Sins of Old Age

The final years of Rossini’s life were spent in Paris, and it was here that all of his piano music was composed. The Péchés de Vieillesse, or ‘Sins of Old Age’, were written between 1857 and 1868, and consist of around 180 vocal and solo piano works. While it’s fair to say that only Rossini enthusiasts may wish to own a complete recording of these pieces, a selection such as that found on the current disc can be recommended to every listener. This is not ‘slight’ music; rather, it is always intelligent, often witty, pleasingly melodic, sometimes harmonically interesting, and also more challenging pianistically than one might imagine (with, for example, the final part of the canzonetta Ia Venitienne employing third-interval glissandi!). What’s more, one will not often hear this music played better than by Stefan Irmer: his technique is…