Nino Rota’s iconic score for The Godfather is typical of his neo-Classicism – or ‘Classical modernist’ language – a cosmopolitan and functional musical style inspired by his teachers Pizzetti and Casella. This second and final volume of Rota’s solo piano music ranges from Ippolito gioca, an early piece celebrating Pizzetti’s 50th birthday, to a large-scale Variations and Fugue on the name Bach that concludes with a four-part fugue. The psychologically expressive music Rota composed for Federico Fellini’s film Il Casanova is also featured, alongside the piece Molière from his music for the ballet Le Molière imaginaire.

Pianist Eleanor Hodgkinson divides her time between performing, teaching and writing. A versatile chamber musician, she has performed and recorded with Mid Wales Opera, Southern Sinfonia, Orchestra of the Swan and Nevill Holt Opera. Hodgkinson is the keyboard coordinator at the Junior Academy of the Royal Academy of Music, where she has taught piano and chamber music for over 20 years; additionally, she is the specialist piano tutor for the LRAM teaching qualification. She is a principal lecturer in piano at Leeds Conservatoire and an external examiner at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and the Royal College of Music. An award-winning student, Hodgkinson studied with Renna Kellaway and Carole Presland at the Royal Northern College of Music. In 2013 she obtained an MA in music psychology from the University of Sheffield.