Okay, I’m kind of excited about this one. Mieczyslaw Horszowski was one of the great poets of the keyboard. He also happens to be one of my favorite pianists.

On this week’s “Music from Marlboro,” we’ll hear Horzsowski perform music by…

Chopin? No.

Schumann? No.

ILDEBRANDO PIZZETTI. Yes.

Who the hell is HE?

Pizzetti was one of the composers of the “generazione dell’Ottanta” (generation of the ‘80s), contemporaries of Ottorino Respighi, all born around 1880. These artists of the post-Puccini generation largely made a name for themselves in the concert halls as opposed to the opera houses. That was a change of pace for Italy.

Pizzetti was best-known as an associate of Gabrielle d’Annunzio, providing incidental music for a number of d’Annunzio’s plays and setting “Fedra” as an opera. Pizzetti’s Piano Trio in A major, written in 1925, is big music with big things to say. There is plenty of drama, lyricism and warmth throughout the 30-minute piece, which is almost never heard. It was performed at the Marlboro Music Festival in 1968, by Pina Carmirelli, violin; Leslie Parnas, cello; and Mieczyslaw Horszowski, piano.

Horszowski, who died in 1993, just shy of his 101st birthday, had one of the longest careers of any performing artist. He was a pupil of Theodor Leschetizky, who was a pupil of Carl Czerny, who in turn was a pupil of Beethoven. Horszowski played Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in public for the first time in 1901! He joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 1942. He remained there for over 50 years, giving his last lesson a week before his death.

As if the idea of hearing Horszowski in this neglected repertoire isn’t compelling enough, we’ll also have a young Yo-Yo Ma among the personnel – alongside guitarist Javier Calderon, violinist Daniel Phillips, and violist Luigi Alberto Bianchi – in a 1976 performance of Niccolò Paganini’s Quartet No. 15 in A minor for guitar and strings.

That’s Marlboro, Italian-style, on the next “Music from Marlboro,” this Wednesday evening at 6 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page

PHOTO: Mieczyslaw Horszowski (center) with Marlboro co-founder Rudolf Serkin and an up-and-coming Ruth Laredo