Fabio Paggioro

Press

Fabio Paggioro and Massimiliano Ferrati play the B minor Sonata of 1917 with a gently cushioned, poetic intimacy, so one is less aware than usual of being set up for a big tune which never quite arrives…[the other two works] receive sensitively phrased readings that capture the music’s lyrical freshness and spontaneity.

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINECd review Respghi Violin Sonatas

Fabio Paggioro and Massimiliano Ferrati discover beneath the music’s surging tidal currents an intimate voice of true chamber-scale sensibility. […] A radiant poetic Respighi.

THE STRADCd review Respighi Violin Sonatas

Fabio Paggioro che si avvale qui del timbro bruno e sensuale del Postiglione anno 1899 che imbraccia, si erge sulle onde del canto con una presenza statuaria, intinge nel marmo il canto spiegato, offrendogli discipline di alone neoclassico. La pagina non ne restituisce un’immagine soffocata, anzi, si accende e canta di una voce solare. Tra liricità, rigore, magistero e trasporto, Paggioro e Ferrati compiono un passo essenziale: allacciano l’idioma composto di Respighi – fatto della convergenza di modelli, come pure di una pronunciata e cruciale evoluzione estetica – a una visione unitaria e salda, preservandone e rispettandone la cangianza, e dimostrando così senza enfasi alcuna, il proprio magistero esecutivo, nonché di riflesso la grandezza indiscussa di uno dei protagonisti assoluti del Novecento musicale italiano.

MUSICACd review 5 stars Respighi Violin Sonatas

E l’interpretazione appassionata, esemplare del duo Paggioro-Ferrati ha il pregio di evidenziare questo work in progress fatto di una tavolozza di colori, di sfumature, di rimandi che assomigliano a un remoto puzzle timbrico e armonico dal quale ricostruire, annodare, paragonare quel modus compositivo che è la matrice inconfondibile del musicista bolognese. E se Paggioro è un violinista di razza, in grado di tessere linee affascinanti con il suo strumento, Ferrati non lo scopriamo di certo adesso, visto che rappresenta una delle punte di diamante della nostra tradizione pianistica.

Un CD che merita l’ascolto, non solo da parte dei respighiani duri e puri.

CD CLASSICOCd review Respighi Violin Sonatas

The works on this bargain CD are performed wonderfully well by Fabio Paggioro and Massimiliano Ferrati. This is an equal musical partnership and their playing is of the highest quality throughout. The recording is clear and sonorous.

MUSICWEB INTERNATIONALCd Review Respighi Violin Sonatas

In a constant, vivid dialogue, Fabio Paggioro and Massimiliano Ferrati give a dramatic and passionate account of Respighis two violin sonatas. The Six pieces, a much lighter music, get all of the charming salon character they deserve.

PIZZICATOCd review Respighi Violin Sonatas

Paggioro also produces a tone quality both richer and stronger in the upper registers—and lower ones as well—from his 1899 Vincentus Postiglione violin, and together, they propel the first movement proper forward with a greater sense of urgency, an effect due to more than just a choice of tempos. […] In the slow movement, Paggioro employs some exceptionally well-tailored portamentos to enhance Respighi’s melodic surges.
Paggioro’s playing recalls particular moments in Nathan Milstein’s signature reading of Goldmark’s “Air.” In the later sonata, the duo faces stiffer competition, including Jascha Heifetz and Kyung-Wha Chung. To Paggioro’s credit, he doesn’t adopt any of Heifetz’s mannerisms—nor does he play with that violinist’s white-hot intensity. He and Ferrati nevertheless sound dramatic in the first movement, capturing its less straightforward manner of expression as successfully as they did that of the earlier sonata. They blend lyricism with searching oratory in the second movement, and they play the opening of the third ominously but characterize each of the variations strongly, reveling especially in the movement’s darker moments, but shifting with impressive rapidity from one affekt to another. With their effective performances of the salon pieces, the sense of importance they lend to the early sonata, and their expressive flexibility in the later sonata, Paggioro’s and Ferrati’s collection should appeal not only to violinists and Respighi aficionados, but to general listeners as well. Strongly recommended.

FANFARECd review Respighi Violin Sonatas

His two sonatas and six pieces for violin and piano, all sheerly pleasurable works, are performed by violinist Fabio Paggioro and pianist Massimiliano Ferrati with finesse and muscle

FILM FESTIVAL TRAVELERCd of the month Respighi Violin Sonatas