Listen to the concert on our YouTube Channel.
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Dolce ricominciamento
Sweet rebeginning
Duo Alterno
Tiziana Scandaletti soprano
Riccardo Piacentini composer and pianist
This concert program, conceived by the Duo Alterno thanks to the Embassy of Italy in Kuala Lumpur and the Italian Cultural Institutes in Jakarta and Hong Kong, wants to be a good omen in a difficult moment of health and cultural emergency. Tiziana and Riccardo, the Duo Alterno, have always been committed to the promotion in the world of Italian vocal chamber repertoire of the twentieth century and today. This performance, recorded on June 20th 2020 in the iper-acoustic Cappella dell’Oratorio San Filippo Neri in Turin, opens symbolically with a piece of Luciano Berio titled Dolce cominciamento(Sweet rebeginning) and ends with the most important songs cycle of Francesco Paolo Tosti’s last years, Consolazione (Consolation) on texts by Gabriele D’Annunzio. The program also includes four other Italian composers, from Giacomo Puccini (with two rare piano jewels) to Ennio Morricone (with an amazing works dedicated to the Duo Alterno!), to Marcello Panni (Roman composer and orchestra conductor that has just turned eighty writing an amazing Melodrama for the Duo Alterno), and finally to Riccardo Piacentini (with a new series of Foto-songs recorded and “com-posed” in Turin – Italy in the time of coronavirus with the voices of Tiziana and Riccardo). A highly theatrical concert program, sweet and emotionally communicative, swinging between cultured and popular, a theatrical approach and a chamber music approach… An original and true surprise!
PROGRAMME:
Luciano Berio
Quattro canzoni popolari [Four popular songs] (1947/71)
– Dolce cominciamento [Sweet rebeginning]
– La donna ideale [The ideal woman]
– Avendo gran disìo [Having much desire]
– Il ballo [The dance]
(Texts by Jacopo da Lentini [3] and Anonymous [1, 2, 4]).
Riccardo Piacentini
– FOTO-SONG n.1 in the days of Coronavirus (2020)
For “foto-suoni” recorded and “com-posed” in Turin – Italy with improvisations at the piano.
First world performance.
Ennio Morricone
– Tango un po’ caricaturale [Slightly caricatured tango] (1970, vers. 2018)
From “Investigation of a citizen above all suspicions”.
New version for voice and piano dedicated to the Duo Alterno.
Giacomo Puccini
– Piccolo tango [Little tango] (1910)
– Piccolo valzer [Little valzer] (1894)
For piano (original versions).
Marcello Panni
– Melodrama (1976, rev. 2015/2020)
Two melodies for voice and/or at the piano:
1. “Portez-moi… ma vie a son secret” [Carry me … my life has its secret]
2. “dem Busen ein Seufzer heb!” [Lift a sigh from her breast]
From Astronaut Notebooks on multilingual texts of the composer.
Dedicated to the Duo Alterno.
First world performance in the complete version.
Riccardo Piacentini
– FOTO-SONG n.2 in the days of Coronavirus (2020)
For “foto-suoni” recorded and “com-posed” in Turin – Italy, with improvisations at the piano.
First world performance.
Francesco Paolo Tosti
Consolazione (1916)
– Non pianger più [Don’t cry anymore]
– Ancora qualche rosa è ne’ rosai… [Still some roses are in the rosebushes]
– Tanto accadrà, ben che non sia d’aprile… [Anyway it will happen, though not in April]
– Perché ti neghi con lo sguardo stanco? [Why do you deny yourself with a tired look?]
– Sogna, sogna, mia cara anima! [Dream, dream, my dear soul!]
– Settembre (di’: l’anima tua m’ascolta?…) [September [say: does your soul listen to me?…]
– Quanto ha dormito, il cembalo!… [How much the harpsichord slept!…]
– Mentre che fra le tende scolorate… [While among the discolored curtains…]
(Texts by Gabriele D’Annunzio).
The Duo Alterno from Turin-Italy is considered one of the most significant reference points in the vocal-piano repertoire ranging from the early 20th century to today. With its performances of over than 70 Italian living composers, since its debut in Vancouver in 1997 it has taken the best Italian music to more than 50 countries of 5 continents. Defined by The Washington Post as the Duo “with a big voice and a fine sense of comedic timing” and as “high theatrics Duo with a strong personality” by Los Angeles Times, “The Duo that gives voice (and piano) to the Italian twentieth century” by la Repubblica of Rome, “The wonderous Duo” by the Sub-Saharan Informer of Addis Abeba and as “an electric experience” by the Hindu of Chennai, the Duo Alterno has published 23 CDs among which 5 monographies with world-first recordings of Giorgio Federico Ghedini, Alfredo Casella, Franco Alfano (Nuova Era, 2000/4) and Francesco Paolo Tosti (Urania Records, 2017, on original Erard piano), plus La voce crepuscolare (Stradivarius, 2010) and the wide collection in 6 volumes La voce contemporanea in Italia (Stradivarius, 2005/14, with pieces by Abbado, Andrini, Battistelli, Berberian, Berio, Bortolotti, Bosco, Bussotti, Cage, Cattaneo, Clementi, Colla, Corghi, Dallapiccola, Donatoni, Esposito, Ferrero, Gentile, Giuliano, Guarnieri, Landini, Lombardi, Maderna, Manzoni, Morricone, Mosso, Nono, Petrassi, Pinelli, Scelsi, Sciarrino, Solbiati, Vacchi).
Their experimental research into “foto-musica con foto-suoni” has led to nine CDs of soundtracks for museums: Musiche della Reggia di Venaria Reale, Mina miniera mia, Treni persi, Arie condizionate, Shahar (Curci, 1999) and Musiche dell’aurora.
The Duo has performed all around the world, such as in Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Korea, Denmark, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Guatemala, Holland, Hong Kong, Hungary, Japan, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Mongolia, Myanmar, Norway, Peru, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, the United States, the United Kingdom, Uzbekistan, Venezuela.
They have also given numerous performances in Italy, from MiTo Festival in Turin to Società dei Concerti and I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, I Teatri di Reggio Emilia, Accademia Filarmonica, Centro La Soffitta and Teatro Comunale in Bologna, GAMO in Florence, Società della Musica in Mantua, Festival Millemondi in Naples, Scelsi Festival in Palermo, Amici della Musica Festival in Pistoia, Nuova Consonanza Festival in Rome.
Currently Tiziana Scandaletti is professor of Vocal Chamber Music and Riccardo Piacentini professor of Composition at the Conservatory of Milan.