Who Is Francesco Tristano Schlimé?

He's the 27-year-old piano virtuoso from Europe whose most recent recital, in Luxembourg, of the first book of Debussy's Preludes was compared favorably to that of Radu Lupu (who is bringing his reading to Carnegie Hall next month) by the reviewer at ResMusica. Schlimé has made several recordings, including the complete piano works of Luciano Berio and Bach's Goldberg Variations; he is also a composer and a jazz pianist.

I admit to being curious, so I imagine I'll get a ticket to his New York debut, at the Weill Recital Hall, on February 1. He won't be playing the Debussy, alas, so we'll miss his "tempestuous, expressive" interpretation (as opposed to Lupu's "distant" and "cold" one). If the two excerpts I heard (the aria from Goldberg and a piece by Berio) on his web site are any indication, then this is the kind of heart-on-sleeve playing one hears too little.

Reviving Friedemann

The enterprising folks at Naxos have embarked on a complete set of recordings of the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach's son Wilhelm Friedemann. The first volume is out, and it's a real treat. It includes 12 feisty and playful polonaises (in contrasting major and minor keys), a beautiful sonata which reminded me a little of Scarlatti, and an A-minor fantasia that oscillates between courtly grace and passionate outburst. Robert Hill captures all the twists and turns of the music on a delightfully untwangy fortepiano, which deftly undercuts any tendency toward sentimentality that might creep in. I greatly look forward to the next volumes in the series.