Vittorio Rieti (1898 - 1994)

‘My music may not be performed often, but it is performed all over the world’, wrote the Italian-American composer Vittorio Rieti (1898–1994). His orchestral works were conducted and admired by luminaries such as Rafael Kubelík, Leopold Stokowski and Arturo Toscanini but it was the piano that was arguably Rieti’s first and most significant musical love to which he brought a natural, effortless and brilliant style. The Second Avenue Waltzes for two pianos, one of his greatest works, is an expression of his maturity and full of charm, whereas the later Twelve Preludes for solo piano reveal a wealth of inventiveness. One of his most successful pieces, the Suite champêtre for two pianos, is fuelled by grace and elegance. Giorgio Koukl has been called ‘one of the five or six greatest living pianists today’ by The Art Music Lounge; he is joined in the works for piano duo by the prize-winning pianist Virginia Rossetti.