CELLO SONATAS - Luca Giovannini Leonora Armellini

CELLO SONATAS  (CVLD328)

Luca Giovanninitino, cello - Leonora Armellini, piano

Cello Sonata N.1 in E Minor Op. 38
1 - Allegro non troppo  14:34
2 - Allegretto quasi minuetto  5:50
3 - Allegro  6:39

Cello Sonata N.2 in F Major, Op. 99
4 - Allegro Vivace  9:06
5 - Adagio affettuoso  6:37
6 - Allegro appassionato  7:43
7 - Allegro molto  4:50

total time:  55:24

Luca Giovannini, cello
Leonora Armellini, piano

24bit / 88.2kHz original recording made at Magister Recording Area, Preganziol, Italy, on July 12, 2020 - Leonora plays on Steinway & Sons D274 Concert Grandpiano, tuned and prepared by Silvano Zanta

Production: VELUT LUNA
Executive producer: Marco Lincetto
Musical producer and editing engineer: Michele Sartor
Recording, mix and mastering: Marco Lincetto
Design and layout: L'Image
Text: Myriam Guglielmo
Photo: Marco Lincetto

Johannes Brahms and the cello players of Sonatas op. 38 and op. 99: a photographic retrospective.
In the complex whole of chamber pages inside Brahms catalogue, the two Sonatas for piano and cello (a caption that for the author’s will underlines the equal role of the involved instruments) are traditionally considered as carrier elements of the repertoire devoted to such composition. Their fame, due to a lucky reception and to the continuous performances we still witness nowadays, should not prevent either the listener and the performer a unit vision of the two Sonatas, which is often set aside, in favour of a plain comparison on the chronological and compositional level. Although between the writing of the first two movements of the Sonata in the key of E minor op. 38 and the publication of the Sonata in the key of F major op. 99 twenty-four years passed, we can consider the interest towards the writing for cello common to both, fed by the presence of key figures in the circle of the composer.
In a photo dated May 7th, 1894, we see Brahms surrounded by friends and colleagues in the house of the family von Miller zu Aichholz, on his 61st birthday (archive Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Wien). Among the guests, beyond Ignaz Brüll, Anton Door, Julius Epstein, Eusebius Mandyczewski, Gustav Walter, Eduard Hanslick and Richard Mühlfeld, we can notice the dedicatees of the two Sonatas for piano and cello: Josef Gänsbacher and Robert Hausmann. 
 Myriam Guglielmo

Luca Giovannini, born in 2000, he took his Master Degree in Italy, Rovigo, under the tutelage of Luca Simoncini.
He enriched his musical studies attending the Romanini Academy with the cellist and composer G. Sollima and being part of the Classe d'excellence of G. Capuçon at the Louis Vuitton fondation in Paris. Luca partecipated to many competition, as the "Alice und Eleanore Schönefeld" in Harbin China winning the third prize un 2016, the Janigro young competition, second prize and the first prize at the J. Brahms competition in 2018. I had the possibility to play for some of the greatest musical personalities like G. Kremer, A. Shiff, L. Harrel, G. Hoffman, N. Gutman, K. Gerstein, A. Tamestit and so, catching many different prospectives and musical ideas receiving always positive impressions on his sensibile and mature playing. He played in many countries (as Spain,Italy France, Switzerland, Finland) and many halls, as Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Carnegie Hall of NY, the  Musikverein of Vienna and at the Berliner Philharmonie. He is currently studying with
Frans Helmerson at the  Kronberg Accademy, sponsored by Angela Winkler- stipendium .He plays a rare Ansaldo Poggi cello, kindly given by the italian cellist M. Brunello.

Winner of the “Janina Nawrocka Award” for her “remarkable musicality and beauty of sound” in the International F. Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw (2010), Leonora Armellini (1992) performed as soloist, and with orchestras in important concert halls and festivals worldwide (Carnegie Hall - New York, Mariinsky Theater - Saint Petersburg, Salle Cortot - Paris, National Philharmonic - Warsaw, Teatro La Fenice – Venice, and in China, Japan, South Korea, …). She collaborated with many artists in various chamber music groups. Leonora graduated summa cum laude from the Padova Conservatory at the age of 12 with Laura Palmieri and won the first prize at the “Premio Venezia” (2005). She graduated summa cum laude at the age of 17 at the National Academy of S. Cecilia in Rome under the guidance of Sergio Perticaroli and then studied with Lilya Zilberstein (Musikhochschule Hamburg) and Boris Petrushansky (Accademia Pianistica di Imola). She recorded numerous CDs, including the two Chopin Piano Concertos and the complete Album for the Youth by Schumann, and a lot of her concerts and interviews were broadcast by Italian and international TVs and radios. Along with Matteo Rampin, she published a book entitled “Mozart era un figo, Bach ancora di più”, available in Italian and Spanish.