Ruggiero Leoncavallo is rightly famous for his operas and operettas, but he is almost forgotten for a collection of thirty-six piano compositions that express an authentic universe of genres and colors. They are apparently simple melodies to listen to (but not so easy to perform) which evoke sometimes intense emotions and settings, sometimes noises and sounds, which the Neapolitan composer hides between the lines of the score. Ingrid Carbone is the pianist who boasts the merit of having rediscovered these pages and of proposing them in the double CD ‘Leoncavallo: Pour piano’ with a rigorous reading attentive to the author’s intentions, while allowing all the emotions that she herself experienced in the ‘performing them and chiseling the images described in the music with the skill of a painter. His hands almost seem to caress the keyboard to best convey the lake or nocturnal atmosphere (exemplary is the first track Notturno or Au bord du lac), while they gain vigor with the Waltzes and Marches and even a light-hearted tone in describing the masks ( to listen to Menuet d’Arlequin or Cortège de Pulcinella). The ability to focus on settings and even hidden sounds is admirable, such as the accordion present among the notes of Valse à la lune. A world to be discovered and explored in a new episode of Le prime notes with Ingrid Carbone.
Ingrid Carbone has been interviewed by Venice Classic Radio for the podcast “Le Prime Note”.
