In
this CD a large amount of work has been "compressed"
(today one would say zipped).The total duration is squeezed into
its digital support (approximately 79 min.), due to the specific
choice of as of the artist. Francisco
Palazzo (teaching professor of Conservatory in Bari , his
home town) has not saved any energy or effort: he has chosen the
typical formula of the "solo-recital" proposing first
some transcriptions and then a series of original works for accordion.
Mainly due to the choice of these last ones - I have found the
choice very convincing, valuing the most important works of the
Italian repertoire (and here all ! the merit and honour goes to
Palazzo for being excellent) adding only one of the most exceptional
works of Russian literature by Sofja Gubajdulina (De Profundis).
I find it also
very important, that no popular work has been added to this selection
in order to impress "the listener": I repeat the concept
- it must be taken into consideration of how much work and effort
has been put into this work and with a precise choice. Palazzo
has introduced himself as a pure soloist and does not try to impress
as "competitor", and always detaches comfortly when
it needs to show "musical content", denoting an analytical
study of the works. The audience Palazzo is looking for is a serious
listener, going to a concerthall with conviction and attention,
not expexting some kind of wonder from theinstrument.
From this point
of view the only piece that would seem to be piece of other times
is Toccata e Fuga BWV 565 by Johann Sebastian Bach: an "evergreen",
and this i! s its strong point, the technical skills and the polyphony
required from the accordionist to perform (important: performing
on any kind of accordion model) does not render "Fuga"
immune from some contestation and perplexity. Much more effective
is the choice of the others two transcriptions: "Arte della
Fuga" (with three extractions) always by J. S. Bach and voluptuous
and the fascinating " Preludio, Fuga - Variazioni "
of César Franck; that the accordion could approach the
most important Bach-Partitions is a discovery thanks to the teacher
Palazzo. Salvatore Di Gesualdo, making it his "battle"
for his concerts and then inserting it with the repertoire for
the Diploma of the accordion course at the Conservatory.
The original
Italian repertoire is the one that has convinced me most of this
CD: Palazzo places in evidence as during the mid XX century in
Italy there was an important production of original compositions
for this instrument by the greatest names (Felice Lattuada, Franco
Alfano, Luigi Ferrari-Trecate), as in 1976 - always thanks to
Salvatore Di Gesualdo - Bruno Bartolozzi wrote a "turnaround"
piece for accordion literature, recognized by few that should
instead be revealed with much more vigour; finally the pugliese
soloist reminds us of the 90's where we have seen a bloom for
Italian accordion literature and concerts proposing the "Prelude,
Corale e Finale" of Sergio Calligaris in 1994.
I confess: I have listened carefully and several times the fourteenth
track, the "Corale" of Calligaris; it is most beautiful
and interpreted in excellent way, with a "smooth" sound
that renders it nearly metaphysical music; beautiful indeed.
This CD is available on the Francisco
Palazzo site on MusicForAccordion.com - high security eCommerce
site run by WorldPay.com, part of The Royal Bank of Scotland Group
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