Sergio Fiorentino (piano)
The Complete SAGA Album Collection
rec. 1958-60, Hamburg, Paris, London
Rhine Classics RH-033 [10 CDs: 525]

Fiorentino made his first recordings for the small Concert Artist label which soon failed, whereupon the label owners began a new label called Saga. Some of these recordings have been reissued over the years, most prominently in Piano Classics’ boxes devoted to the pianist. Now, however, Rhine Classics has collected all Fiorentino’s Saga records, in recordings made between July 1958 and June 1960, and remastered them in this 10-CD box.  

The pianist at the time seems to have been omnivorous. He also seems to have flown at very little notice, recorded in new locations with prodigious concentration whatever was asked of him, and returned for more. These sessions lasted two years but produced a great deal: the Chopin Waltzes, Preludes, Nocturnes, a series of major concertos, Liszt and even, improbably perhaps for Fiorentino’s later public persona, Gershwin.

Hamburg was fruitful soil for many of these recordings which began with a two-day marathon on 6-7 July 1958 during which Fiorentino recorded Schumann’s Piano Concerto with the Hamburg Pro Musica and Erich Riede, Carnaval, Liszt’s First Concerto and a slew of other Lisztian pieces, the Chopin 19 Waltzes and three posthumous ones. Spontaneity (or apparent spontaneity) was a particular Fiorentino quality and it’s much in evidence here, his rubati being notably well conceived. The orchestra is a touch ragged from time to time and in the Concerto the piano is a bit    over-recorded, in the manner of the time. In his 1965 remake of Carnaval, Fiorentino took an extra two minutes but his Hamburg traversal is both poetic and suitably dramatic.

Liszt’s Concerto No.1 was recorded on the same day as the Schumann Concerto and shows the pianist’s virtuoso nonchalance in full flow as well as his wit. The solo items are in the Liszt Piano Classics box (review) where the date of recording is noted as 9 July. Here it’s 7-8 July. Nit-picking discographers, take note. La Campanella is fiery and Liebestraum distinguished by tonal refinement, despite the constricted sonics. The Chopin Waltzes in CD 3 are lively and characterful. One wonders if they were all in his repertoire at the time, if he learned some of them for the session or was even sight-reading them. He re-recorded them in Paris a few years later, and these can be found in volume 4 of the Piano Classics Fiorentino Edition (review).

Fiorentino’s discography is still somewhat provisional and has been made much more complicated by virtue of attributions and mis-attributions, some deliberate, even at the time, when Fiorentino laboured under pseudonymous names – ‘Otto Bergman’ and ‘Auguste du Maurier’ were just two of them. There are also matters of dating. The Chopin Preludes in CD 4 are dated here to 8-10 September 1958 and were made in the Olympic Studios, London. According to the online Fiorentino discography they are dated 4 March 1959 and made in the Hornsey Town Hall, so I take it that there is now firm evidence as to the former date. Ernst Lumpe is responsible for maintaining the online discography, something of a thankless, if heroic, task in the circumstances and he has written the notes to this box and (I assume) provided all recording details. If so, things may well be rather clearer in the murky Fiorentino waters. The slow Preludes are very slow, very beautiful and delicate, the faster ones turbulent and athletic. It’s as if he wants to take things almost to breaking point.

The ’Emperor’ Concerto was recorded in May 1959 and was released in mono and fake stereo, as well as genuine stereo. The Hamburg Pro Musica was directed by George Hurst in what must be one of his earliest recordings. I think this was the disc that, when it was reissued, carried the infamous made-up names ‘Paul Procopolis’ and conductor ‘John Walde’. It’s a respectable enough recording though hardly the last word in orchestral discipline. There’s a rather botched orchestral tutti and other infelicities but it’s good to hear Fiorentino in a Beethoven Concerto. The accompanying 32 Variations in C minor, on an original theme, WoO 80 is played with a fair degree of strength, each variation sharply defined.

The Tchaikovsky Concerto was recorded during the same sessions and shares similar orchestral demerits but also some qualities of liveliness. Fiorentino plays with a sense of hauteur and never descends to rabble-rousing. Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantaisie is splendidly realised. CD 7 is devoted to a Liszt recital which includes the same version of Liebestraum as can be heard in CD 2. The remainder of the recording dates from January 1960, is in mono, and was last available in the Fiorentino Edition, volume 2 (review). There is some resplendent Lisztian playing here. His narrative-building in the two Ballades is exceptional as is the bravura of the Hungarian Rhapsody No.12 and I’m glad to report that the wow and other problems that afflicted the LP, and were faithfully reproduced in the Piano Classics set, have been eliminated here.

CDs 8 and 9 contain the Chopin Nocturnes, recorded in London in March 1960 in stereo. Once again rubati are subtle and the playing is poetic though sometimes subject to some exaggerations, as in the F major, Op.15/1. In general, though, the playing is limpid and refined, the touch deft, passionate romanticism refracted through superior taste with occasionally unexpected effects.

Saga hadn’t quite finished with Fiorentino as three months later they recorded him in unexpected fare – Gershwin. They had the luck, or good sense, to team him with Hugo Rignold and the London Philharmonic. Rignold had played as a fiddler in pre-war jazz and dance bands, making a famous recording for Parlophone of his own piece ‘Calling All Keys’, that showed distinct Marcel Warlop influences as well as remarkable virtuosity. The Gershwin Concerto in F is in mono. Alas, though, the affinities Rignold might have had for Gershwin weren’t transmittable to the LPO, who sound stiff, and Fiorentino doesn’t sound especially engaged – it’s all a world away from Earl Wild and Arthur Fiedler. The Preludes are considerably better. And there’s the bonus here of a stereo master tape of the Concerto with the second movement composed of different takes to the mono.  

Don’t overlook Rhine Classics’ ‘early live and unissued takes’ in their Fiorentino Edition which also includes some Saga material (review).         

The discs are presented in Original Jackets, with the reverse of the jacket simplified to present track listings and has been remastered in 24-bit 96 kHz. The earlier sessions were made in mono, though pseudo-stereo LPs were issued as well. The Chopin Nocturnes, for example, are in stereo as noted.  Pre-echo and wow, which bedevilled some of the Liszt recordings, in particular, and which can be heard in the Piano Classics transfers, have both been reduced in these remasterings, as also noted, and the remastering here is uniformly excellent, with the proviso that it’s impossible to make the Sagas sound sonically glamorous.

Ernst Lumpe’s booklet note tells the listener all he needs to know, there are some excellently reproduced photographs, and the box is an authoritative contribution to Fiorentino’s representation on disc.    

Jonathan Woolf

Availability: Rhine Classics

Contents
CD1 | 53:43
SCHUMANN
• Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.54
Hamburg Pro Musica | Erich Riede
• Carnaval, Op.9
rec: Hamburg, 6-8.VII.1958
Saga XID 5001 | ℗ 1958

CD2 | 37:01
LISZT
• Piano Concerto No.1 in E-flat major, S.124
Hamburg Pro Musica | Erich Riede
• Hungarian Rhapsody No.15 in A minor, S.244/15 “Rákóczi-Marsch”
• Grand étude de Paganini, S.141/3 in G-sharp minor “La Campanella”
• Notturno No.3 in A-flat major, S.541/3 “Liebestraum”
• Étude d’exécution transcendante, S.139/6 in G minor “Vision”
rec: Hamburg, 6-8.VII.1958
Saga XID 5008 | ℗ 1958

CD3 | 55:57
CHOPIN
• 19 Waltzes
• 3 Écossaises, Op.72/3 posth.
rec: Hamburg, 6-7.VII.1958
Saga XID 5016 | ℗ 1959

CD4 | 46:28
CHOPIN
• 24 Preludes, Op.28
• Prelude No.25 in C-sharp minor, Op.45
• Prelude No.26 in A-flat major, Op. posth.
rec: London, 8-10.IX.1958
Saga XID 5076 | ℗ 1959

CD5 | 46:23
BEETHOVEN
• Piano Concerto No.5 in E-flat major, Op.73 “Emperor”
Hamburg Pro Musica | George Hurst
• 32 Variations in C minor, on an original theme, WoO 80
rec: Hamburg, 18-19.V.1959
Saga AAA-ST 4002 | ℗ 1959

CD6 | 44:14
• TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No.1 in B-flat major, Op.23
Hamburg Pro Musica | George Hurst
• CHOPIN Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat major, Op.61 -1st take-
rec: Hamburg, 18-19.V.1959
Saga STM 6021 | ℗ 1959

CD7 | 57:23
LISZT piano recital:
• Ballade No.1 in D-flat major, S.170
• Ballade No.2 in B Minor, S.171
• Hungarian Rhapsody No.8 in F-sharp minor, S.244/8
• Harmonies poétiques et religieuses III, S.173 /7 “Funérailles”
• Notturno No.3 in A-flat major, S.541/3 “Liebestraum” *
• Hungarian Rhapsody No.12 in C-sharp minor, S.244/12
rec: Paris, 25-26.I.1960 | *: Hamburg | 7.VII.1958
Saga XID 5020 | ℗ 1960

CD8 | 52:08
CHOPIN Nocturnes • Vol.1 (Nos. 1-10)
rec: London, 4-5.III.1960
Saga 5376 | ℗ 1974

CD9 | 58:13
CHOPIN Nocturnes • Vol.2 (Nos. 11-20)
rec: London, 4-5.III.1960
Saga 5377 | ℗ 1974

CD10 | 38:56
GERSHWIN
• Piano Concerto in F major
London Philharmonic Orchestra | Hugo Rignold
• 3 Preludes for piano
rec: London, 24.VI.1960
Saga XID 5130 | ℗ 1962