While I was in USA a copy of Cardini live – Quaderni di Octandre n.29, new publication by Agenda Produzioni in Bologna (IT), was delivered at my address. I contributed with an essay on Giancarlo Cardini’s piano pieces – the ones I performed on stage and / or recorded in Lento trascolorare(Da Vinci Classics, 2020). The titles of Cardini’s pieces are often poetic and suggestive. I quote one of them in the title of my writing: Paesaggio marino al tramonto, con barca e grande nuvola nera (the translation sounds as “Sea landscape at sunset, with boat and big dark cloud”): a glance on piano compositions by Giancarlo Cardini. In fact the deep poetic inspiration that pervades Cardini’s music can be also found in the titles of his pieces and in his writings – a good sample of this is his artist book Soap bubbles – Bolle di sapone. In the essay I try to find some recurrent aesthetic traits of Cardini’s creativity and root them in the analysis of the scores composed for his elective instrument, the piano. “Divagazioni intorno a tre canti dell’Euridice di Peri” (2013), “Paesaggio marino al tramonto con barca e nuvola nera” (1998), “Via del Fico, Firenze. Una piccola strada disadorna, silenziosa, quasi immota, arida e bella” (2011), “Tre momenti di sessualità infantile” (2007), “Terza Fantasia, ad Agnese Toniutti” (2018), “Foglie d’autunno lentamente trascolorano” (1983, rev. 2018), “Rituals for the Ryoanji Garden” (2012) and “Una notte d’inverno” are all mentioned and scrutinized. The list of contributors to Cardini live, curated by musicologist Renzo Cresti, includes musicians, scholars and writers that worked and studied with Giancarlo Cardini; I am looking forward to read each essay, a way of celebrating him through words, music and heartfelt memories.
Ready to fly to Prague next week at Žižkov Atrium for LUXURY OF MIND = FLUXUS.
On the 28th November at 19.30
Anna Clementi (Germany, voice), Deborah Walker (Italy, cello), Luciano Chessa (Italy, Dan Bau, violin, organ), Werner Durand (Germany, wind instruments), Miroslav Beinhauer (Czechia, piano), Petr Bakla (Czechia, piano), Petr Ferenc (Czechia, spoken word) and me
will be ready to perform a quite unusual happening/concert with music by
John Cage, Milan Knizák, Henning Christiansen, Philip Corner, George Maciunas, Geoffrey Hendricks, Yoko Ono, Giuseppe Chiari, Terry Riley, Eric Andersen, Dieter Schnebel, Bengt af Klintberg, Mieko Shiomi, Ovvind Fahlström, Sten Hanson, Nam June Paik, La Monte Young.
I bet it will be fun!
All started from an idea by Petr Studený and Opening Performance Orchestra in Prague, that led to the release of Stolen Symphony, the first volume of Fluxus&NeoFluxus collection, and now, brand new, to the second and final part, Keep together (Sub Rosa label, 2024). As the previous one, it’s a limited edition (400 copies) of double LP or double CD, with a very rich booklet with many texts and essays about Fluxus. But differently from the first, which is sold out, there are still copies available! I played a La Monte Young-inspired piece, and re-released music by Philip Corner and Giancarlo Cardini (also in Neuma Records and Da Vinci Classics). Very happy to be part of this second edition with all the musicians I will soon meet in Prague and many others.
Some photos of the evening – almost three hours of music and performance! – and the rehearsals. Thanks to Petr Studený for the pics.
In a few weeks I’ll be in Berlin again with two concerts, on the 6th of August and on the 20th of August. The first recital, Open Cage, will be dedicated to John Cage‘s music for toy piano, prepared piano, string piano and “regular” piano. The second program, Fluxus Cardboards, will feature music by Fluxus artists and composers Corner, Shiomi, La Monte Young, Higgins, and Cardini. Both recitals are included in a concert series parallel to the exhibition “Holy Fluxus”, held from July 13th to September 8th at St. Matthews Church in Berlin. The exhibit is organized by Archivio Conz and presents to the public part of the wide collection of Francesco Conz, now available in Berlin thanks to a huge cataloguing work. Quoting from Archivio Conz press review, “Francesco Conz (1935–2010) was an obsessive Italian collector, patron, curator, friend of artists, and “producer as artist sui generis” (Thomas Marquard). In 1972, after meeting Hermann Nitsch, Günter Brus, and Joe Jones in Berlin, his interests focused on Lettrism, Concrete Poetry, Viennese Actionism, Fluxus, music, and literature. Over the course of many decades, he created a unique worldwide network of artists. His tireless activities as a publisher of over 560 art editions (Edizioni Conz) in the northern Italian city of Asolo, and later in Verona, contributed significantly to the development of Fluxus in Italy and worldwide. Since 2016, the Archivio Conz, with its approximately 5,000 objects by more than 200 artists, has been housed in Berlin and is now being presented to the public in its entirety for the first time after eight years of cataloging and digitization.”
I am very pleased to be part of the event together with many friends and musicians; in fact, the exhibit will host a free concert every Tuesday, and you can check the full programme here. Below some information about the two recitals (and some images later, as usual).
Open Cage, on August 6th, is a listening journey around the sound of the piano. It includes music by John Cage for toy, prepared and regular piano, hosting a piece for “string piano” composed by Tan Dun in honour of John Cage. The young Chinese composer found a supporter in Cage, who spoke very positively of him during the interviews and conversations of the last years. It’s a music programme I’ve played many times, always with a lot of pleasure, looking forward to the surprise of the new sounds of preparation of Sonatas&Interludes (you never know, when preparing a piano, what will come out at the end). A little treat: this time I will play a toy piano from Conz collection, signed by Fluxus artist Larry Miller.
Fluxus Cardboards, on August 20th, includes plenty of Fluxus music and of course plenty of handmade musical cardboards. It’s not the first time that I spend some hours with scissors, glue, paper and cutter, as far as it seems that these fragments of score, once thrown into the air after being played, are irresistible souvenirs for the audience… Composer Mieko Shiomi wrote to me very pleased at the idea that some of her music is now in different homes around the world, so I keep cutting and pasting in good spirits. Beside Mieko Shiomi’s, the programme will feature music by Philip Corner, Giancarlo Cardini, Dick Higgins and inspired by La Monte Young. Cardboards, mallets, brushes, balls and other sonorous objects will be in my baggage – stimulating inquires at airport security check as usual. A stair will host as a special guest Anna Clementi, who kindly agreed to lend her beautiful voice for the opening piece.
↓Photos by @giuliabaresi – Courtesy of Archivio Conz, Berlin. Open Cage, 6th August
↓Photos by Giorgia Palmisano – Courtesy of Archivio Conz, Berlin. Fluxus Cardboards, 20th August
In the last couple of months two very interesting publications have been published about Fluxus, and I’m very pleased to have given my little contribution.
One is a double CD / LP in limited edition, Fluxus & NeoFluxus / Stolen Symphony (Vol. 1), by Sub Rosa label, enriched with a 72 pages booklet, full of texts, notes, images around Fluxus movement. Petr Studený and his Czech Opening Performance Orchestra had the idea to commission a collection of Fluxus recordings to some musicians devoted to this repertoire: Deborah Walker, Anna Clementi Ohlin, Werner Durand, Luciano Chessa, Miroslav Beinhauer, myself and several others. I contributed with new recordings of pieces by Mieko Shiomi (Direction music for a pianist, for spoken voice, piano and cardboards), Dick Higgins (Emmett Williams’ Ear) and (inspired by) La Monte Young (Composition 1960 #15), and some re-releases by Philip Corner and Giancarlo Cardini. But the entire first part of the collection features also music by Eric Andersen, George Brecht, Ay-O, John Cage, Giuseppe Chiari, Henning Christiansen, Öyvind Fahlström, Ken Friedman, Sten Hanson, Geoffrey Hendricks, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Joe Jones, Bengt af Klintberg, Milan Knizak, Alison Knowles, Larry Miller, George Maciunas, Sara Miyamoto, Nam June Paik, Yoko Ono, Opening Performance Orchestra, Benjamin Patterson, Josef Anton Riedl, Terry Riley, Takako Saito, Tomas Schmit, Dieter Schnebel, Yasunao Tone, Ben Vautier, Yoshi Wada. The release is listed among the ten Best Contemporary Classical on Bandcamp in May 2023, here is the link.
An other collector’s item, but above all a valuable study tool, as far as I am concerned, is the beautiful book/catalogue “FLUXUS 1962-2022 – SIXTY YEARS IN FLUX”, published after the big event/exhibition in Genoa dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the founding of Fluxus (Sept-Nov 2022). In addition to the images documenting the exhibit, which alone would be worth the catalogue by themselves, the book is full of statements, testimonies and interviews by Fluxus artists and scholars. It is edited by Caterina Gualco, who has devoted endless energies to promoting Fluxus movement in Italy since the 70ies, Francesca Serrati and Leo Lecci. Honoured to see the program of my September concert in Genoa at the end of the volume, designed by artist Mauro Panichella as all the other graphics of the event. The book is available at Museo d’arte contemporanea di Villa Croce in Genoa.
An event dedicated to Giancarlo Cardini coming soon this Friday, 27th January, organized by Salotto Musicale Fvg in Udine. Cardini was the dedicatee of 2017/2018 season of Salotto, and visited the association listening to the concert and giving an interesting speech the day before. Together with the music by Cardini, the Cold Pieces by Erik Satie – Cardini recorded the opera omnia for solo piano by Satie – and the Solo from Passion selon Sade by Sylvano Bussotti, a friend of the composer and companion in many concerts and performances. A special moment, the interwaving of the music with Cardini’s voice, reading his short poems from Bolle di Sapone / Soap bubbles and performing Solfeggio Parlante by Paolo Castaldi from the concert for Demetrio Stratos in Milan. While preparing for this concert, several memories of Cardini’s collegues and friends were shared with me; a shining legacy silently scattered in the hearts of people who knew him. I am aware of how lucky I am to be able to witness all this. Journalist Paolo Carradori will be again with me introducing the concert, as for last November performance in Rome. Below some pics of the event
Music is a powerful tool for going beyond the earthly limits of space and time. This is a thought that comes to my mind as I think with a certain emotion about the upcoming concert, with music by Giancarlo Cardini and Giacinto Scelsi, at Isabella Scelsi Foundation in Rome on November, 22. Journalist Paolo Carradori will introduce the concert, dedicated to Giancarlo Cardini. On Monday, 21st November an interview made by composer Stefano Taglietti for his series “Clocks and clouds” at Radio Start will be dedicated to Lento trascolorare and the concert in Rome (here in podcast – Italian). The day after I’ll spend some time researching at the Archives of Scelsi Foundation, and then I’ll get back on the road to reach Conservatorio “A. Vivaldi” in Alessandria, my new teaching position for this academic year.
Below some pics of the event made by Paolo Carradori, in concert and in rehearsal playing on Giacinto Scelsi’s Bechstein piano, and with Gianni Trovalusci who kindly played the gong in Rituals for the Ryoanji Garden. On the wall, a gong that Scelsi gave to composer Mario Bertoncini, now again in place; in the background some of Bertoncini’s sonic sculptures.
Next week I’ll be part of a huge celebration for Fluxus anniversary in Genoa, “1962-2022 Sixty Years in Flux”, a big exhibition in Villa Croce Contemporary Art Museum, performances, events and music around the city. On Sept 15th I’ll play an Italian premiere by Mieko Shiomi and other pieces by Philip Corner, La Monte Young, Mieko Shiomi, Giancarlo Cardini, Dick Higgins.
Very excited for this upcoming concert – Saturday October 23rd – together with cellist Frances-Marie Uitti in Udine at Salotto Musicale Fvg. “Visionaries”, dedicated to Sylvano Bussotti, is a duo exploration of music by Bussotti, Feldman, Brown, Cage, Stockhausen, together with works by Cardini, Uitti and a brand new work created for us by artist Luciano Martinis. Looking forward to such a great experience!
A dreamy open-air location surrounded by majestic lime trees will host the recital “Lento trascolorare”, with music by Giancarlo Cardini, Caterina Venturelli, Tan Dun, John Cage and Giacinto Scelsi. First planned on a very special day, the 8th of August (see G.Scelsi, 5 Jan 1905 – 8 Aug 1988), then moved to the 22nd to… follow the sun. An ideal place to resound in quietness.
Honoured to be part of the third publication of (re)cover by Libreria Martincigh in Udine, an editorial project that redeems out of print books and (re)presents them to the public along with new contributions in dialogue with the original work. Quoting the text introducing this edition:
“Started in 2016 by the bibliographic studio Martincigh, (re)cover creates hybrid publications that make resonate past and present, tracing connections between great masters and contemporary authors. (re)cover/3 presents the artist book by Giancarlo Cardini, Soap bubbles, published in 1991 by the Centro Di Edizioni, paired with the music album, Lento trascolorare, by the pianist Agnese Toniutti, produced by Da Vinci Classics, stemmed from collaboration between the Friulian interpreter and the Florentine composer.”
Bolle di Sapone/Soap bubbles includes a collection of short poems or, as the author writes, “Fragments of daily contemplations” collected from 1971 to 1989, the libretto of Il Castello Insonne, “scenic nocturnal mystery in 29 episodes, to be played between about two and four o’clock on a moon- less night” performed at Venice Biennale Musica in 1991, and the score of Neo-Haiku Suite for piano, flowers, lights, objects and two performers (1979), together with photographs from the performances. One of them, a picture by Enzo Della Monica, served as a cover image for the cd Lento trascolorare.
The (re)cover edition is also accompanied by a precious text by journalist and writer Brunella Torresin.
