Kumi Uchimoto - Homage to Franco (Japanese and Italian Contemporary Piano Works Inspired by Franco Donatoni) (2021)

On August 17th, 2000, Franco Donatoni passed away. This CD is an affectionate homage to our “artistic father” but also to a friend we used to see in our youthful years, in the numerous Italian Academies and at the University of Bologna. In the Eighties and in the following years, it was normal for composers from all over the world to ask him for advice, and this happened to the five Italian composers represented in this CD and also to Hisatome: they happened to be together for two years, working in Via della Conciliazione in Rome, where the master courses for postgraduates of the Academy of Santa Cecilia took place. Surrounded by the fog of his cigar, or dining together at Borgo Pio, there always were constructive discussions on composition, which eventually led all of us to write and also to teach at various Conservatories. The dissemination of Donatoni’s thought later infected our Japanese colleagues represented in this CD, since he went frequently to Japan as an invited professor at the University of Tokyo, in order to teach and transmit his thought there just as he did in Italy. The idea for this project came to me when, as I happened to be teaching at the Aichi University of Nagoya and to be working with the students of my colleagues Yamamoto, Hisatome, Narimoto and Kobayashi, I felt myself very sympathetic to their languages and I discovered with great pleasure that Franco Donatoni’s music was among their compositional models. The discovery of these common roots led me to think how gratifying it could be to remember him from West to East, with a language which is not substantially different. After twenty years, our affection for the Maestro has not changed; rather it increased in all of us, because, with time, we developed a greater awareness about his teaching. Remembering him is a pleasure and an honour, because this brings us back to a unique season of our lives and also of the Italian musical culture.

By Gian Paolo Luppi