Born in a family of musicians from Italy, Fanny Azzuro’s sonority has absorbed something of the warmth and colours of her native country. This first album under the naïve label, an escapade filled with resonances, put these qualities to their best possible use.

She proposes here the two cycles of 24 Preludes composed by Chopin and Scriabin.

Fanny Azzuro advocates a light touch, rooting her interpretation in the art of singing and a subtle and discreet form of breathing in these forty-eight Preludes, perfectly readable in their polyphonies and clear in their colours. The ‘urgency of an existential, exalted quest, so close to faith’ that the pianist hears in both Chopin and Scriabin, is revealed in all its acuteness.

The pianist puts into perspective two great cycles written in the 19th century, two sets of twenty-four Preludes, the essential Opus 28 by Frédéric Chopin, which dates from the years 1838 and 1839, and Opus 11 by Alexander Scriabin, composed between 1888 and 1896, direct homage to the previous one: two cycles of short pieces, similar in structure, organised according to a circle of ascending fifths where each major tonality is followed by its relative minor.

Scriabin nevertheless takes some liberties with his model. His collection consists of four books of six preludes. Within these extremely condensed snapshots (none of the Preludes lasts more than two minutes), the composer experiments with daring formulas that he will later refine in his Piano Sonatas or symphonic works. His expressive mastery is dazzling: in the genre of the miniature, Scriabin is indeed a true heir of Chopin, and reveals a fabulous energy, a staggering art of narration, between despair and heroism. This Opus 11 is undoubtedly the peak of his early years, a collection of dreams tinted in gold, in the way Liszt himself conceived Chopin’s Preludes.

Chopin’s genius is fully revealed in his Opus 28. Filled with contrasting and extreme feelings, his Preludes nevertheless exclude any sense of disorder, favouring above all of balance and measure. The composer scrupulously noted every phrasing, accent and pedalling; the performer must, above all, free his imagination.