Were it not for Dance of the Marionettes, a popular Grade 8 exam piece, the name of Mario Tarenghi (1870-1938) would have been entirely forgotten. His neglect is hard to fathom: the music is attractive and well made, and one might have expected the popularity of that Dance, and to a lesser extent the Serenata in F minor (choreographed by Martha Graham in c1916 as Serenata morisca) that opens this engaging programme, to have engendered further interest. We have much to thank Artur Pizarro and Rinaldo Zhok for in bringing these pieces back into view.

The two variation sets are the main feature, and if neither could be counted in the first rank, both would make welcome novelties in recital programmes, particularly the Chopin (1917), based on the well-known C minor Prelude (No 20 from Op 28). The Schumann set (1905‑06), based on a theme from the Bunte Blätter, Op 99, is equally charming. The remaining pieces give a reasonable overview of Tarenghi’s range, from the rigour of the 1908 Prelude and Fugue ‘in imitation of the old style’ to the lovely Visione mistica (1920) and delicate ‘Reverie’, the first of Two Miniatures from a few years later; the second is a gossamer scherzo, ‘Giuochi dei farfalle’ (‘Butterfly games’). Allegro festoso (1931) makes an enjoyable encore.

Pizarro and Zhok have been playing together for a decade (their previous recordings include Dvořák and Beethoven’s complete four-hand music) and their mutual understanding and fluency are manifest throughout. Danacord’s sound is first-rate.

This review originally appeared in the SPRING 2025 issue of International Piano