Fumagalli's most ambitious work, the École moderne du pianiste, Op. 100, was intended to be 24 studies, each with a poetic or prose preface by contemporary French authors, but he only completed eighteen before his early death.
Recording & Production
This recording was made live on September 23, 2006, in the Auditorium De Andrè in Inzago, Milan, with the Municipality of Inzago contributing to the costs.
Composer Biography
Adolfo Fumagalli, born in 1828, was the second of five children, and his three brothers also became important musicians and teachers.
Compositional Technique
Fumagalli's piano transcriptions often create a stereophonic, three-hand illusion by subdividing the melody between both hands in the central register.
Composer Biography
Fumagalli possessed an exceptional talent for playing the piano with his left hand, often astonishing his teachers and fellow students.
Compositional Technique
Fumagalli's left-hand transcriptions were a unique specialty, with one famous anecdote describing critic Paul Scudo discovering Fumagalli playing with his right hand gloved and resting on his knee.
Critical Reception
Franz Liszt praised Fumagalli in 1853, calling him a "first-rate musician" and acknowledging his extraordinary artistry in transcribing complex overtures for solo piano.
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