We have had some interesting and valuable additions to the piano repertoire via Naxos’s Romantic Piano Concerto series, but Sigismond Thalberg’s Piano Concerto in F minor is one of the more underwhelming to have appeared to date. Thalberg is, of course, more widely remembered as a brilliant virtuosic pianist and legendary arch-rival of Liszt. The Concerto is a relatively early work and was clearly conceived as a vehicle for Thalberg’s own virtuosity. True, it has moments of undeniable charm, but these are pretty much consumed within page upon page of virtuosic confetti, wrapped up in various stylistic influences from Hummel and Weber through to Chopin and Field.
The remainder of the disc features some of Thalberg’s works for solo piano, of which Souvenirs de Beethoven (a grand fantasy on Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony) is perhaps the most interesting in its pianistic and musical invention – including an unexpected but inspired appearance of the opening bars of the Fifth Symphony during the work’s closing pages. The Nocturne, Op 28, however, pales in comparison with those of Chopin or Field and the Canzonette italienne and Un soupir, melodie variee, though full of period charm, are not especially striking.
Francesco Nicolosi provides fine performances throughout. Very much one for connoisseurs of late-romantic repertoire only.'