by Mike Telin
On his 2013 recording, The Rascal and the Sparrow — Poulenc meets Piaf, pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi delighted listeners with his captivating interpretations of music from two stalwarts of the 20th-century French chanson. On his latest CD, the pianist looks to the music of his native Italy for inspiration — specifically the emotionally charged Neapolitan song. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Antonio Pompa-Baldi’s piano recital on Sunday afternoon, February 11 on the Music From the Western Reserve series at Christ Episcopal Church in Hudson checked all the boxes on the Perfect Sunday Afternoon Concert scorecard. It lasted just over an hour, visited some unusual repertoire in varying styles, let the music speak for itself without extraneous commentary from the stage, and was brilliantly performed, to boot.
by Daniel Hathaway
Pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi joined Christopher Wilkins and the Akron Symphony in E.J. Thomas Hall on Saturday, September 24 to open the orchestra’s new season with Rachmaninoff’s third concerto — a 40-minute adventure in Slavic lyricism laced through with enough physical challenges to tie a lesser pianist in knots. Pompa-Baldi played it with the fingers of a virtuoso, the soul of a poet, and the stamina of a marathon runner. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
“Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto is an amazing piece,” pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi said during a recent telephone conversation. “It’s very difficult to express thoughts about such a work of art in a few words.” On Saturday, September 24 at 8:00 pm at Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall, Pompa-Baldi will perform Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Akron Symphony under the direction of Christopher Wilkins. The season-opening concert will also include Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance and Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No 5. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Michael Lynn, Oberlin Conservatory Professor of Recorder and Baroque Flute, founded the Medici Charitable Foundation in 2012 following a liver transplant that restored him to health and allowed him to continue his career as a performing artist and teacher. The organization presents concerts by distinguished musicians to help raise funds for medical charities and research organizations. “Encore,” Medici’s next concert at Akron Civic Theatre on Saturday, October 18 at 7:30 pm, will benefit Lifebanc, a non-profit organization devoted to organ, eye and tissue recovery in Northeast Ohio. The performers will be the husband and wife piano team of Antonio Pompa-Baldi and Emanuela Friscioni. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Michael Lynn, Oberlin Conservatory Professor of Recorder and Baroque Flute, founded the Medici Charitable Foundation in 2012 following a liver transplant that restored him to health and allowed him to continue his career as a performing artist and teacher.
The organization presents concerts by distinguished musicians to help raise funds for medical charities and research organizations. “Encore,” Medici’s next concert at Akron Civic Theatre on October 18 at 7:30 pm will benefit Lifebanc, a non-profit organization devoted to organ, eye and tissue recovery in Northeast Ohio. The performers will be the husband and wife piano team of Antonio Pompa-Baldi and Emanuela Friscioni. [Read more…]
by Guytano Parks
Pianist Antonio Pompa-Baldi performed a recital on Sunday afternoon as part of Tri-C’s Classical Piano Recital Series at The Cleveland Museum of Art. Billed as a tribute to the greatest piano virtuoso of all time, Franz Liszt, and described in the program as a “truly compelling combination of emotional fire and finger acrobatics,” Pompa-Baldi indeed delivered, performing works dedicated to Liszt by Sergei Lyapunov, Frederic Chopin and Roberto Piana in addition to two of Liszt’s own compositions.
In traditional-sounding harmonic language with colorful tinges of bitonality, Lyapunov’s Transcendental Etude Op. 11, No. 12“Elegy in Memory of Franz Liszt” opened the program deliberately and dramatically, much like a Hungarian rhapsody. Continuing in true Lisztian fashion with cascades of octaves, scales and shimmering harmonic effects, Pompa-Baldi’s playing revealed a musical temperament ranging from the poetic to the virtuosic, with great intelligence and a kaleidoscopic imagination.
As the First Prize winner of the 1999 Cleveland International Piano Competition and top prize winner of several others, Pompa-Baldi’s repertoire undoubtedly includes a cache of etudes. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
On Sunday at 2:00 pm in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium, the Tri-C Classical Piano Recital Series presents Antonio Pompa-Baldi in a concert dedicated to Franz Liszt.
“I think it is an interesting program and one that I also recorded in a live recital in Cape Town, South Africa at the end of June for the Two Pianist label,” the pianist told us during a telephone conversation. “It’s a program dedicated to Liszt — but not entirely of his music.”
Sunday’s program opens with Sergei Lyapunov’s Transcendental Etude No. 12 (Elegy in memory of Franz Liszt). “Lyapunov composed twelve Transcendental Etudes just like Liszt, and the set is dedicated to him. I’ll complete the first half with the Twelve Etudes, op. 10, of Chopin – which as a set are also dedicated to Liszt.”
The second half of the program features Liszt’s Ballad in b minor and Sposalizio (Years of Pilgrimage, Book II). “Sposalizio was inspired by Raphael’s painting of the Marriage of the Virgin, and since this is also the Verdi year I’m also including Liszt’s Paraphrase of Verdi’s “Ernani.” [Read more…]