Paolo Giacometti, Rotterdam Young Philharmonic & Arie van Beek - Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 (2020)

Paolo Giacometti has earned a reputation in some circles as a specialist of sorts in piano repertory, not least because he has recorded the entire keyboard output of Gioachino Rossini. He has also recorded many rarely encountered cello/piano works by Reger, Hindemith, and others, as well as chamber works by forgotten Classical-era French composer Jacques Widerkehr. But Giacometti possesses a broad repertory that includes much standard fare, with the names Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, Fauré, Debussy, Ravel, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, and others often appearing on his concert programs and recordings. And Giacometti has garnered countless rave reviews, whether in mainstream repertory or lesser known works. His Rossini recordings have been received especially well by critics. He has made more than 40 recordings over the years, most of them available on Channel Classics and Brilliant Classics. Though Giacometti carries a heavy schedule of concerts, he also teaches piano performance at the Utrecht Conservatory.

Paolo Giacometti was born in Milan, Italy, in 1970, but grew up in the Netherlands. He played the piano from his early childhood and began piano lessons at nine with Joke Dekker-Vroons at the Hilversum Music School. Giacometti later enrolled at the Sweelinck Conservatory, where he studied under Jan Wijn.

In 1992 Giacometti captured second prize at the International Brahms Competition in Hamburg. In 1995, the year he graduated with the highest honors from the Sweelinck Conservatory, he was awarded first prize at the Postbank Sweelinck Competition in Amsterdam. The following year saw the release of his first recordings for Channel Classics, which included a CD of works for cello and piano by Max Reger, with cellist Pieter Wispelwey.

In 1998 the same label issued Giacometti's first volume of Rossini's piano music, which was greeted widely by critical acclaim. And the success continued: the third volume in the series, containing works from the Péchés de vieillesse, was given the Edison Classical Award in 2001.

In the new century Giacometti has appeared at major concert venues across Europe and the U.S., including at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall (London), Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris), and Teatro Colon (Buenos Aires). He often appears in recital with cellist Pieter Wispelwey, with whom he shared a Diapason d'or award in 1997 for a CD of works by Chopin, Fauré, and Poulenc. Among Giacometti's later recordings is the 2009 Channel Classics CD of Schumann's Davidsbündlertänze, Arabeske, and Gesänge der Frühe. ~ Robert Cummings