Paolo Giacometti presents the complete piano music of Gioachino Rossini, originally released as eight albums on Channel Classics between 1998-2007. Rossini’s Péchés de vieillesse, a collection of pieces largely for piano, from which the pieces recorded here were sourced, were composed in the final decade of his life, entirely for his own amusement and for those of the guests who flocked to his famous samedis soirs. These works showcase the ageing composer, who in his final happy years can look back on a full life, a man with a razor-sharp sense of humour, never pedantic and always ready with a wink. Typified by their great diversity, they are the expressions of an exceptional talent who had broken free of musical dogma: ironic, meditative, personal, and unafraid of disapproval or self-deprecation.