Mauro Tortorelli plays Saint-Saëns

In a world completely awash with first-class concert violinists, one rarely hears of Italian violinists, except in the context of “baroque” players scrubbing away on their old instruments. I have been very happy to make the acquaintance of Mauro Tortorelli, first when I heard him in the first of Sandro Fuga's violin and piano sonatas, and now on a CD of the violin & piano music of Camille Saint-Saëns, including the two sonatas for violin and piano. I would characterise Tortorelli's sound as “sunny and relaxed”, perhaps an appropriate reflection of Italy.

I am, of course, a member of the Saint-Saëns fan club (there are not many of us), but an additional source of pleasure with the current CD was provided by Giovanni Caruso, the “sound engineer & producer” on this Brilliant Classics disc. A lot of Saint-Saëns's music calls for the violin to play pianissimo, and it is not too often nowadays that sound engineers understand that we need to be able to hear both piano and violin, even when the violinist is playing very softly. We can hear every note that Signor Tortorelli plays – thanks also to the light-fingered pianist, Angela Meluso. A CD I bought on a whim, but one that is giving me much pleasure for the music, the playing and the recording.