RACHMANINOFF CD
Antonio Pompa-Baldi also offers an all-Rachmaninoff program…His is a fine, well-balanced performance with good attention to details, but not so much that it gets in the way of the flow of the music. Of the five releases covered in this and the next Rachmaninoff review, Pompa-Baldi is the most enjoyable…the (Corelli) Variations are as solid and musical as I could hope for, and Centaur's production values (recording and booklet qualities) are excellent.
Antonio Pompa-Baldi's (Rachmaninoff) Sonata #2 earns very high marks for the number of voices he brings out. Considering that I have probably listened to 20 different recordings of this work in the past year, someone who brings something new to their performance is always appreciated…
Pompa-Baldi is an Italian pianist who currently lives and teaches in Cleveland. His biography, discography, competition prizes, and concert schedule are quite impressive (www.pompa-baldi.com) and I imagine that he makes a fantastic teacher. His own transcription of the famous Vocalise is included and simply presents the voice and piano parts combined and exquisitely voiced. He is joined by his talented wife (also a professor of piano at the Cleveland Institute of Music) in Rachmaninoff's Piano Duets. While these are not considered among his greatest works, they have been making more and more appearances on CDs and even in concert halls in the past decade. They are fun to learn and perform, and are quite well received by audiences. They may lack compositional sophistication that calls for detailed analysis, but given as good a performance as they get here they are very enjoyable. Of the five discs covered in this and the previous Rachmaninoff review, Pompa-Baldi would be the first one I would purchase if I were not fortunate enough to have them all.
(Harrington)
AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE
SEPTEMBER 2011
What a delightful Rachmaninoff album this is! Antonio Pompa-Baldi tends to take the composer’s music in an unhurried, but not slow manner (for those who can appreciate the difference), savoring its many moods and infusing his performances with a lucidity that allows us to enjoy their fine points time and again. His accounts of the Second Sonata, Corelli Variations, and the evergreen Vocalise are like limpid streams from which the listener will not fail to find refreshment.
The Corelli Variations come across with a sad contemplative beauty, better expressed here by Pompa-Baldi than I can recall hearing in any other performance.
Pompa-Baldi does a beautiful job with his own version of Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise, based on his study of the original piece for voice and piano rather than any of the numerous existing transcriptions. He is joined by his spouse, Emanuela Friscioni, in a very satisfying account of the composer’s Six Duets, Op. 11.
(Phil's Classical Reviews)
AUDIO VIDEO CLUB OF ATLANTA
APRIL 2011
CLIBURN COMPETITION CD on HARMONIA MUNDI
Pompa-Baldi is gloriously alive to every twist and turn of Scriabin's mad-cap rhetoric. The finale of Chopin's Second Sonata is as macabre as the "Caprice Italien" from Poulenc's Napoli is light-hearted and dazzling. ..... his performance of music described by Distler as a "slashing, fiery toccata" could hardly be more propulsive or acute.
Bryce Morrison Gramophon
January 2002
RHEINBERGER PIANO SONATAS
"Pompa-Baldi...performs all of these works in a bold, virtuoso manner,
fluently and expressively, and brings to them a wide dynamic spectrum. His
playing is of the high energy variety, further marked by unwavering
attention to mood and detail."
Mulbury, American Record Guide, May/June 2004
GRIEG: PIANO MUSIC, VOLUME 1
"Pompa-Baldi is at one with the Grieg idiom and often takes one's breath
away with his refined delicacy of phrase."
Becker, American Record Guide, September/October 2005
GRIEG: PIANO MUSIC, VOLUME 2
"What boldly projected, vividly characterized, pianistically integrated, and natural-sounding Grieg performances these are! Many pianists approach this repertoire on tiptoe, but Antonio Pompa-Baldi proudly plays up the composer's frequent juxtapositions of earthy, rustic material and sweet, lyrical passages".
Jed Distler, Classics Today
GRIEG: PIANO MUSIC, VOLUME 2 - Centaur 2712
Antonio Pompa-Baldi is strong in so many ways: technique, musicianship, timing, imagination, breadth of expression. His playing is wonderfully clean, and he brings a clarity to his interpretations that includes the kind of melodic and rhythmic subtleties that many pianists tend to overlook...
Pompa-Baldi sustains an atmosphere of mists and magic. He colors the music as if he has an endless palette of shades.
Margaret Barela, American Record Guide March/April 2006
GRIEG: PIANO MUSIC, VOLUME 5 - Centaur 2800
Antonio Pompa-Baldi's ongoing Grieg cycle for Centaur goes from strength to strength, as Volume 5 demonstrates. Indeed, no other complete recording of the 25 Norwegian Folk Songs and Dances Op. 17 touches this pianist's readings for idiomatic flair and enlivening details. Pompa-Baldi's rhythmic gusto and shapely bass lines put a virile spin on pieces that many pianists prettify to the point of emasculation. The two Op. 37 Waltz Caprices boast the kind of nervous energy and lack of surface sentiment that we experience from Grieg's own piano recordings, faded sound and all. Furthermore, Pompa-Baldi commands that rare gift for hitting upon the right tempos that put the dance-inspired selections' best feet forward (all puns intended)....enchanting, intelligent artistry. Recommended.
Jed Distler, Classics Today, January 19, 2007