Grosvenor, aged just 19, is the youngest British musician to sign with Decca and first British pianist to join that label in almost 60 years. He is already well known for electrifying performances based on interpretations exploiting very nimble and sparkling, crystal-clear touch.
The Liverpool "band", conducted by James Judd (now music director emeritus of the NZSO) ably backs the pianist in Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue - in the original 1924 jaunty jazz version. It is neatly teamed up with Saint-Saens' Piano Concerto No.2 and Ravel's Piano Concerto, roughly contemporary works, and two short pieces by each of these composers. The programme is rounded off dazzlingly by a piano transcription of Gershwin's popular song Love Walked In.
Highlight: Lush romantic music and big-band jazz, with poetic spirit.
Franseco Nusoni (1866-1924) is an overlooked composer of mixed Italian and German ancestry. Conductors began to rediscover his personalised classicism about the 1980s and the Rome Sinfonica obviously enjoys its romp through six shorter orchestral numbers.
Giammarco Casani (clarinet) and Laura Minguzzi (flute) impress as soloists in two slightly "Mozartean" major works. But charm and wit also abound in the others: a "comic overture" of 1897, a "rondo harlequinesque" (1915) that ends with unexpected heroics from an Italian tenor, and the infectious 1920 Tanzwalzer ("dance waltz"). The "spirit dance" from 1915 is the only slower, sombre work on this programme. They all show amiable Busoni sounds definitely deserve their recall.
Highlight: Mostly capricious and pleasing music.
