Divine Art announces a new piano recital album with Italian pianist Alfonso Soldano

The celebrated Italian pianist Alfonso Soldano is making a new album of popular piano pieces to be titled ‘My Things’ which as the title suggests, is a programme of works that mean much to the pianist and as he himself puts it, reflect his life and experiences. The album includes established favourites including Debussy’s ‘Clair de lune’ and arrangements of works by a rage of composers from Bach, Rachmaninov, Poulenc, Scriabin and Gershwin to Charles Trenet and Richard Rodgers – a wonderfully varied and accessible recital. Also possibly new to many Western ears are atmospheric pieces by Chinese and Japanese composers. Soldano highlights ‘On a Disappeared Pleaid’ from the Pleaides Dances suite by Takashi Yoshimatsu (b.1953) which he describes as evocative and imaginative, soft and peaceful – music from the cosmos.

The recording is to be made in Italy in the latter part of 2024, with release anticipated around summer 2025.

Alfonso Soldano is an Italian concert pianist and teacher, with a solid educational background and stylistic preparation, an international career, as well as attention and extensive experience in charity events with a social background. He is a honorary citizen of the City of Trani, on the initiative and unanimous approval of the administration and the municipal council, with a ceremony and celebratory concert held on July 30, 2020, for proven artistic merits.

Alfonso won his first music competition at the age of 7 in Taurisano (LE), and has won numerous other absolute first prizes, or I has been a finalist, in national and international competitions (Milan Humanitarian Society prize, Formia, Matera, etc.), to then complete an academic training and graduate from the Conservatory with 110 honors and honorable mention.

As a teenager he made his debut in Mozart’s Concert K488, directed by Valfrido Ferrari, and immediately after at the Garibaldi Theater in Bisceglie, in Rachmaninov’s Concert No. 2, directed by Ovidiu Balan.

His artistic training proceeded under the supervision of the legendary Italian-French pianist Aldo Ciccolini, one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, from adolescence to youth, and the maestro exclusively granted Alfonso an endorsement to set up a musical academy in favor of talents and culture. Thus was born in 2015 the Aldo Ciccolini Foundation of Trani, which has promoted numerous events of high artistic standing, in the spirit of social benefit, territorial rebalancing, and support of young talents. Finally, Alfonso Soldano brilliantly obtained the diploma of High Specialization at the National Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome, under the guidance of Benedetto Lupo.

In the didactic field, Alfonso Soldano is professor of piano at the “U.Giordano” Conservatory of Foggia, and has been professor in the Conservatories of Rome – Santa Cecilia, Taranto, Bari, Lecce, Teramo, and is also regularly invited to hold masterclasses in important foreign institutions (China, United States, Ukraine). He was awarded in 2013 the Gold Medal Maison des Artistes as the best young Italian artist.

As a solo pianist he has performed in numerous theaters and festivals in Italy and abroad and has received high critical praise for his ongoing series of recordings for Divine Art.

Album Details

• Title: ‘My Things’
• Label: Divine Art
• Catalogue number: DDX 21108
• Artist: Alfonso Soldano (piano)
• Works
  • Suite Bergamasque: Clair de lune (Debussy)
  • Violin Sonata BWV 1001 : Finale (J.S.Bach; arr. Godowsky)
  • Danse Symphonique, Op. 45 No. 2 (Rachmaninov; arr. Soldano)
  • Liuyang River (Liqi Zhu/Jianzhong Wang)
  • Blinded by Light (Uematsu/Morishita)
  • Virtuoso Etude No. 4 “Embraceable You” (Gershwin; arr. Earl Wild)
  • Strausseinander (J. Strauss; arr. Roma, Soldano)
  • Les Chemins de l’amour (Poulenc; arr. Soldano)
  • Prelude in F minor, Op. 17 No. 5 (Scriabin)
  • Etude in C sharp minor, Op. 42 no. 5 (Scriabin)
  • Sanglots (Poulenc; arr. Soldano)
  • Secreto (Mompou)
  • Midnight Things (Sherman/Arline/Rodgers ; arr. Soldano)
  • Adagio (Marcello ; arr. J.S. Bach)
  • En Avril en Paris (Trenet/Weissenberg)
  • Prelude (Franck ; arr. Bauer)
  • On a Disappeared Pleaid (Yoshimatsu)
  • Concert Etude in C minor, Op. 13 (Pierné; arr. Soldano)
  • Le gout de malheur (Poulenc)
  • Ave Maria (Schubert ; arr. Liszt)

Previous Alfonso Soldano Recordings