Album Notes

Laureate of the 2000 Honens International Piano Competition, Alessandra Maria Ammara is an extraordinarily intriguing interpreter of music of the impressionist era. Her playing is characterized by different charm and intense musicality.

Born in Florence, Ammara gave her first public performance at age 14. She earned her diploma at the “L. Cherubini” Conservatory of Music in Florence and received her degree at the Accademia Pianistica “Incontri col Maestro” in Imola. Her teachers included Paul Badura-Skoda, Vitaly Margulis, William Naboré, Boris Petrushansky, Franco Scala and Maria Tipo.

Ammara has performed throughout North America and Europe to great acclaim. She made her debut in China in 2001 after a successful concert at Salle Cortot in Paris, and in the same year was semifinalist and an audience favourite at the Eleventh Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. In 2003 she received the Victor Elmaleh Award from the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York for ‘great artistry’.

Review:

New Releases - Classical
Debussy, Scriabin, Chopin
Alessandra Maria Ammara, piano
Source: NATIONAL POST
Publication Date: 01-MARCH-04

Recordings made by recent prize winners of competitions usually last about 90 seconds in my CD player. But this new release by Florentine-born Alessandra Maria Ammara made me sit up and listen from beginning to end. I’m willing to bet that Ammara, who recorded this CD as part of her prize package from the Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary, has never set foot in Juilliard, or the other famous American schools that churn out clone-like virtuosi. In music by Debussy, Chopin and Scriabin, she reveals a voice that is personal without being affected or willful, and an inner sense of rhythm that is vital without being aggressive. Ammara captures the delicate balance of sensuality, mystery and classical clarity of Debussy’s Images, Book I; her noble, poetic performance of Chopin’s Preludes captivates from start to finish — no small feat, given the number of great pianists who have recorded this work. In Scriabin’s Eight Etudes, Op. 42, Ammara shows us the spirits of Debussy, Chopin and Liszt straying into the edgier, more exotic world of the Russian composer. I will follow the development of this gifted young artist with great interest.

Tamara Bernstein