Paolo Giacometti

Pianist Paolo Giacometti has a large recording catalog featuring both modern-instrument and period-instrument performances. He has recorded the complete piano music of Rossini as well as other less-often-played repertory. Giacometti was born in Milan, Italy, in 1970. He lived in the Netherlands from childhood and took up the piano early. At nine, he began lessons at the Joke Hilversum Music School, studying with Joke Dekker-Vroons. Giacometti went on to the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam, studying with Jan Wijn. While he was there, he took second prize at the International Brahms Competition in Hamburg, Germany. He graduated with highest honors in 1995, also winning first prize that year at the Postbank Sweelinck Competition in Amsterdam. The following year saw the release of Giacometti's first two albums, both featuring cellist Pieter Wispelwey; one included the Arpeggione Sonata of Schubert, the other cello-and-piano works by Max Reger. Those albums appeared on the Channel Classics label, with which Giacometti remained associated as of the early 2020s. His first solo release, The Russian Touch: Romantic Piano Music from Russia, followed in 1997 on the Columns Classics label. In 1998, Giacometti returned to Channel Classics and released the album Rossini: L'album pour les enfants adolescents. That became the first in an acclaimed series of releases covering the complete piano music of Rossini; the series ran through the year 2007, and its third volume won the Edison Classical Music Award in 2001. Giacometti also plays and records more common piano repertory from Mozart to Ravel. He has appeared at major halls, including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall in London, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, and the Seoul Arts Center. In addition to solo work, Giacometti has continued to play and record chamber music with Wispelwey and various other musicians, including violinists Janine Jansen and Viktoria Mullova and oboist Bart Schneemann. His recordings include 2013's Compared, Vol. 1: Erard vs. Steinway - Ravel. In addition to Channel Classics, Giacometti has recorded for BIS, Onyx, and Evil Penguin, among other labels; on the latter label, he joined Wispelwey in 2023 for the album Schubert: In Memoriam I. By that time, his catalog comprised some 40 items, including music by such unusual composers as Anton Eberl. ~ James Manheim, Rovi