Adalberto Maria Riva, pianista

Adolfo Fumagalli (1828-1856) Who was he?

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Il Giornale dell’Umbria (Umbrian Regional Newspaper),
20th August, 2008
Announcement for the concert to be held on 20th August
at Castiglion del Lago in Umbria

The much anticipated concert at Palazzo della Corgna by the pianist Adalberto Maria Riva.

Today, one can only speak of Adalberto Maria Riva in the most glowing of terms, a prestige which began with the receipt of his 'Premier Prix de Virtuosite' from the Conservatoire of Lausanne, Switzerland in 2001. Since then, Mr. Riva has played, produced albums, promoted music theatre events and concerts, and organised conferences such as the one held two years ago to honour the Italian composer and pianist, Adolfo Fumagalli, who remains one of the few melodrama artists which Italy can hold up to comparison with Franz Liszt...

by Stefano Ragni

La Gazzetta di Parma (Italian daily newspaper)
15th June, 2009
‘Il classico in discoteca’ (‘Classical Music at the Disco’), a CD by Riva to mark the 150th anniversary of Fumagalli’s death

THE LEFT HAND WHICH ENCHANTED LISZT

The greatness of the pianoforte in Italy, from Bartolomeo Cristofori, who was its brilliant inventor, to Clementi, who not only gave the instrument its voice but was also an accomplished piano manufacturer, began to decline in the 1800s not only due to the predominance of melodrama but also due to the provincial nature of the then artists who dominated (sometimes bravely) the instrument. A landscape, whilst lacking any great illumination, can, nonetheless on closer inspection, boast some individuals of undoubted interest. Of particular note was Adolfo Fumagalli, who, despite his premature death at 28, has left behind unsolved questions regarding the works which, with maturity, would have been added to the eloquence of his youthful production. Fumagalli was born in Inzago, Italy, in 1828 and graduated from the prestigious Angeleri School at the Milan Conservatory. He gained great recognition and success as a virtuoso pianist and composer in the most important European cities, especially in Paris where he settled. He won admiration from Liszt, which was accompanied by encouragement: “aim higher and further” –referring to the virtuosity not yet truly freed in the pianist. Encouragement which permitted Fumagalli to face greater challenges and later to become known as the ‘Paganini of the pianoforte’ – thanks in particular to his mythical left hand which had been rightly recognised due to some of his compositions for the left hand alone, such as the “Grande Fantasie sur Robert le Diable de Meyerbeer”. This piece can be listened to, along with other tracks, on a CD of great interest produced by the Inzago Town Hall to mark the 150th anniversary of his death. The pieces are interpreted by the young pianist Adalberto Maria Riva, who apart from possessing all the necessary musical ability to bring the sometimes hyperbolic compositions to life, also possesses the talent to allow them to flow with such imagination as to suggest he too had breathed the same European air as Fumagalli and that he had supped on the spirit of the great romantics. In particular Liszt, who one can recognise in the particularly evocative quality of the sound, found between the visionary and the ‘poetic’ recreated with sensitivity and richness through Riva’s pianistic palette. Riva displays an unmistakable ability at penetrating the folds of the incarnate virtuoso not only with the spectacular show but also in the powerful meaning of sound and in the subtlety bound up within it.

by Gian Paolo Minardi

Varese, La Provincia (The Province Newspaper),
Saturday, 3rd October, 2009
Announcement for the concert to be held on 4th October

"‘Interpreting Sounds and Places"
invites Adalberto Riva to the piano.

They called him ‘the Paganini of the pianoforte’ and not an aria nor melody existed which Adolfo Fumagalli from Inzago couldn’t transcribe for his chosen instrument or reproduce virtuously and in which he was almost unparalleled.
It is interesting to note that Adalberto Maria Riva, (the Milanese pianist who plays tonight at 9 o’clock for the ‘Interpreting Sounds and Places’ exhibition) chose this great but obscure 19th century composer as the subject of his thesis, at times also performing many Fumagalli pieces in concert.

by Mario Chiodetti

Milan, Il Giorno Newspaper,
Wednesday 14th October, 2009
Announcement for the concert to be held on 19th October

Anniversary: Exhibition and concert dedicated to the 19th century
muscian Fumagalli
Remembering Adolfo, one of the
“Four country boys from Inzago”

The understated clarification “celebrated muscian” on the plaque outside Adolfo Fumagalli’s family home in Inzago is enough to make one smile.
In truth, Adolfo Fumagalli was greatly celebrated, in fact, it is possible that he could be considered one of the few (if not the only) Italian pianist-composer from the 19th century capable of making his mark on the international music scene. He bore the sobriquet ‘the Paganini of the pianoforte’ and Liszt, of whom many considered him the successor, upon having heard Fumagalli in concert wrote, “I bow before you as before the greatest pianists, because whomever knows how to draw a transcription from an overture as difficult as that by Cellini is without doubt an extraordinary artist…”.

Fumagalli trained at The Milan Conservatory, where he had given his first concert at 12 years of age. He specialised in the reworking of opera arias. He instrumented the melody of the central register by subdividing it between his two hands thus creating a stereophonic and illusionistic sound effect, which was in fact a trait of Liszt’s. Fumagalli also had an unequalled talent for transcriptions played just with the left hand. Considering all of his achievements one could well ask how it is possible that his contribution has been forgotten? Unfortunately, it is because his life was too brief. He was born in 1828 and died in Florence, in 1856 at only 28 years of age. However, Adolfo is not the only Fumagalli to be found in the musical archives, he was one of four brothers born to a country man, who worked as a land agent for the Milanese aristocrat Cesare Borsa. They became known as ‘the four country boys from Inzago’. Along with the talented and celebrated Adolfo, Disma and Polibio taught at The Milan Conservatory and the youngest Luca, ended his career in America. In Inzago on Adolfo’s birthday (19th October) there will be an exhibition and the launch of a CD recorded to mark the 150th anniversary of the great pianist’s death. Moreover, also on the 19th October, a concert given by the Milanese pianist Adalberto Maria Riva will be held in Milan (9pm – Spazio Oberdan), presenting music by Golinelli, Martucci, Liszt and Fumagalli and closing with the great virtuso piece “Grande Fantasie sur Robert le Diable de Meyerbeer”.

by Carla Maria Casanova