Paolo Tatafiore

For example: this concerto requires great fluctuation of tempo from section to section, without losing the overall pulse and flow of the music. Whereas other pianists are reluctant to attempt such fluctuations, Mr. Tatafiore embraces these, without losing the sense of larger direction of the work as a whole. I have rarely heard this piece played with such freedom of phrasing, and yet totally controlled in its pianistic technique. Mr. Tatafiore possesses a towering technique, but the listener is not drawn to the technique per se; rather the technique serves to bring the music expressiveness to the highest level.

I heard phrases that were magnificently drawn, Mr. Tatafiore unafraid to take the chance and draw a phrase to the limit of its expressive nature. And this is, as I have said, combined with his ability to never lose sight of the larger structure of the work as a whole.

Accomplishing this puts Paolo Tatafiore in a league of his own. Musicianship and performance like this is exceedingly rare: how often have we heard pianists that dazzle but leave us short on insight and sensitivity in their performance? Too often!

Triumph for the conductor

The Siemens-Ensemble gives a guest performance at the "Brucker" Stadtsaal

Arno Preiser - Fuerstenfeldbrucker Tagblatt (Munich, 03/29/2003)

Fuerstenfeldbruck - An extraordinary concert has been given by the "Siemens-Orchester" in the "Brucker" Town Concert Hall. The event would have deserved a more numerous public: the performance of the feared Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto, because of its difficulty and length, does not happen every day.

Born in 1983 the orchestra has been enlarging thanks also to the addition of new instrumentalists; they are now 70 between strings and woodwinds.

Their confidence with intonation was already appreciated at the opening, in the Prelude to the Third Act of Richard Wagner's "Lohengrin". The heroic introduction to the Elsa von Brabant's wedding march received the glory of a beautiful performance, a genuine triumph for the orchestra and its conductor.

Conductor from Naples

Since 2001 Annunziata De Paola is the stable conductor of the Ensemble; she is from Naples, Italy, as is the soloist of the evening, pianist Paolo Tatafiore. Both were on the same wavelength but, above all, their artistic conception was very impressive. As for the Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto op. 30, in D minor, the pianist wasn't deterred by the more complex and difficult alternative version of the "Cadenza" of the first movement ("Allegro ma non tanto"). The composer dedicated the Concerto to a pianist who initially didn't feel he would have been able to perform the part.

It's unusual enough to provide the soloist with two cadenzas. Tatafiore's approach to the opening theme, so rich in musical influences from the Old Russian Church, the broad exposition, the episodes in form of a Waltz and the improvisatory digressions, with their many small variations, was lyrical and emotional. He powerfully mastered the most dramatic moments too, as well as the chords hammered with both hands.

The conductor was leading the orchestra with the appropriate color of the strings and a soft texture of the woodwinds, giving prominence to the soloist's phrasing, in rhythmic agreement with the piano. As she did before with vigorous movements, in the same way she gave emphasis to the "Intermezzo", an Adagio, and to the most part of the main theme with a smooth and lyrical exposition. The pianist seemed to face this theme too as a challenge, transforming it into a series of variegated variations. If the middle section of the Adagio "Poco piu' mosso", seemed to be a colorful "Scherzo", with a gossamer Solo part, the conclusive section returned to lively piano work.

The "Finale" was all brilliance and virtuosity. After Rachmaninov's inspired work from 1909, from which the soloist wrung a maximum of dramatic effect, the audience's enthusiastic reception was rewarded with an encore. He played the Chopin's Nocturne in B major Op. 62/1 as a meltingly meditative Andante.

The second half of the concert consisted of a stirring performance of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, in A major, centered on Wagner's interpretation of the work as "apotheosis of dance".

The concert will be repeated today, Saturday, March 29th, in the Munich Herkulessaal.

Battipaglia applauds the pianist Tatafiore

From "Il Giornale Di Napoli" - April 12, 1989

Naples, Italy

The City Hall of Battipaglia, in collaboration with the "N. Paganini" Conservatory of Music, has organized a Piano Recital in the Auditorium of the "Community Center" at Viale della Liberta`, featuring Maestro Paolo Tatafiore performing Chopin and Liszt's music.

A graduate in Pianoforte and Composition from the Conservatories of Naples and Salerno, Paolo Tatafiore is certainly one of the brightest young talents in the current Italian piano-roster and he showed, in the course of the evening, a formidable and certainly not common instrumental mastership performing a very challenging program of Romantic music.

The Chopin's Polonaise-Fantaisie op. 61, opening piece of the concert, has been rendered with great musical sensitivity and alchemy in the use of the pedal, thus emphasizing the iridescent colors of the almost decadent harmony typical in the latest Chopin's production.

Crayon colors and a joyless "mezza-voce" cantabile characterized the introductory March of the Fantasy in F minor op. 49, in wise contrast with the passionate virtuosity of the intermediate section, rendered by the pianist in waves of "crescendo" and "diminuendo", dipped in a powerful while round and controlled sonority.

The second set of the program witnessed Tatafiore unravel himself with agility among the structural complexities of the cyclical Franz Liszt's Sonata in B minor.

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Prof. Dr. Jonathan Irving, Pianist, Queens College, City University of New York

Triumph for the conductor

Conductor from Naples

Battipaglia applauds the pianist Tatafiore