I expect that any listener unfamiliar with the music of Ludwig Thiulle will be as pleased as I was to make his musical acquaintance. An excellent place to start is this delightful program of Thuille’s music for violin and piano from Naxos, especially given the inexpensive asking price.

The playing of violinist Marco Rogliano and pianist Gianluca Luisi is technically and musically superb. Naxos provides great sonics. There’s really nothing more to consider; you are going to thoroughly enjoy this. © Expedition Audio Read complete review

In lesser hands, I’m not sure how much of an impact Thuille’s works for violin and piano would make, for first-rate masterpieces they’re not; but the playing of them by violinist Marco Rogliano and pianist Gianluca Luisi elevates them to something quite memorable. Rogliano’s 1790 Nicola Bergonzi violin—with modern setup, of course—is a real beauty from which the violinist draws a clean, bright, sweet tone across the instrument’s range, never once tested by the music’s technical challenges, and never once straying off pitch or producing a hardened tone or abrasive sound. Rogliano has accumulated a fairly impressive discography, much of it devoted to little known Italian composers, though he’s also recorded works by Beethoven, Berwald, and Sinding, as well as works by well-known Italians such as Paganini, Tartini, and Vivaldi. To this list, he now adds Ludwig Thuille. Who knows? Perhaps with musicianship of this caliber Thuille may actually catch on. But even if not, the composer is posthumously blessed to have artists like Rogliano and Luisi championing work.

Rogliano, too, is blessed to have as his partner in this enterprise pianist Gianluca Luisi…his Goldberg Variations received high praise from her and from Scott Noriega.

Thuille’s ouput in general may not be the work of a truly inspired composer, and his violin sonatas in particular may not be the most inspiring examples of their genre, but they do nonetheless expand the repertoire of the violin-piano duo between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, which makes them a must for completists, and in performances as fine as these, a must for anyone who appreciates violin and piano playing at its best. © Fanfare