Pour Jouer – Virtuoso Piano Works

There is a passion to Maria Gabriella Mariani’s music that is most involving (“music” being a term which here includes Mariani’s roles as creatrix and performer). Take the first piece, written in 2014, the Tema, 17 Variations and Finale with Improvisation, “Ologramma,” with its torrents of notes. While the theme itself sounds decidedly French (it is perfumed, certainly), the work can be Lisztian at times. Mariani’s performance is outstanding, technically commanding and of utter musical integrity. She is also lucky enough to be caught in a recording that captures her burnished sound: It never breaks, no matter how impassioned the thread. The concluding improvisation is some 25 minutes long, giving the work an intriguing formal shape (the mode of utterance is, indeed, completely different from the tightly controlled Finale section). Parts of the improvisation sound like Rachmaninoff, parts are more closely allied to the French musical world, but there is everywhere a sense of flow that is most compelling.

Sonata Pour Jouer gravitates towards Ravel’s Gaspard in its repeated notes and the twitchy, nightmarish atmosphere of its first movement. The central Andante is initially a place of repose, sweet of utterance and with a lovely cantabile line from Mariani. Harmonies are slowly introduced that imply all is not as comfortable as the music might initially imply; the oscillation between the two areas is fascinating to track, as the limpid descending line seeks to reinstitute rest. The finale is triumphant, the harmonies positively ecstatic. Again, a French influence is detectable, but what is remarkable is the emotional distance traversed in this finale: Its contrasting plateaus are true interiorizations, in which Mariani sweetens her tone remarkably.

This is a terrific disc, and one all pianophiles should investigate.