Giorgio Colombo Taccani was born in Milan in 1961. He pursued a classical education, graduating from the University of Milan with a degree in Modern Literature under the guidance of Francesco Degrada. His thesis in Music History was devoted to Bruno Maderna's Hyperion, and won the "Missiroli Prize", awarded in 1993 by the Town of Bergamo, during a congress devoted to the Italian music theatre in the postwar years. At the same time he also studied music, earning a degree in Piano in 1984 and another in Composition in 1989 at the "G. Verdi" Conservatory in Milan, studying first with Pippo Molino and later with Azio Corghi. He subsequently earned a diploma from the two-year advanced program in Composition taught by Franco Donatoni at the Santa Cecilia Academy of Rome, where he won a S.I.A.E. fellowship; he also took advanced courses with Azio Corghi and György Ligeti and in 1995 was chosen to attend a Summer workshop organized by IRCAM and dedicated to electronic music. Colombo Taccani's music has won awards and honorable mentions in competitions of both national and international scope, has been presented in several concert seasons and music Festivals all around the world, has been broadcast by many national radios and is published by Edizioni Suvini Zerboni of Milan. Nine of his compositions are featured on this new recording.

“Simone Piraino’s music is like a sea, the sea of Sicily: his compositions are on a journey in which music is the center of a quest for light and spirituality. In each composition of this work, we can perceive willingness to evoke the destiny of remote times, partly lost, made even more contemporary by the strength of memory that rises powerfully, creating refractions and reverberations with our time. As when picking petals from a flower, the ensemble grows smaller and smaller, from a quintetto to a solo piano. Twelve compositions that light up progressively like light bulbs, like a constellation of lights. Intimate chants, melodies and harmonic structures flow continuously. The strength of Simone Piraino’s music lies in the evocation of the feelings and of the spirit: the musical figures develop, variate and regenerate like incorporeal intermediaries, like lights in motion. Beams of sounds seem to come from far-distant eras and across time. Poetry that becomes sound by distilling impulses and senses. The formal neatness and balance in the conduct of the lines that overlap in fabrics of harmonies and polyphonies create a continuous rising of ecstatic chants. When the listening is over, we are left with the feeling of being suspended with only the sky and the sea all around. Far away, a chant passes through everything as the moon is listening.” (Marco Betta)

The pieces composed by Matteo Rigotti and presented on this album are intended for different instruments and offer the opportunity to explore and learn about the varied compositional world of the author. The instrumental variety is rich and always different. Only in Q and Q2, the instrument is the same: the clarinet. However, in this specific case, the two pieces seem to be two moments of the same thought. The second one appears indeed as an extension of the first one, almost a "reaction" to it, creating a narration that transversely joins two tracks, distinct in the album, in a "before" and a "later". In all the other pieces the situation appears limited to the piece itself which becomes a different place each time, a time and a space in which numerous gestures happen. This means that, within each of these "microworlds", sound research and experimentation paths start by taking advantage of both the possibilities that the instrument offers and, in ensemble pieces, the possible result from the interactions between the instruments.

Nicola Sani does not sterilize art music in a smug, celibate stylistic game with the risk of marginalizing it, in the context of global reception, as an expression of a wealthy minority of the western white bourgeoisie. He outlines a possible contemporary humanism, in which the creative relationship with technology proves to be necessary and fertile, not submissive or idolatrous. It invites you to remember that, in the history of music, the highest moments came when the creators climbed the crest of the wave of the contemporary thought, confronting it, whether it expressed utopias or crisis, despair or hope. Finally, the compositions collected in this CD invite you to rethink and remodel the listening spaces. This music crosses over, goes beyond mere confines. Composers, performers and institutions cannot escape this challenge again, as if it were not their problem. It is, and Tempus fugit.

“Excellent, outstanding, exemplary;” “conforming to the most perfect models;” “having a singular purity of lines;” “traditional.” These are the various meanings, according to the Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, of the term “classic.” From all these points of view, Marco Quagliarini is a classic. Certainly, his music is traditional in the sense that Quagliarini believes in music in the “classic” sense of the instrumental tradition – as a means to express one’s thoughts, even the most complex, just like the Viennese classics, of the first and second school. His music surely has points of reference; namely, the classics, that is to say the examples that have been chosen to form a small fleet of excellent models from years of musical history. The result is classic in the sense of formal clarity, of extreme certitude of the ideas and the way of presenting them, in the alternation between horizontal lines and solid harmony. Of purity. Of technique (exemplary and controlled). And also the absence of compromises.

Emiliano Turazzi leads us in these three works into an “existential” condition in which music takes place in more or less ample time strings for which the exercise of memory, the “posthumous” listening, would be partly difficult, but partly also superfluous. Turazzi’s music exists in the moment in which it exists. In these three pieces one has the clear sensation that air is converted into time, time into objects, into agglomerates always subtly varied, defined in the smallest folds that cannot really be experienced– except at the moment of their manifestation and their “hitting us”. The sensation of living in these strings of sound-existence also persists in the recording, in the mechanical reproduction that makes us lose the spatial dimension and the unrepeatable experience of the moment, but that also induces us to live every single sound, every subtlety, and every quality of matter without too much having a final, global “meaning” in mind.

The first half of the XVIII century witnessed the triumph of the harpsichord. The 1685 generation gave a solid contribution to the development of the proceeding: this was the year when Bach, Händel and Scarlatti were born. A remarkable generation, along with the composers of the French court such as Couperin and, in the following years, Rameau. But, in addition, other minor authors must be mentioned. While most of the anthologies quoted Fisher, Fiocco, Daquin and Balbastre, some of the minor composers have been forgotten for many decades. Nowadays such an incomplete review would not go unnoticed. Therefore, we want to start mentioning an unrevealed personality: J. N. Pancrace Royer (1705 - 1755), author of the Premier livre de pièces de clavecin. His name represents an unprecedented success for the fine art of the harpsichord in the first half of the XVIII century. Its mastery, fully equal to the art of Rameau, is still to be entirely recognized and appreciated. The dualism between the two authors, Royer and Rameau, is detectable at several points of their careers. Here we want to mention the Marche des Persans by Rameau, followed by the outstanding La Marche des Scythes. This is the historical background that the present work, interpreted by Angelica Selmo, wants to consolidate. The aim is to bring attention to the compositions of Royer after many years of under evaluation.

“I literally embraced the harp at the age of eleven after studying piano. I had been nurtured on music since I was born, for in my family music reigned supreme. It was a choice dictated by circumstances but intrinsically natural, as the piano and the harp have certain characteristics in common. This album, therefore, tells my tale as a harpist, beginning with a comparison of the most well-known composers, from whence it’s fair to say I then followed other paths, although remaining very attached to the extraordinary and expressive virtuoso lessons that they embody.” (Simona Marchesi) Simona Marchesi is a passionate and diverse artist who is particularly interested in developing the next generation of harpists. In addition to teaching, she performs both as a soloist and alongside prestigious international ensembles.

"...and even when Ginastera gives you one piece with a close family likeness to another, you listen with a sense of renewal thnks to performances by Mariangela Vacatello of a super zest, brio and imaginative scope... she has technique in spades, making her a front-runner with Argerich's legendary live Three Argentinian Dances... no praise could be high enough for Vacatello's achievement." (Gramophone 2016) In the two decades since her professional debut, pianist Mariangela Vacatell has brought her virtuosity, passionate interpretations, and magnificent musicality to diverse global audiences. She is recognized worldwide as an exceptionally gifted artist, reflected in the numerous awards and effusive reviews she has received for both her live performances and recordings for Brilliant Classics. Her performances are regulary broadcasted by prestigious Radio Stations worldwide. The Second Prize at the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in 1999 at the age of 17 catapulted her towards an international career as a soloist, performing at Wigmore Hall, Bridgewater Hall in Machester, Walt Disney Hall, Montpellier Festival, Carneige Weill Hall in NYC, Oriental Centre in Shanghaj, She has since appeared regularly with such prominent orchestras as the Teatro all Scala Philharmonic Orchestra, Accademia Nazonale Santa Cecilia in Rome, RAI Turin, Lithuanian Symphony, Stutgerter Philharmonics, Norwestdeutsche Orchestra, Johannesburg Philarmonic, "Hayd" in Trento and Bolzano, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Zagreb Philhamonia, Pannon Philharmonic, Moldavian Radio Television, RSI Orchestra, Belgrade Philarmonic Orchestra, Hartford Symphony, Colorado Spring Symphony Orchestra, Prague Chamber Orchestra.

“Memory is the matrix of Philippe Hersant's musical language. Attracted even to obsession with the elements of the past and entering the flow of the tonality history, its emancipation from the classical form nevertheless reveals not only its distance from the heritage, but even better his creative vein. Notwithstanding his fascination with the past, he welcomes musical languages of other horizons such as those coming from Japanese and African culture and which contribute strongly to forge its musical identity. And it is probably not entirely by chance that the flute, one of the instruments most intimately inscribed in human history and of universal dimension, stakes out the work of Philippe Hersant. The identity of this full of history instrument however finding its place in our century, mirrors with almost natural evidence that of the music of Philippe Hersant. It flourishes here in a wide range from the solo form to chamber music to male choir.” (Jean-Luc Menet)

After Paganini and his Caprices (as well as his concerts, obviously for the soloist part), the violin wasn’t the same anymore: Paganini, besides launching an original new way of performing the violin, operated a synthesis between the Ancient and the Romantic styles, going beyond and anticipating our days as well. He started with the musical instruments he knew, like the mandolin (which he studied in his youth), the guitar (the six-chord one, which he never left), the grand viola (the five-chord instrument he had specially made) and the violin. He chose the mixed form of the Caprice, so that he could be free to use counterpoint, harmony, singability (from his knowledge of the Opera), imitation and, most importantly, rhythmic and tonal variety. From the Caprices we understand Paganini’s familiarity with Rossini, his deep knowledge of the Opera and of its world, and with Berlioz. Many Caprices take inspiration from a range of orchestral sounds (the flute, the horns, the fanfare) or imitate the mandolin. From a melody perspective, the Caprices astonish for their uniqueness and beauty. From the point of view of the harmonics, they mesmerize: they are masterpieces and Schumann was among the first ones to recognize them as such.

In his five Stanze, composed in 2016, Mauro Montalbetti openly declares his special affinity with the author of Boléro, placing him within the select circle of his greatest loves. What strikes one most is the refined and yet frank way in which this devotion is expressed in the music and is revealed in the writing, in the way it unfolds majestically, so to speak, across the staves and the pages. In other words one is struck not only audibly but also visually by the limpidity with which the five pieces pay homage to their source, namely Maurice Ravel’s Miroirs. Miroirs, that is mirrors. A title that at the time – we are in 1905 – encapsulated the genius with which the composer played with the ambiguities of symbolist and impressionist poetics, of the eternal torments concerning the expressive and semantic qualities of music. Because the mirror reflects, represents, but also deceives, creates illusions.

This recording contains Francesco Pennisi’s (Acireale, 11 February 1934 – Rome, 8 October 2000) complete works for solo piano, according to the latest catalogue. The piano compositions have rarely been performed and studied even less frequently, for many reasons. They are concise and liberated at first sight from a serious commitment to composition and open to ‘other’ dimensions compared to his main production, since they unfold playfully, almost with nostalgia. This recording not only has the merit of restoring Pennisi’s piano repertoire to its full entirety for the first time, but it illustrates its due importance in the composer’s active pursuit of an underlying texture of echoes, sounds, and resonances. Pennisi’s piano pieces were composed in the period between the late 50s (Sei pezzi brevi, 1957) and the year 2000 (Na nuttata tanta ranni. Un canto natalizio etneo trascritto dalla memoria, 2000). Pennisi is one of the leading exponents of Roman avant-garde music in the period following the Second World War. Initially selftaught, influenced by Dallapiccola’s music, Pennisi moved to Rome to study composition with Robert W. Mann, while attending university. He was one of the founders of the Nuova Consonanza Association, which is still a reference point for the promotion of new Italian music. Not only was Pennisi a composer, but he was also a graphic artist, painter, set designer and writer.

The saxophone quartet is an incredibly homogeneous and flexible grouping, which was conceived more than 100 years ago, but little used outside jazz and is thus still to be explored. The Italian saxophone school has recently blossomed from the French school, and the technical quality of instrumentalists has much grown. In the meantime, in all of Europe an original chamber repertoire has begun to form around the various formations possible with this instrument. It was precisely the difficulty of combining something else with this composition that alerted me to a certain lack of identity in the saxophone quartet, since it cannot draw, as all other instruments can, on its own Pre-Romantic repertory. Therefore I have tried to make a real contribution to resolving the problem of repertory, in my view central, and I have thought not so much of the individual compositions as of cycles. In fact, I have conceived two programme halves, in which I have included some encore pieces. These half concertos to me seem ideal to approach as one wishes a contemporary goal, both mixed and unitary. The first proposal is called Pagine, an open anthology on different centuries and genres. In combining the pieces I have avoided stereotypes; in fact, I have aimed at the inexhaustible modernity of the masters of the past, which today it is fashionable shamelessly to ignore. I have never claimed to have said everything and I leave space for my friends, to whose wedding with the saxophone my efforts are dedicated. - Salvatore Sciarrino

Pietro Lazazzara writes: "The work My Art of Gypsy Jazz consists of 14 compositions. 11 pieces are originals that have never been published, while 3 pieces were created by [Romani] music composers. The title of the album fully expresses my vision of traditional "Gipsy Jazz" and it's possible projection into the future. My academic career as a classical guitarist, my Jazz Music and Flamenco studies have contributed to the creation of my compositions. "

He began studying classical guitar at the age of twelve and then he graduated brilliantly at "Tito Schipa" Conservatory in Lecce. In 2008 he obtained, with the highest grades and honors, the Academic Diploma of Specialist level II in Musical Disciplines, classical guitar, at the Conservatory "E. R. Duni" of Matera where he studied under the guidance of Master Clemente Giusto. Also at the Conservatory "E. R. Duni" in Matera he received his degree in Jazz Music in 2009. With the highest marks, he obtained the advanced course in classical guitar at the "Roman Guitar Academy" under the guidance of Maestro Domenico Ascione, an experience that led him to perform in several Recitals in the Capital city.