Giovanni Rinaldi: Venti Sfumature, Piano Works

Giovanni Rinaldi was born in 1840 in Reggiolo, in Emilia-Romagna, and studied piano in Correggio and Milan. In the first part of his career, he dedicated himself to an intense concert activity in Europe, so much so as to be called the Italian Chopin. In 1871 he moved to Genoa, the city where he carried out most of his artistic activity; here he married the pianist Gioconda Anfossi and devoted himself to composition and teaching. His daughter Ernestina was the mother of Nino Rota. He died in Genoa in 1895. Characteristic of Rinaldis production was his dedication exclusively to the composition of works for piano (almost all published by Ricordi editions of the time). The style is very original, even if it conforms to the desire for emancipation from the classic forms, typical of many Romantic composers. The typical form is that of the square in music: ideas follow one another in free association, the tonal functions are, at times, deconstructed and with bold harmonic solutions. Idiomatic writing is very personal, with a dry and precise cut, [certainly not of a virtuosic style,] but with often futuristic phonic-timbre solutions.