faccio cose, vedo gente

Una giornata come tante, dove ancora mezzo malato decido di andare dal medico, a prendere i certificati per il lavoro. E tanto che sono in giro - mi dico - facciamo un salto alla tre, per dare l’addio a wind. E visto che nei dintorni di piazzale Lima c’è una libreria Feltrinelli, facciamoci un giro anche lì.

Poi, il miracolo. Distrattamente, tra altri CD a basso prezzo, ecco emergere una recente ristampa - di cui non ero al corrente - di Energie, uno dei CD capolavoro di Giuni Russo, voce unica e straordinaria, personaggio controcorrente e troppo presto dimenticata interprete di una musica italiana meno leggera delle altre. Nonché - ma questo lo lascerei all’acuto lettore - tra le mie favorite.

Il CD contiene i brani dell’LP originale:

1. Lettera al governatore della Libia
2. Il sole di Austerlitz
3. Crisi metropolitana
4. Atmosfera
5. L’addio
6. Una vipera sarò
7. L’attesa
8. Tappeto volante

più tre bonus tracks:

1. Un’estate al mare
2. Bing Bang Being
3. Adeste Fideles

Possedevo già tutte queste canzoni, ma riaverle nella loro sede (quasi) originale mi offriva l’occasione di pagare il mio tributo ad un’artista che ho sempre stimato, amato, ricercato, e - mio malgrado - mancato di poco.

Quante volte mi sono commosso davanti alla delicatezza amorosa di “Atmosfera”! Quante volte ho sorriso ai fonemi sardi di “Una vipera sarò”! O mi sono trovato in mezzo ad una “Crisi Metropolitana”, sentendo il peso di quel Tempo che lasciava andare gli idrogeni nel mare dell’Oblio…

Technorati Tags: italia, Musica

Because of this!

(A typical example of italian creativity)

My vanity. I couldn’t resist the temptation of uploading the video of me conducting Beethoven on youtube.com. It’s sometimes broken but still was a great experience.

Coriolanus is a Roman aristocrat well respected in the Roman Senate for its action in capturing the Volscian town of Corioli. He was permanently banished from Rome upon being convicted on charges of misappropriation of public funds. He then turned against Rome making allegiance with the same Volscians he had defeated and attacking Rome.

In the chronicles by the roman writers, Coriolanus, in front of the city of Rome with the Volscians troops, is reached by his mother and his wife imploring to change his mind. Coriolanus then withdraws the troops and moves to the city of Antium.

In the adaptation of Heinrich von Collins, the one for which Beethoven wrote this Ouverture, Coriolanus changes his mind in front of his mother’s tears. Thereafter he cannot accept the idea of being a betrayer of his city and commits suicide.

The Romantic version Coriolanus is then a controversial and passionate hero, in the middle between the impulsive hate against his compatriots, the immortal love for his relatives and a strong belief in values mixed with the sense of guilt.

no, it wasn’t fun… when yesterday, with lovely Emily i went to Dave’s Coffe House and we had a tasty oreo cheesecake and there is this grand piano, there, i was eating and dreaming of playing it

cake was over and i brought myself to the piano but hey, it’s about six months i’m out of practice. i started with a very slow preambulum from the fifth partita of bach to realize how rusty i was… but there’s no way to get the rust away without keeping playing

i tried everything i had in mind, but my memory was a little out of order as well, and besides the very usual symphony from the second partita - bach again - everything was a little… chopped, and chunk of music here and there. to be honest, i did the whole first movement of the sonata op. 79 of beethoven.

anyways, after forty minutes the guy from the counter comes to me.

him: you’re a very good pianist but i’m sorry i have to ask you to stop

me: oh are you guys closing?

him: no, it’s just people are bored of piano

dammit! dammit! dammit!. i look around me, the desert. there is no f**king soul around me, except for my lovely Emily that claps at every chunk. did i make anybody run away? and this awful barista just fires me like that? that was mean

the truth: for decades (well no more than two since i’m 28) people asked me to play the stupidest things at the piano. they never enjoyed the music that i like. they want ridicule motives that they played on the piano when they were ten years old and yet awful pianists. i’m sick of that!!! i’m damn sick! i never made any exception to this and i never will, ok? go ask your silly friend to play something silly. my motto is:

better to play badly some good music than to play good some popular shit

Technorati Tags: Facts, lang:en, Nasty, Usa

this is the version of the seventh symphony of beethoven you should own if you have a musical taste: precision, passion, breath they’re all in here.

it’s just five bucks (used & new) so save two starbucks coffees and you can delight yourself for much longer

and if you never listened to the seventh at least once in your life, you’re missing something big; think twice before giving musical advice!

Technorati Tags: lang:en, Music