Suite Nothings – Emanuela Friscioni and Antonio Pompa-Baldi, piano (Steinway & Sons 30226)
“The innocence of childhood, the exuberance of youth, the carefree abandonment of the gilded age. It’s all here, in the three Suites featured on this album. Linked by a thread of melancholy, each work whispers sweet nothings in the listener’s ear.” - Antonio Pompa-Baldi
The husband-and-wife duet of Antonio Pompa-Baldi and Emanuela Friscioni share the bench for an album of works for piano four hands. The album opens with Debussy's Petite Suite which shows its pedigree born out of the best Paris salons of the 1880s. Following the Debussy is a suite written especially for the couple by their compatriot, Luca Moscardi, which seems tailor-made for the couple's strengths and pianism. Finally, Barber's ballet, Souvenirs, completes the album, which captures Barber's fondness for New York City's yesteryear. Barber later remembered the ballet "with affection, not with tongue in cheek, but in amused tenderness."