Reviews | RH-033 | SERGIO FIORENTINO | complete SAGA album collection

March 2025 | Luca Ciammarughi | Il Libero Professionista - Reloaded - N°32 p.128-129 | Recensioni CD

SERGIO FIORENTINO - THE COMPLETE SAGA ALBUM COLLECTION

Quella di Sergio Fiorentino è la storia di un pianista immenso, che, a causa di un incidente aereo e forse di un eccesso di umiltà nella gestione della propria carriera, rimase a lungo estraneo ai grandi circuiti del concertismo internazionale. Ritornato nelle grandi sale negli anno Novanta, poco prima della morte avvenuta nel 1998, il musicista napoletano è sempre più oggetto di una riscoperta che ha fatto ormai di lui una vera e propria leggenda. In questo box do 10 CD Rhine Classics, derivanti da un restauro certosino dei nastri originali degli LP SAGA, ascoltiamo Fiorentino fra la fine degli anni '50 e l'inizio dei '60, al culmine del proprio virtuosismo ma già maturo per affrontare con impressionante profondità, per esempio, l'integrale dei Nocturnes di Chopin. Vastissimo il repertorio, da Beethoven al Novecento, anche con orchestra. [LC]

21 March 2025 | Rob Cowan | GRAMOPHONE - Vol.109 April 2025 | Box-Set / Round-Up

Much that features in Rhine Classics’ set of Sergio Fiorentino’s Saga recordings (presented in facsimiles of their original LP sleeve designs) is also of interest, although I never recall seeing the complete Chopin Nocturnes – mostly taken at a broad pace and high in dramatic incident – on LP. These transfers are in the main good, although visited on occasion with residual vinyl surface noise.
Among the concertos included is Gershwin’s F major with the LPO under conductor/jazz violinist Hugo Rignold (who in his day was rated, fiddle-wise, alongside Stéphane Grappelli, Joe Venuti and Eddie South) where a second, previously unissued stereo version offers us a slow movement with different takes. Fiorentino and Rignold certainly capture the spirit of the piece, while Fiorentino goes all out to demonstrate the virtuoso elements in Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto, Liszt’s First (said to be in mono or ‘pseudo-stereo’ but clearly in crudely engineered genuine stereo), the Schumann Concerto and the Tchaikovsky First. Generally speaking, the solo works (including Chopin’s Waltzes and Preludes and much Liszt) are the most individual, performance-wise, Chopin’s second Prelude in A minor playing for an amazingly solemn 3'48" (the more ‘regular’ Maurizio Pollini on DG stretches to just 2'17"). I can’t trace a previous CD reissue of this material – certainly not a ‘Saga only’ Fiorentino collection – so we should be grateful to Rhine Classics for this well produced set.

9 March 2025 | Stephen Greenbank | MusicWeb International

Rhine Classics must be lauded in championing the recordings, live and studio, of the Italian pianist. Their Sergio Fiorentino Edition now comprises five releases. Reviews of the previous releases can be found here (review ~ review ~ review ~ review), and they are all self-recommending. In this latest offering all the discs are presented in their Original Jackets. With splendid remasterings and excellent documentation, not to mention the photographic element, this all amounts to a very recommendable package.

A pleasure to have Fiorentino’s complete Saga Recordings under one roof [SG]

4 March 2025 | Luca Ciammarughi | Radio Classica - podcast | Il pianista - Sergio Fiorentino - Saga Collection / parte II   La seconda puntata di approfondimento del box "Sergio Fiorentino - The Complete Saga Album Collection". Presenta Luca Ciammarughi. (Rhine Classics RH-033).

26 February 2025 | Luca Ciammarughi | Radio Classica - podcast | Il pianista - Sergio Fiorentino - Saga Collection / parte I   Al “Pianista”, alle 16 e anche alle 23, torniamo a parlare di una leggenda del pianismo novecentesco, Sergio Fiorentino. Sarà la prima di una serie di puntate dedicate al grande musicista napoletano, in occasione dell’uscita di un box imperdibile di 10 CD , contenente tutte le registrazioni SAGA, fra la fine degli anni ‘50 e l’inizio dei ‘60, quando Fiorentino aveva poco più di trent’anni. Iniziamo oggi da Schumann e Chopin, con i commenti di Luca Ciammarughi. (Rhine Classics RH-033).

15 February 2025 | Jean-Michel Molkhou | PIANISTE N°151 - Cahier Critique / Disques

The reproduction of the original covers and a generously documented booklet will appeal to the most demanding collectors. Not to be missed!

[...] La reproduction des jaquettes originales et un livret généreusement documenté séduiront les collectioneurs les plus exigeantes. À ne pas manquer! [JMM]

9 February 2025 | Jean-Charles Hoffelé | ARTAMAG' - Focus - Le disque du jour | SAGA FIORENTINO

[...] these are the records of a young man to whom life played more than one trick, of an eminent pianist whose art was fortunately saved by a handful of admirers, and the constancy of Emilio Pessina who will have published so many of his rediscovered treasures. [JCH]

30 January 2025 | Jonathan Woolf | MusicWeb International

Fiorentino’s complete Saga recordings of 1958-60 heard in excellent remasterings. [JW]

Don’t overlook Rhine Classics’ ‘early live and unissued takes’ in their Fiorentino Edition which also includes some Saga material (review).  The discs are presented in Original Jackets, with the reverse of the jacket simplified to present track listings and has been remastered in 24-bit 96 kHz. The earlier sessions were made in mono, though pseudo-stereo LPs were issued as well. The Chopin Nocturnes, for example, are in stereo as noted.  Pre-echo and wow, which bedevilled some of the Liszt recordings, in particular, and which can be heard in the Piano Classics transfers, have both been reduced in these remasterings, as also noted, and the remastering here is uniformly excellent, with the proviso that it’s impossible to make the Sagas sound sonically glamorous.

Ernst Lumpe’s booklet note tells the listener all he needs to know, there are some excellently reproduced photographs, and the box is an authoritative contribution to Fiorentino’s representation on disc.