A native of Genoa, Luigi Cortese merged his experiences from studies in Paris and tuition from Alfredo Casella in Italy to create a personal idiom of lively intelligence and refined taste, largely avoiding the temptations of passing musical fashions. Salmo VIII is one of Cortese’s most important and profound works, while Cinque Pezzi is his wonderfully expressive final piano opus. This programme also contains two of the very few documents of his own piano playing in historical recordings of the Suite Française, probably Cortese’s finest achievement in the piano field, and the poetic Sonata for cello and piano.