui le qualifie de « Paganini du violoncelle » et lui offre même un instrument à sa mesure, un Amati. Le succès vient alors, il s’installe à Londres, épouse une anglaise, fait carrière et joue sous la direction de tous les grands chefs, avec les plus grands solistes, reçoit d’un admirateur un violoncelle Stradivarius (qui gardera désormais son nom de « Piatti »). Luciano Tarantino nous offre ici ses Caprices pour violoncelle seul. Loin d’un fastidieux catalogue destiné à épater la galerie, ce sont des pièces inspirées, solaires et spirituelles avant d’être virtuoses (bien que l’on imagine la main gauche volant à toute allure sur les cordes et l’archet fortement sollicité, et que leur difficulté soit bien connue des violoncellistes) et qui charment tout de suite les oreilles. Une belle découverte ! (Walter Appel)

Alfredo Carlo Piatti began a precocious and distinguished career as a cellist in his native Bergamo, as well as in Turin and Milan. He left Italy at 21 to seek his fortune and on his travels met Franz Liszt, who gave him an Amati cello, and Felix Mendelssohn, who conducted one of his first concerts in London. In early 1847, having performed across Europe and with considerable experience under his belt, he settled permanently in London. After enjoying an illustrious half-century among the upper echelons of London’s musical elite, he returned to Italy in 1898 and spent his final years living with his daughter and editing his body of compositions. On his death in 1901, he bequeathed the Fondo Piatti-Lochis to the city of Bergamo, a precious collection of manuscript and print editions of his entire oeuvre, containing around 60 instrumental pieces, a similar number of short vocal compositions and around 40 transcriptions and reworkings of music by major composers of the past. It includes the first edition (produced by Piatti himself) and two autograph manuscripts of his 12 Caprices Op.25. Both manuscripts bear the same date: ‘London, 26 June 1865’. The Caprices became Piatti’s best-known compositions, and they have been recorded and performed by cellists all over the world, who find them difficult to master but also undoubtedly an extremely interesting challenge. Within them, Piatti explores the full technical and expressive potential of his instrument. The left hand is forced into possible and seemingly impossible positions, often giving the impression of flying rapidly and lightly over the strings, while the right hand adroitly manages the bow, testing out all the various ways of generating sounds and traversing all pitches and tonal colours. Mastering the Caprices can therefore be seen as a way of achieving the playing technique described in a first-hand account of one of Piatti’s last concerts: ‘He diligently interprets the thinking hidden in the music, liberating it with his divine instrument; in his expert, awe-inspiring hands it speaks and sings sometimes sweetly, sometimes loudly, sometimes trembling, but always disciplined and convincing’.