Album Notes

Giovanni Velluti has forged a distinguished international career as soloist, chamber musician and accompanist. He has enjoyed a particularly important close association with Katia Ricciarelli, whom he has partnered since 1994 in many tours and television broadcasts throughout Europe, America, Africa and the Middle East, and in many television broadcastings. Other leading singers with whom he has worked regularly are Andrea Bocelli, Gianfranco Cecchele, Kristian Johansson, Daniela Barcellona, Roberta Canzian, Carlo Lepore, Giacomo Prestia and Gianluca Terranova. He has also performed poetry and music programmes with the actors Michele Placido and Piera Degli Esposti.
The Erard Piano was to 19° century composers what Steinway is to today's. It was the piano which was used and composed for by every musician of the time. Liszt, Chopin, Ravel, Debussy, Wagner, Paderewski and countless others identified the concert piano ‘sound’ as being the Erard sound.
This recording attempts to capture the Erard and the particular playing style which the Erard imposes on the performer. Paderewski mentioned that only a few pianists could make an Erard ‘sing’ whereas a Steinway ‘sings by itself’. He continued to use Erard in every country but the USA to obtain the ‘fine sound’ which could not be obtained by the larger and heavier-sounding Steinway.
The project was recorded entirely using vacuum-tube equipment directly into the analog-digital converter with no further processing.