Giovanni Sollima and Francesco Libetta

Concert to present the new album dedicated to Chopin. World premiere

Date and time

June 7, 2026 at 6:30 PM

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⬤ Presentation

When one thinks of Chopin, the mind immediately runs to the piano.

It is there that the best-known part of his writing is concentrated: the singing, the virtuosity, the harmonic invention, everything that makes his voice so recognizable.
That is why the works for cello and piano hold a special place: they are few in number, but they are enough to show another side of his musical world.

This is where the path proposed by Giovanni Sollima and Francesco Libetta, to whom fate, or perhaps a particularly happy astral alignment, has entrusted the task of venturing into this territory, begins.
The circumstance is not too surprising, because both Giovanni Sollima and Francesco Libetta belong with all evidence to the category of musical archdeities descended from the Platonic hyperuranium, and when they fuse their powers the result I would say resembles more a Dragon Ball Z fusion than a normal chamber collaboration.
Their work, after all, is built on a very solid foundation: first editions and manuscripts, first of all; and then instruments that really speak the language of this repertoire, because in the recording released by C&Co New Recording (a label based in Key Byscaine, Florida), and now printed in collaboration with the Friends of Music in Cagliari, Italy, Giovanni adopts a gut mount (almost a human voice) and Francesco plays an Érard piano from Chopin’s era.

[taken from the text of the CD booklet, by Carlotta Maestrini].

A wine tasting will be offered to the audience at the end of the concert.

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Data e ora

Info and costs

TICKETS

35 € Full
25 € Reduced

Reduced: students, teachers from music high schools and music conservatories, musicians from Opera and Symphony Foundations, ESN Palermo members.

TICKET OFFICE

Online to follow on this page.

At the office in Via Siracusa 32 (Palermo), by appointment by writing to info@marthapalermo.it or on whatsapp at 3331008512

Giorno 1: 7 Giugno 2026
Start time: 18:30
End time: 00:00

Venue: MARTHA - Music ART House Academy , via Siracusa 32 (Palermo)

Phone: +39 333 100 8512

Email: info@marthapalermo.it

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⬤ Musicians

GIOVANNI SOLLIMA Giovanni Sollima is an extraordinary performer, but above all a free and boundary-breaking composer. The visceral connection with his Sicilian roots, and above all with his cello, has shaped and defined both his artistic career and his writing, giving rise to a language deeply infused with Mediterranean stylistic elements as well as influences from radically different musical genres such as rock and pop.

Francesco Libetta For The New York Times he is a “poet-aristocrat with the profile and carriage of a Renaissance prince,” while for Le Monde de la Musique he is “the heir of Moritz Rosenthal, Busoni and Godowsky,” and for Corriere della Sera he possesses “a touch of refinement we thought had been lost in the archives of pianistic interpretation.” D’Avalos dedicated all his works for solo piano to him, and Isotta described him as “the greatest living pianist.” He has performed complete piano cycles of Beethoven, Handel, Chopin, Godowsky, Paisiello, and Bosso; he has released recordings of Schumann, Liszt, Ligeti, Ravel, and Debussy. His recordings have received numerous awards from Diapason, Le Monde de la Musique, Classique, and Amadeus, among others. He has collaborated with conductors such as Pappano, Andreae, and Mandeal, and with artists such as Sollima, Caterina Antonacci, and Devia; actors such as Boni, Laurito, Preziosi, and Marchini; and dancers such as Carla Fracci, and he founded the dance group Corerofonie. After studying composition with Marinuzzi in Rome and Castérède in Paris, he composed music for theatre, cinema, acousmatic works, chamber and symphonic music, and the opera L’Assedio di Otranto, staged in Puglia and Rome and released on CD. “Libetta the composer is a poeta doctus,” wrote Isotta, affirming the profile of one of the most esteemed and versatile Italian artists worldwide, ranging from conducting to musical essay writing, visual arts direction, and appearing as a subject in documentaries by Monsaingeon and Battiato; formerly a teacher at the Miami Piano Festival and now active in Martina Franca with the Fondazione Grassi. Francesco Libetta is a Steinway Artist.

Giovanni Sollima and Francesco Libetta

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