Paolo Giacometti - Rossini: Complete Works for Piano Volume 2 (1998)

Like the collection from the preceding Rossini CD, L’Album pour les Enfants dégourdis, or album for quick-witted children, is part of the Péchés de vieillesse or sins of old age. For the most part, these works are short character pieces composed by Rossini towards the end of his life, between his return to Paris in 1855 and his death in 1868. This was a happy time for the composer, and thus these pieces were often composed to enliven of many gastronomic and musical evenings which he organized for his friends. It is hardly surprising, in this context, that irony is the uniting characteristic for so many of these brief narratives. Irony greets us immediately in the title of the collection, which suggests Rossinis intention to mislead both listener and performer: the link with quick-witted children has far more to do with the exuberant character of the pieces than with their titles…..