so, just been listening to the new YT Rarities upload of the Fiorentino recital… ever since I started coming to dasdc been giving Fiorentino a try once in a while, especially after originally being turned on by the reported remark of Michelangeli “There is only me and him.”
so, two questions, just wondering:
hahaha i kno he iz calld tha HOG by tha legendary BREW n pozz liztnd to a gud prick 8 rec at one point 
frankly wher iz tha BREW? 
afaik in Paris…
Very good and underrated in his time. I don’t think he’s anywhere near ABM and musicians of that stature however.
I don’t quite understand the excitement about this penizt, though some of his early Liszt recs are pretty astonishing. He was a great virtuoso.
However his interpretations often strike me as stylistically wrong, with weird textual changes.
He’s often pretty tonedeaf too, although, paradoxically, the finest playing I’ve heard from him is actually in a set of Debussy Etudes
I’m not a huge fan.
He has a sloppy quality in much of his playing.
Many of the Liszt recordings have great mechanics but a certain blandness, plus all sorts of misreadings/textual emendations
His live recordings from the 1980’s on - have some pretty good playing
Obviously a mammoth rep, prodigious memory etc.
I personally, never warmed up to any particular rec
Btw most of the CONCERT ARTIST CDs attributed to him are fakes, including the acclaimed Liszt TRANNY DENTAL Etudes, which are a mix of Kissin, Berezovsky, Campanella and even da DIRAÑA on da FF
My sentiments exactly.
The tone that he gets from the piano is a bit clangy and uninteresting IMHO
ahahahah lykly a TRU quote
tiz no zecret da ABM think diz hily of himzelf 
Da FIORENTINO was a tru SDC legend
Based on several recs which were sped up
BALAKIREV , Mili Alexeyevich (1837-1910)
-Islamey
recorded: supposedly on 12 September 1960 Hamburg, Musikhalle
CD: Concert Artist/Fidelio CACD 9172-2 (2004) actually the recording of Leonid Kuzmin released on Russian Disk
Chopin Mazurkas, op. 17 ##2 & 4; op. 24 ##1 - 4; op. 30 ##1 - 4
recorded: 5 January 1961 London, Hornsey Town Hall
CD: Concert Artist/Fidelio CACD 9200-2 (2003) suspicious! opp. 17/2 & 24/1 taken from Idil Biret, opp. 17/4, 24/4 and 30/4 taken from Janusz Olejniczak, op. 30/1-3 taken from Anna Malikova
F inally I have to add a few words concerning a very special kind of “pseudonymous issue” of two works played by Sergio Fiorentino. But first some facts about the SAGA label: SAGA was a small but enterprising company in the late fifties. SAGA eventually passed into liquidation and the repertoire was acquired by ALLIED RECORDS / ASSOCIATED PERFORMANCES / ART & SOUND. The new owners continued to reissue periodically the original SAGA performances, retaining the old catalogue numbers or also using new ones. In 1973 a release of some performances was prepared which the eminent Russian-English pianist Leff Pouishnoff had made for SAGA way back in the late fifties. A Chopin/Liszt programme from these sessions was released on SAGA XID 5013 and a different programme incorporating the Theme & Variations op.72 by Glazounov (which appeared earlier on an EP) was scheduled for the reissue in question, labelled “The Art of Pouishnoff” and published on SAGA 5375. Strangely enough this record from 1973 exists in two versions with the same pieces in the same order on both sides (side A: [Chopin Polonaise Fantaisie op.61](Discography of Sergio Fiorentino Fantaisie A flat Major op. 61) / [Liszt Mephisto Waltz #1](Discography of Sergio Fiorentino Waltz #1) // side B: Chopin Rondo op.16 / Glazounov Theme and Variations op.72). But whereas the original Pouishnoff performances are to be found on the version with the black label and the matrix numbers 5375+A/5375+B, the second version of this record has on side A strikingly different interpretations of both Chopin’s Polonaise Fantaisie and Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz #1 which are not played by Leff Pouishnoff but by Sergio Fiorentino. This record has a black label and the matrix numbers 5375A-3/5375B-3 or a blue label and the matrix numbers 5375A-3 and 5375B-4. The recordings of both these works by Chopin and Liszt have been identified as formerly unissued performances from Sergio Fiorentino’s sessions for the SAGA label. How and why this mistake happened is of minor interest. What counts is that two more exciting interpretations of Sergio Fiorentino have been made available to the admirers of his art as a consequence which otherwise would have remained forgotten.
sure, but I can’t imagine ABM feeling that way about da FIRENTINY is my point!
Listen to Fiorentino’s early Chopin nocturnes, Brahms Paganinis, and Schumann concerto. I’d consider him a legend even if those were his only recs.
The Brahms Paganini rec is insane but the tone is distinctly Fiorentino and not all together pleasant
That being said, he plays the Friedrice out of them.
Ahahaha da HOG iz lyk
Collateral damage from da HATTO zaga harzhly 
Tru.
Randomly, how much money did the Mad Hatto - BC pair make reselling commercial recordings that she never made?
Probably very little. I think it was mostly to buy her a legacy. So I can sort of understand his motivation for faking the Hatto recordings, but I don’t understand why he brought Fiorentino into it. Shameful.
He was just a conman though, long before he started on a project to which you can ascribe some noble motivation if you’re feeling charitable.
Yeah, especially considering that there is a ton of actual Fiorentino stuff out there.
datz rite