Alfano, F.: Cello Sonata / Concerto for Violin, Cello and Piano

Featuring

Elmira Darvarova
Samuel Magill
Scott Dunn
Franco Alfano

Did you know?

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Performer Biography

Elmira Darvarova, the violinist, became the first ever woman-concertmaster in the history of the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1989.

Composition History

Arturo Toscanini, who conducted Turandot's world première, brutally cut Alfano's finished ending for the opera and then stopped conducting where Puccini's music ended.

Performer Biography

Samuel Magill, the cellist on this album, has been a member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 1991 and has toured Japan as a featured soloist.

Composer Biography

Franco Alfano, the composer, is generally known outside Italy as the composer who completed Puccini's opera Turandot.

Performer Biography

Scott Dunn, the pianist and conductor, made his acclaimed 1999 Carnegie Hall début playing his own orchestration of Vernon Duke's 'lost' Piano Concerto in C.

Critical Reception

The incident with Toscanini damaging Alfano's career and ensuring his falling into obscurity after his death, but his original ending for Turandot was discovered and performed as he intended in the 1980s.