Giacomo Puccini

Piano compositions

Puccini as a creator of piano music? The new volume of the "Edizione Nazionale" invites you to discover this almost unknown side of the composer. Many works are published here for the first time.

Throughout his career, Puccini repeatedly devoted himself to the piano. We begin with one of his first compositions, which he kept: a short, almost childlike piece (Pezzo in Sol maggiore), which is followed by further piano pieces, some of which are combined into cycles. They shed an interesting light on Puccini's compositional beginnings and reveal his developing artistry. The later pieces are mostly occasional works composed at the same time as the great operas.

A few strokes of genius catch the eye as you wander through them: For example, when the melody reaches its climax in a winding path and then immediately dissolves again (Adagio in La maggiore SC 31). Or when, condensed into just 16 bars, the melody floats melancholically over a harmonic fabric that avoids its tonal center until shortly before the end (Calmo e molto lento SC 86 from 1916).

A rewarding discovery of a little-known side of Puccini!