Piazzolla, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Bettinelli: the fil rouge that unites this apparently anomalous choice is to be sought, first and foremost, in the original character of the repertoire, composed purposely for two guitars, in other words conceived especially for this combination and for its ‘double’ and ‘specular’ sonic possibilities. This exploration of the sonic universe allows us to rediscover a repertoire whose leitmotiv can be found in the element of dialogue, in the capacity of the guitar to become ‘other’ than itself by reverberating in its own identity: the mirror image that reflects a vision that is identical and yet filtered by a reality, that captures the essence of the guitar duo as an extended form of the solo guitar, a vehicle of complementarity and of expression amplified in its sonic potential. But that is not all: the choice of three composers whose expressive forms differ widely from each other, in their genesis, in their syntax and realization, can nonetheless find coherence in their common search for a balance between the voices, in the crystalline clarity of the conduct of the parts and in the sonic representation of a singular unitarity, in an accomplished identity of intent.

Mutation is not a simple transformation. To change means losing yourself to discover yourself differently. Everything around us is subject to this process- the seasons, the people, our feelings ...What changes in this work is not only the sound of the saxophone which like a new Ulysses, ventures between ports and unexplored countries, continually rediscovering its nature, but also the compositions themselves, which although belonging to a more or less recent past, are returned as new, sometimes immersed in a sparkling light, sometimes in a deep shadow. The listener follows this journey, in turn changing his perceptions by opening doors so far only imagined. At the heart of this work are the three mutations taken from S. Sciarrino's work for flute [tracks 1-3]. This version, by the same performer of the album, was based from the need to create with the music of this composer, who in the past has already crossed his path with that of the saxophone giving life to compositions such as La bocca, i piedi e il suono, Pagine and many others, a more intimate relationship. The collaboration between the performer and the composer has allowed us to give these pieces a different perspective which, while not denying its original model, finds its own expressive direction and multidimensional physiognomy.

“I am very interested in the approach of Dan Flavin, Sol Lewitt, François Morellet, Ellsworth Kelly, Doug Wheeler … I am touched by the purity of the forms of their works, by their false pure appearance. In detail, there is chaos, a false symmetry, a disorganization. My music has not a function to represent these works. It is just their geometrical aspect which I incorporate, a vibratory geometry. Unstable edges give this vibration as that of a cell moving in the space. It is the vibration which gives this unstable shape but it moves in a fixed structure: it is a simple metaphor of the organic cell. It is not completely a coincidence if I am attracted by visual forms proposing courses. The labyrinthic shape is a musical source of inspiration for me as well as the kaleidoscopic shape and moreover my way of writing the music brings me towards labyrinthic forms.” (Ricardo Nillni) Born in 1960 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Ricardo Nillni studied composition at the Faculty of Arts and Musical Sciences in Buenos Aires where he obtained in 1985 the license and the higher diploma of composition. At the same time, he studied contemporary techniques with Francisco Kropfl and worked at the Electroacoustic Music Center of Buenos Aires (LIPM).

The title of the fifth of the pieces by Vittorio Montalti (Rome 1984) featured on this release refers, as we will see, to a book by Georges Perec; it is dated 2013 and is therefore from the same year as his first theatrical work, performed at the Biennale Musica di Venezia, L’arte e la maniera di af-frontare il proprio capo per chiedergli un aumento. The long title corresponds literally to the French title of a book by Perec from 1968, which was published posthumously. The titles of the four instrumental works recorded on this album all contain an extramusical reference, whose connotations are nevertheless always expressed in abstract terms, not descriptive. At the centre of the release we find a piece for solo voice, Bestiaire Remix from 2014, which is a re-elaboration of two previous works, Bestiaire and Bestiaire II in which some texts from a collection of poems by Apollinaire, illustrated by Raoul Dufy (1910), have been fragmented by “breaking up the words and syllables” (one of the procedures typical of Montalti’s anti-naturalist research on vocality). “In Bestiaire Remix – the composer comments – I cut out some passages from the pre-existing texts and reassembled them almost like a movie director might do. My idea is to be able to rebuild a unity starting from the fragment and linking elements that are totally heterogeneous”

“In front of a score, the performer - as in a play of shadows - is always and unfailingly faced with difficult interpretative choices between appearance, reality and imagination. Domenico Scarlatti’s language in its simplicity and immediacy goes beyond the direct meaning of notation. What should be read according to convention for other authors, in Scarlatti’s pieces a potential changeable meaning is to be sought, never exactly the same. Everything becomes more understandable if one thinks of Scarlatti as a composer who performed his sonata before noting it on paper. The development and the definitive draft have always perfectly blended the area of improvised execution and formal completeness. The limits of notation, almost perfect for those times, lie in the performer’s profound understanding of the author style and of the relationship intertwining structural rigor, stylistic-formal perfection, and free inventiveness. For this to occur, the musician-performer’s intuition is to transcend and make the written signs meaningful and make them his or her own. Only in this way can the non-writable, the unsaid but thought of, the changeable meaning, emerge as well as the allusion to and participation in the vast panorama of human emotions. In my interpretation of Scarlatti sonatas and of his imitators and epigones on the album, I intended to make these hidden elements audible, palpable: its effects and affects, which are rich, varied and manifold.” (Amaya Fernández Pozuelo)

The idea for this recording was born at the meeting of two Italian musicians. Ivan Mancinelli, a distinguished percussionist and Domenico Cagnacci, timpanist for the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento, celebrate their mutual passion for the music of Ney Rosauro, a top-notch performing artist and composer of international ranking. Rosauro’s catalogue features two absolute “classics”: the Concerto for Marimba No. 1 Op 34, which originated in 1986, and the Concerto for Timpani Op. 37, composed in 2003. Mancinelli and Cagnacci came up with the idea of adding another masterpiece to the sizeable catalogue of Rosauro’s compositions for percussion and orchestra. Accordingly, they proposed the concept of a score that would include both marimba as well as timpani, to the Haydn Orchestra. The orchestra board did not hesitate to add the Double Concerto for Marimba and Timpani to the long list of commissioned works, following a tradition they have cherished for more than sixty years as a renowned cultural institution. The concerto was written by Ney Rosauro during the first months of 2017 and saw its world premiere in the performance on June 5, 2018 at Bolzano, with Mancinelli and Cagnacci as soloists and George Pehlivanian as conductor. A live recording was made of the hugely successful premiere, which again gave birth to the idea of adding two more popular compositions for solo instruments and a lean version for string orchestra to this monumental recording.

It is impossible to talk about Sviatoslav Richter and his mastery of the piano in normal terms of speech. Each time an article on him comes out, it is liberally dotted with superlatives, reminiscent of an ecclesiastical way of speech fathered by the church and which now seems to be going out of fashion. Both critics and concert-goers associate Richter's name with expressions of wonder and enthusiasm. It would therefore seem that Richter appeals to the soul of his listeners rather than to their intellect. The present release features Grieg’s Lyryske Stikke and Debussy’s Six preludes, recorded live in Athens, Kozani, and Cosenza

There is no doubt about it: György Kurtag is the greatest composer of our time. And this is not only thanks to his music, intensely sharp and exciting, written out of a pure and austere interior necessity. His figure as a man and artist, as well as musician, his ability to be constantly aloof from any fashions or cultural trends, his total lack of any wanting to be (because those who are don’t need to want to be) endured in a simplicity equaled only by his intransigence and depth, all this endows him with an absolute ethical, human and musical superiority, a model for all to follow.

“L’Ame et la Danse” (1921) is the title of a fictitious dialogue where the French poet Paul Valéry portrays Life as a dancing woman. Valéry, through an ethereal mixture of sound and sense, creates Music for a body in continuous vital transformation. The musical path presented in my latest recording aims at exploring a kaleidoscope of sounds that belongs to extremely diverse musical and poetic worlds. Some of the pieces interpreted do not have a close thematic connection with dance instead they have a relationship with the soul. After all, this essential component of the human being has an inner and silent rhythm, an inextinguishable movement. The Dialogue between Couperin’s musical personifications and their twofold essence at times is ironic and stylised as in Castiglioni, Benjamin, Filidei and Pesson and at times is oneiric, as in Chopin, Busoni and Faurè. This imaginary journey is framed by Ravel’s sublime reinterpretations of the Pavane and Waltz genres, summarized by Henri de Régnier’s epigraph: “Le plaisir délicieux et toujours nouveau d’une occupation inutile”.

This moving project is derived from the research that Delilah Sharon Iska Gutman carried out on the poetics and artistic path of Amedeo Modigliani, the Italian man with Jewish roots who collected the dream of Love. It is a tribute to Dedò (as the close friends of Modigliani called him) and to Jeanne Hèbuterne, his inspirer and life partner. Entitled The Dream, the work is a sort of imaginary theater, conceived and realized on the libretto Jeanne e Dedò by Manrico Murzi, and it is for ‘voice of memory’ for soprano, electronics and piano. From this description, we unwrap the poetic foundation of this work surrounding both the ‘dreamlike’ moments and reminiscent moments. The story is narrated and commented on by the voices whose song intertwine with an articulated piano part, while the electronics have the task of giving the tint, as Giuseppe Verdi would have said, thus creating the setting for the imaginary scenes. A high, very intense participatory emotional climate is shaped out.

“Salzedo has done for the harp what Bach did for the organ, Paganini for the violin, Chopin, Liszt and Debussy for the piano, which is to enlarge the technical and expressive potentialities of their chosen instruments”. These are the words of the great conductor Leopold Stokowski when writing about the figure of Carlos Salzedo, who was born in Arcachon, France, in 1885 and died in Waterville, U.S.A., in 1961. A tireless organizer, performer of the harp and piano, and conductor, Salzedo was the co-founder with Edgard Varèse of the International Composers’ Guild (active from 1921 to 1927). He was also a member of the International Society for Contemporary Music and of countless other prestigious associations: his desire to promote the music of new composers and to inform the public remained constant throughout his whole life. The programme presented here provides the opportunity to couple the broad soundscape of the Variations sur un theme dans le style ancien (1911), marked by a virtuosity aimed at exhibiting all the resources offered by the instrument, with a more intimate collection like the Five Preludes of 1917, then concluding with the Suite of Eight Dances composed in 1943.

The album Mask collects the fascinating compositions for marimba by five Italian authors (Fabio Nieder, Pierluigi Billone, Salvatore Sciarrino, Franco Donatoni and Dario Savron), entrusted to the brilliant and skillful execution of Dario Savron, who is here present in the dual role of composer and performer. Dario Savron has performed as a soloist across Europe and North America, and alongside chamber ensembles and orchestras including the Royal Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Radio Chamber Orchestra of Holland, and the Opera House of Rome. In recent years, he has won several international competitions for his performances and compositions. He has recorded the music of C. Bolling and A. Piazzolla with the Ensemble Evasion for television and radio productions, and has appeared in several music festivals in Canada, the United States, and Italy. He has also premiered several pieces by well known composers. He is currently professor of percussion at the Conservatory N. Piccinni in Bari.

Sviatoslav Richter was the first pianist of international repute to create in his repertoire a reasonable balance between Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, the quadrumvirate of the Wiener klassik. No other concert pianist has ever included in his repertoire such a conspicuous number of Viennese compositions, nor gone back so far (the early Haydn sonatas are from the 1760s) in his research info the Wiener klassik.Richter is far more interested in the pre-Beethoven aspects of Haydn than in the pre- Schubert ones. The use of the terms “pre-Beethoven” and “pre-Schubert” does not signify that such aspects are exclusive to these composers, merely that we are used to identifying them thus, despite the fact that they are the foundations of the Viennese classical period. Richter has rarely performed Schubert since 1986 - although his interpretation of the Sonata in G major astounds and stupefies those who hear it - and equally rarely performs Mozart; only the Fantasia K475, the Sonata K457 and the Sonata K 533/494. His interpretation of the drama of the Fantasia and the Sonata K457 draws parallels with the darkest moments in Don Giovanni.

Among the numerous musical works by Francesco Geminiani, renowned virtuoso, theorist and versatile composer, the transcriptions for harpsichord are practically unknown. They were transcribed from his own instrumental compositions: Concerti Grossi, Sonatas for Violin and Bass, Sonatas for Cello and Bass as well as Metodi for Violin and for Guitar. This harpsichord production usually escapes the musical writers and critics who deal with this musicial but always in a fragmentary form. Geminiani is rarely mentioned and if so, it's hurried and superficial. The 1762 compositions here are collected into short suites formed of sonata movements originally intended for strings or guitar, they are characterized by a great variety of forms and facets, they range from serious compositions to movements typical of the Baroque sonata.

Andrea Monarda showcases the new view of contemporary guitar music on this new release from Stradivarius. Monarda is forever committed to promoting new repertorie for guitar and working with renowned international composers such as Colombo Taccani, Gaslini, Bosco, Levin and Solbiati.