Marta Tacconi - Giancarlo Aquilanti: Oltreoceano (2025)
BAND/ARTIST: Marta Tacconi
- Title: Giancarlo Aquilanti: Oltreoceano
- Year Of Release: 2025
- Label: Da Vinci Classics
- Genre: Classical Piano
- Quality: flac lossless (tracks)
- Total Time: 00:56:16
- Total Size: 169 mb
- WebSite: Album Preview
Tracklist
01. Suite Americana: No. 1, Sunday evening in L.A.
02. Suite Americana: No. 2, Melodia
03. Suite Americana: No. 3, Valzer impazzito
04. Suite Americana: No. 4, Tango (dedicated to Alessandra Aquilanti for her 17th birthday)
05. Suite Americana: No. 5, Campanelle
06. Suite Americana: No. 6, Mese di maggio
07. Sonata for Piano: I. Adagio, Allegro mosso
08. Sonata for Piano: II. Melodia melanconica
09. Sonata for Piano: III. Scherzo
10. Sonata for Piano: IV. Fuga
11. Canti di Primavera: No. 1, .8 Maggio
12. Canti di Primavera: No. 2, Magia
13. Canti di Primavera: No. 3, Follie
From the black and white keys of the piano, the colors of the Atlantic Ocean emerge, transforming from a boundary into a bridge, a dream, an idea, and finally, a musical project: OLTREOCEANO. Entirely dedicated to the piano works of Giancarlo Aquilanti, an Italian composer and professor at Stanford University, OLTREOCEANO, by casting both a physical and metaphorical glance beyond the horizon line of the sea, promotes a union between tradition and innovation. Through an eclectic and surprising compositional style, a repertoire emerges that skillfully combines Italy and the “World,” roots and human experiences, with the intention of delivering a musical legacy rich in identity and transformation.
Too American in Italy and too Italian in America, Aquilanti could be described as a composer with two souls. Forty years ago, jazz, rock, improvisation, and electronic music burst into the life of a young musician living in Jesi, a town in central Italy, who was captivated by folk songs and opera melodies. It was the beginning of a personal and musical “battle” to reconcile, blend, and fuse two worlds.
But as a shrewd and passionate composer, skilled in balancing rationality, imagination, and irony, Aquilanti has turned the plurality and complexity of his life into his greatest asset. His dense and kaleidoscopic writing, shaped by a careful study of the great masters of the past, emerges—even when dedicated to a single instrument—as a dizzying framework that challenges both the performer and the listener to grasp all the nuances of a musical palette that reflects the author’s inner depth.
In life and in music, Giancarlo Aquilanti orchestrates, and whether he travels west or east, as evidenced by the “Suite Americana” with which the CD opens, he always journeys home. The six pieces that make up the Suite are part of a collection of about 30 compositions for piano written between 1999 and 2005. The collection, conceived similarly to Béla Bartók’s “Mikrokosmos,” is organized in a crescendo of duration and technical difficulty, but it is not to be considered as a didactic work: the pieces are intended for the concert hall and, almost in a descriptive manner, evoke moments, places, memories, and emotions. Thus, in the “Suite Americana,” we find the atmosphere of Los Angeles (“Sunday Evening in L.A.”), the nostalgia for Italy (“Melodia”), the wildness of a waltz (“Valzer Impazzito”), the intensity of a tango (“Tango”), the ringing of thousands of bells on the day of the “Festa della Scampanata di San Floriano,” celebrated in Jesi on May 4th (“Campanelle”), and finally, the enchantment of spring that intoxicates the senses (“Mese di Maggio”).
And the theme of spring, dear to the composer and recurrent in the titles of his works, comes to full fruition in the three “Canti di primavera” dedicated to the pianist Marta Tacconi. In fact, due to the etymological meaning of “Primavera,” from the Latin “vēr,” which traces back to the Sanskrit “vas,” meaning “to shine,” they could have also been titled “Canti di rinascita” (“Songs of Rebirth”). The season of flowers is here interpreted as a coming into the light, transformation, and transfiguration to a higher level of feeling and understanding.
“8 Maggio,” the pianist’s birth date, who shares Jesi roots with the composer, marks the moment when everything begins. It’s a symbolic title, both for the dedication it contains and for the multiple meanings of the number 8, universally considered the number of cosmic balance. The piece is structured in two contrasting parts: a passionate cantabile and a dancing rhythm.
“Magia,” the second piece of the triptych, hints at the words “incantesimo” (enchantment) or “sortilegio” (spell). In any case, it suggests “transformation.” Like “8 Maggio,” this piece begins on an upbeat, opening in a mysterious sonic aura—a dream, a fog of reason—that is illuminated after the introductory measures by a melody guiding both performer and listeners from the initial haze to a complex “swing” intertwined with a steady, measured rhythm. In the final coda, a powerful “più che fortissimo” (more than fortissimo) declares the complexity of a transformative energy that has carried the musical and human material so far from its starting point that there is no memory or return.
In the conclusion of the piece, “Follie,” a track written with a good dose of irony, it’s necessary to highlight the substantial difference between “madness” and “folly” in order to describe it accurately: while madness, being a sort of alteration of reality’s framework, remains complementary to it, folly is defined as a completely irrational and unpredictable state. This piece is exactly that: irrational and unpredictable. The musical material here can be likened to a flurry of confused thoughts. Rhythmic and melodic fragments chase and collide with each other until a disturbing, percussive, hammering element—a relentless thought—takes over and, with the unprecedented power and force of an explosion, silences everything. In the end, folly, emerging as an alteration that leads to seeing beyond and something else, bestows the majestic calm of an Adagio in the final pages, rich in harmonics and experience. It’s an embrace of life for those who choose to take risks, to dive deep, to draw courage from oblivion, to be reborn from their own ruins, and to journey with a heavy and precious baggage called wonder.
The “Canti di Primavera” and the “Piano Sonata” mark a turning point in Aquilanti’s compositional career: for the first time, the composer frees himself from the experience piano music suited for his own hands and writes for the skilled hands of a pianist. The Sonata is also dedicated to Marta Tacconi, a testament to the significant collaboration and friendship between the two musicians. The “Piano Sonata”, whose peculiarity is the use of all 88 keys, was composed between October 2023 and January 2024 and is structured in four movements.
The dense and challenging writing of the first movement, an Allegro, forces the performer to seek out a functional and comfortable fingering. After an extensive introduction, it continues for pages in a solid blend of melodic and rhythmic lines with a swing flavor, concluding, after a fortissimo of arpeggios and chords, with the reprise of the introductory material, reminiscent of the classical sonata form.
The second movement, suspended and enigmatic, organizes a sparse writing of three melodic lines that interact with each other, using three staves and abundant use of the tonal pedal, as if it were a third hand. The Scherzo, which concludes in a grotesque waltz, demands from the performer a singular quickness of reflexes to manage the rapid movements that span the entire length of the keyboard.
Finally, noteworthy is the Fugue in the fourth movement: built on a jazz theme, the original and complex four-voice fugue is a masterpiece of balance between mathematical precision and ingenious creativity. The final coda, which unfolds after a more-than-fortissimo chord that could mark the end of the work, is an extension to the absurd of the composition, proving the desire, joy, and pleasure of writing.
The music contained in this CD marks a clear boundary in the compositional philosophy of a man who, after building a career centered on the words “technical knowledge” and “rationality,” now surrenders to inspiration, imagination, impulse, and emotions. Writing such imposing music for the piano has been a physical and emotional challenge for a composer who, regretting not being a pianist, spends hours improvising on the 88 keys, detaching himself from reality. To use terms dear to Aquilanti, his music is written with “passion” and “expertise.” Composition is a “necessity,” the essence of a man, the challenge to make his ideas immortal. Therefore, this CD is a form of legacy, a testament to the existence of an artist, his love for life, and the bridge to the future.
01. Suite Americana: No. 1, Sunday evening in L.A.
02. Suite Americana: No. 2, Melodia
03. Suite Americana: No. 3, Valzer impazzito
04. Suite Americana: No. 4, Tango (dedicated to Alessandra Aquilanti for her 17th birthday)
05. Suite Americana: No. 5, Campanelle
06. Suite Americana: No. 6, Mese di maggio
07. Sonata for Piano: I. Adagio, Allegro mosso
08. Sonata for Piano: II. Melodia melanconica
09. Sonata for Piano: III. Scherzo
10. Sonata for Piano: IV. Fuga
11. Canti di Primavera: No. 1, .8 Maggio
12. Canti di Primavera: No. 2, Magia
13. Canti di Primavera: No. 3, Follie
From the black and white keys of the piano, the colors of the Atlantic Ocean emerge, transforming from a boundary into a bridge, a dream, an idea, and finally, a musical project: OLTREOCEANO. Entirely dedicated to the piano works of Giancarlo Aquilanti, an Italian composer and professor at Stanford University, OLTREOCEANO, by casting both a physical and metaphorical glance beyond the horizon line of the sea, promotes a union between tradition and innovation. Through an eclectic and surprising compositional style, a repertoire emerges that skillfully combines Italy and the “World,” roots and human experiences, with the intention of delivering a musical legacy rich in identity and transformation.
Too American in Italy and too Italian in America, Aquilanti could be described as a composer with two souls. Forty years ago, jazz, rock, improvisation, and electronic music burst into the life of a young musician living in Jesi, a town in central Italy, who was captivated by folk songs and opera melodies. It was the beginning of a personal and musical “battle” to reconcile, blend, and fuse two worlds.
But as a shrewd and passionate composer, skilled in balancing rationality, imagination, and irony, Aquilanti has turned the plurality and complexity of his life into his greatest asset. His dense and kaleidoscopic writing, shaped by a careful study of the great masters of the past, emerges—even when dedicated to a single instrument—as a dizzying framework that challenges both the performer and the listener to grasp all the nuances of a musical palette that reflects the author’s inner depth.
In life and in music, Giancarlo Aquilanti orchestrates, and whether he travels west or east, as evidenced by the “Suite Americana” with which the CD opens, he always journeys home. The six pieces that make up the Suite are part of a collection of about 30 compositions for piano written between 1999 and 2005. The collection, conceived similarly to Béla Bartók’s “Mikrokosmos,” is organized in a crescendo of duration and technical difficulty, but it is not to be considered as a didactic work: the pieces are intended for the concert hall and, almost in a descriptive manner, evoke moments, places, memories, and emotions. Thus, in the “Suite Americana,” we find the atmosphere of Los Angeles (“Sunday Evening in L.A.”), the nostalgia for Italy (“Melodia”), the wildness of a waltz (“Valzer Impazzito”), the intensity of a tango (“Tango”), the ringing of thousands of bells on the day of the “Festa della Scampanata di San Floriano,” celebrated in Jesi on May 4th (“Campanelle”), and finally, the enchantment of spring that intoxicates the senses (“Mese di Maggio”).
And the theme of spring, dear to the composer and recurrent in the titles of his works, comes to full fruition in the three “Canti di primavera” dedicated to the pianist Marta Tacconi. In fact, due to the etymological meaning of “Primavera,” from the Latin “vēr,” which traces back to the Sanskrit “vas,” meaning “to shine,” they could have also been titled “Canti di rinascita” (“Songs of Rebirth”). The season of flowers is here interpreted as a coming into the light, transformation, and transfiguration to a higher level of feeling and understanding.
“8 Maggio,” the pianist’s birth date, who shares Jesi roots with the composer, marks the moment when everything begins. It’s a symbolic title, both for the dedication it contains and for the multiple meanings of the number 8, universally considered the number of cosmic balance. The piece is structured in two contrasting parts: a passionate cantabile and a dancing rhythm.
“Magia,” the second piece of the triptych, hints at the words “incantesimo” (enchantment) or “sortilegio” (spell). In any case, it suggests “transformation.” Like “8 Maggio,” this piece begins on an upbeat, opening in a mysterious sonic aura—a dream, a fog of reason—that is illuminated after the introductory measures by a melody guiding both performer and listeners from the initial haze to a complex “swing” intertwined with a steady, measured rhythm. In the final coda, a powerful “più che fortissimo” (more than fortissimo) declares the complexity of a transformative energy that has carried the musical and human material so far from its starting point that there is no memory or return.
In the conclusion of the piece, “Follie,” a track written with a good dose of irony, it’s necessary to highlight the substantial difference between “madness” and “folly” in order to describe it accurately: while madness, being a sort of alteration of reality’s framework, remains complementary to it, folly is defined as a completely irrational and unpredictable state. This piece is exactly that: irrational and unpredictable. The musical material here can be likened to a flurry of confused thoughts. Rhythmic and melodic fragments chase and collide with each other until a disturbing, percussive, hammering element—a relentless thought—takes over and, with the unprecedented power and force of an explosion, silences everything. In the end, folly, emerging as an alteration that leads to seeing beyond and something else, bestows the majestic calm of an Adagio in the final pages, rich in harmonics and experience. It’s an embrace of life for those who choose to take risks, to dive deep, to draw courage from oblivion, to be reborn from their own ruins, and to journey with a heavy and precious baggage called wonder.
The “Canti di Primavera” and the “Piano Sonata” mark a turning point in Aquilanti’s compositional career: for the first time, the composer frees himself from the experience piano music suited for his own hands and writes for the skilled hands of a pianist. The Sonata is also dedicated to Marta Tacconi, a testament to the significant collaboration and friendship between the two musicians. The “Piano Sonata”, whose peculiarity is the use of all 88 keys, was composed between October 2023 and January 2024 and is structured in four movements.
The dense and challenging writing of the first movement, an Allegro, forces the performer to seek out a functional and comfortable fingering. After an extensive introduction, it continues for pages in a solid blend of melodic and rhythmic lines with a swing flavor, concluding, after a fortissimo of arpeggios and chords, with the reprise of the introductory material, reminiscent of the classical sonata form.
The second movement, suspended and enigmatic, organizes a sparse writing of three melodic lines that interact with each other, using three staves and abundant use of the tonal pedal, as if it were a third hand. The Scherzo, which concludes in a grotesque waltz, demands from the performer a singular quickness of reflexes to manage the rapid movements that span the entire length of the keyboard.
Finally, noteworthy is the Fugue in the fourth movement: built on a jazz theme, the original and complex four-voice fugue is a masterpiece of balance between mathematical precision and ingenious creativity. The final coda, which unfolds after a more-than-fortissimo chord that could mark the end of the work, is an extension to the absurd of the composition, proving the desire, joy, and pleasure of writing.
The music contained in this CD marks a clear boundary in the compositional philosophy of a man who, after building a career centered on the words “technical knowledge” and “rationality,” now surrenders to inspiration, imagination, impulse, and emotions. Writing such imposing music for the piano has been a physical and emotional challenge for a composer who, regretting not being a pianist, spends hours improvising on the 88 keys, detaching himself from reality. To use terms dear to Aquilanti, his music is written with “passion” and “expertise.” Composition is a “necessity,” the essence of a man, the challenge to make his ideas immortal. Therefore, this CD is a form of legacy, a testament to the existence of an artist, his love for life, and the bridge to the future.
| Classical | FLAC / APE
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