MARCELLO MAZZONI – LISZT NOIR (Live Recording)

18,00 

Marcello Mazzoni – Liszt Noir (Live Recording)

Marcello Mazzoni – Piano

TRACKLIST

Piano Concerto No.1, S.124 | 21’04”
Orchestra Filarmónica di Brasov
Aldo Sisillo, direttore – Marcello Mazzoni, pianoforte
Reggio Emilia, Teatro “Cavallerizza”
Festival dei Pianasti Italiani, Gennaio 2020

La lugubre gondola S.200/1 | 04’34”
Nancy, Grands Salons de Hotel de Ville
Nancyphonies, Agosto 2019

Resigenazione S.187 | 01’47”
Nancy, Grands Salons de Hotel de Ville
Nancyphonies, Agosto 2019

Mephisto Waltz No.4 S.216b | 02’47”
Nancy, Grands Salons de Hotel de Ville
Nancyphonies, Agosto 2019

Trübe Wolken (Nuages Gris) S.199 | 02’41”
Nancy, Grands Salons de Hotel de Ville
Nancyphonies, Agosto 2019

In festo transfigurationis Domini Nostri Jesu Christi, S.188 | 02’08”
Nancy, Grands Salons de Hotel de Ville
Nancyphonies, Agosto 2019

Totentanz (Paraphrase über Dies Irae, solo version ) S.525 | 15’19”
Nancy, Grands Salons de Hotel de Ville
Nancyphonies, Agosto 2019

Romance Oubliée S.132 | 04’46”
Nancy, Grands Salons de Hotel de Ville
Nancyphonies, Agosto 2019

Luca Ciammarughi presenta:
il compositore Franz Liszt e il Concerto n.1 | 07’00”

LISTEN HERE – ASCOLTA QUI

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Description

Marcello Mazzoni – Liszt Noir (Live Recording)

Marcello Mazzoni – Piano

The program of Marcello Mazzoni’s interesting Live contains an extremely significant cross section of Liszt’s immense piano production.

Some of the latest piano works were taken from a Recital held in Nancy in August 2019, together with the previous Totentanz.

The “last Liszt”, that of the final decade of his long existence, has been the object of study and research for some years now, but he is not always understood and performed comme il faut. Even often considered as “minor” 

Instead it is a special music, pure virtuosity (in the noble and comprehensive sense of the term), it is not different from the production of some previous decades. The difference is that what in the past was -also, but not only- finger virtuosity and sometimes effects research, is now harmonic and timbral virtuosity. But the achievement of the emotional tension and the mental and spiritual involvement between the performer and audience remain the same, even more demanding.

The Late piano works also explore unknown sound levels, in the less beaten registers of the keyboard, almost on the edge of infrasound and ultrasound, as if one wanted to go “beyond” the 88 keys, but especially they investigate harmonic paths at that time not fully known and presaging shocking news.

Our ear today, is evolved thanks to listening the musical literature of the 1900s and the new millennium, from jazz and more various genres, as well as popular music from the whole world, with all the rhythmic, harmonic and melodic innovations included in it, perhaps we can’t imagine what an incredible shock it could have been, 140 years ago, to see the score and listening to the incipit of a piece like Nuages Gris and the augmented fourth (which is nothing more than a substitute for the tritone) assumed as a melodic cell.

Therefore, it is not “easy” music at all, which – in addition to the enjoyment of listening carefully – requires the participation of a real musician – and Mazzoni is, and in an extraordinary way – as a medium for such revolutionary innovations.

Moreover, it is no coincidence if, perhaps into the best manual: “A history of Western music” -the title is no coincidence, because written by an American musicologist, Donald Jay Grout, who has the ability to look at everything that happened in the Old Continent with the due separation of not being culturally part of it-, the choice of the cover image in the Italian version was precisely that who shows the final measures of Nuages ​​Gris; just to symbolize the keystone represented by this work.

That is, the more than worthy evolution of the Liszt “apostle of the tritone” (rather apostle of the devil) and more generally of the diminished seventh, a real must of the 19th century.

In this sense, the Totentanz and the First Concert (masterfully performed by Mazzoni, this latter in Modena in January 2020) are albeit previous works – but always in continuous updating, so that their creation took in both cases more than twenty years -, with a totally different pianism that usually represents the acrobatic Liszt best known to the public; they are fantastically tied like knots, the “pianostar” of the early part of his life, and the prophetic intellectual of the later years. The whole always revolving around absolute perfection in the interaction between form and substance, which is the Sonata, the true keystone of the Liszt catalog, as well as of all nineteenth-century musical literature. And of those that we can hear and detect repeatedly, on this CD, musical omens and harmonic descendants.

 

Il programma dell’interessante Live di Marcello Mazzoni contiene uno spaccato estremamente significativo dell’immensa produzione pianistica di Liszt.

Alcuni degli ultimi lavori pianistici sono stati tratti da un Recital tenuto a Nancy nell’agosto 2019, insieme al precedente Totentanz. L’”ultimo Liszt”, quello dell’ultimo decennio della sua lunga esistenza, è da qualche anno oggetto di studi e ricerche, ma non sempre viene compreso ed eseguito comme il faut. Addirittura spesso considerato come “minore”

Invece si tratta di una musica speciale, di puro virtuosismo – nel senso più nobile e comprensivo del termine-  non è diversa dalla produzione di alcuni decenni precedenti.  La differenza è che quello che in passato era -anche, ma non solo- virtuosismo delle dita e talvolta ricerca di effetti, ora è virtuosismo armonico e timbrico. Ma il raggiungimento della tensione emotiva e il coinvolgimento mentale e spirituale tra esecutore e pubblico rimangono gli stessi, anche più esigenti.

Le opere pianistiche tarde, sono in grado di esplorare livelli sonori sconosciuti, nei registri meno battuti della tastiera, quasi al limite degli infrasuoni e degli ultrasuoni, come se si volesse andare “oltre” gli 88 tasti, ma soprattutto indagano percorsi armonici all’epoca non del tutto conosciuti e forieri di novità sconvolgenti.

Il nostro orecchio, oggi, si è evoluto grazie all’ascolto della letteratura musicale del ‘900 e del nuovo millennio, del jazz e dei generi più vari, nonché della musica popolare di tutto il mondo, con tutte le innovazioni ritmiche, armoniche e melodiche in essa incluse, forse non possiamo immaginare quale incredibile shock potesse essere, 140 anni fa, vedere la partitura e ascoltare l’incipit di un brano come Nuages Gris e la quarta aumentata – che altro non è, che un sostituto del tritono – assunta come cellula melodica. Non si tratta quindi affatto di musica “facile”, che – oltre al piacere dell’ascolto attento – richiede la partecipazione di un vero musicista. E di certo Mazzoni lo è ed in modo straordinario e si rivela qui mezzo per innovazioni così rivoluzionarie. Del resto, non è un caso se, forse nel miglior manuale: “A history of Western music” – il titolo non è casuale, perché scritto da un musicologo americano, Donald Jay Grout, che ha la capacità di guardare a tutto quello che è successo nel Vecchio Continente con il dovuto distacco concesso dal non esserne culturalmente parte-, la scelta dell’immagine di copertina nella versione italiana è stata proprio quella che mostra le misure finali di Nuages Gris; come se avesse il compito di simboleggiare la chiave di volta rappresentata da questo lavoro.

Ovvero la più che degna evoluzione del Liszt “apostolo del tritono” (anzi, apostolo del diavolo) e più in generale della settima diminuita, vero must del XIX secolo.

In questo senso, la Totentanz e il Primo Concerto – magistralmente eseguito da Mazzoni, quest’ultimo a Modena nel gennaio 2020 – sono pur sempre opere precedenti, ma sempre in continuo aggiornamento, tanto che la loro realizzazione ha richiesto in entrambi i casi più di vent’anni. Qui vi è un pianismo totalmente diverso che solitamente rappresenta il Liszt acrobatico più noto al pubblico; sono fantasticamente legati come nodi, il “pianostar” della prima parte della sua vita e l’intellettuale profetico degli anni successivi.  Il tutto sempre ruotando intorno alla Sonata, la perfezione assoluta nell’interazione tra forma e sostanza, vera chiave di volta del catalogo lisztiano, oltre che di tutta la letteratura musicale ottocentesca. E di quelle che possiamo sentire e rilevare ripetutamente, in questo CD, auspici musicali e discendenti armonici.

 

LISTEN HERE – ASCOLTA QUI

Additional information

Composer

Franz Liszt

Liner Notes

The program of Marcello Mazzoni’s interesting Live contains an extremely significant cross section of Liszt’s immense piano production.

Some of the latest piano works were taken from a Recital held in Nancy in August 2019, together with the previous Totentanz.

The “last Liszt”, that of the final decade of his long existence, has been the object of study and research for some years now, but he is not always understood and performed comme il faut. Even often considered as “minor” 

Instead it is a special music, pure virtuosity (in the noble and comprehensive sense of the term), it is not different from the production of some previous decades. The difference is that what in the past was -also, but not only- finger virtuosity and sometimes effects research, is now harmonic and timbral virtuosity. But the achievement of the emotional tension and the mental and spiritual involvement between the performer and audience remain the same, even more demanding.

The Late piano works also explore unknown sound levels, in the less beaten registers of the keyboard, almost on the edge of infrasound and ultrasound, as if one wanted to go “beyond” the 88 keys, but especially they investigate harmonic paths at that time not fully known and presaging shocking news.

Our ear today, is evolved thanks to listening the musical literature of the 1900s and the new millennium, from jazz and more various genres, as well as popular music from the whole world, with all the rhythmic, harmonic and melodic innovations included in it, perhaps we can’t imagine what an incredible shock it could have been, 140 years ago, to see the score and listening to the incipit of a piece like Nuages Gris and the augmented fourth (which is nothing more than a substitute for the tritone) assumed as a melodic cell.

Therefore, it is not “easy” music at all, which – in addition to the enjoyment of listening carefully – requires the participation of a real musician – and Mazzoni is, and in an extraordinary way – as a medium for such revolutionary innovations.

Moreover, it is no coincidence if, perhaps into the best manual: “A history of Western music” -the title is no coincidence, because written by an American musicologist, Donald Jay Grout, who has the ability to look at everything that happened in the Old Continent with the due separation of not being culturally part of it-, the choice of the cover image in the Italian version was precisely that who shows the final measures of Nuages ​​Gris; just to symbolize the keystone represented by this work.

That is, the more than worthy evolution of the Liszt “apostle of the tritone” (rather apostle of the devil) and more generally of the diminished seventh, a real must of the 19th century.

In this sense, the Totentanz and the First Concert (masterfully performed by Mazzoni, this latter in Modena in January 2020) are albeit previous works – but always in continuous updating, so that their creation took in both cases more than twenty years -, with a totally different pianism that usually represents the acrobatic Liszt best known to the public; they are fantastically tied like knots, the “pianostar” of the early part of his life, and the prophetic intellectual of the later years. The whole always revolving around absolute perfection in the interaction between form and substance, which is the Sonata, the true keystone of the Liszt catalog, as well as of all nineteenth-century musical literature. And of those that we can hear and detect repeatedly, on this CD, musical omens and harmonic descendants.