Matan Nistor

For his fourth CD for Mirare, brilliant pianist and composer Matan Porat chose these colorful pieces, spanning through four centuries of music from Couperin to Adès, displaying the different and similar approaches of composers to dance. Through this program, which he dedicates to his daughter Zoe, he invites us to celebrate the colorful world of childhood and to discover new facets of his talent, both as a performer and as a composer.

Giovane, determinato, appassionato, Rafael Nistor – nato in Romania, in Italia da quasi 15 anni, oggi ne ha 22 – è uno dei volti più freschi e dirompenti sui social. I suoi video, curatissimi e ASMR nei quali dà spazio esclusivamente ai suoni della sua cucina (sfrigolii, affettamenti, impiattamenti e tanto altro) hanno conquistato milioni di follower ed estimatori d’eccezione. In “Ottimo!” per la prima volta Rafael prende la parola e ci porta con sé tra i fornelli, rivelandoci molti segreti e mostrandoci 80 ricette contro ogni spreco, piatti tanto facili quanto gustosi e sorprendenti, realizzabili a partire da ingredienti che tutti noi abbiamo in casa. Già, perché l’idea che lo ha guidato nella scelta delle proposte è stata semplice: dimostrare che è possibile sfruttare al massimo ogni tipo di prodotto che compriamo abitualmente così da evitare gli sprechi e non buttare via niente..

With Lux, the brilliant pianist and composer Matan Porat offers a visionary programme inspired by the theme of light. Twelve pieces chosen among a repertoire spanning twelve centuries accompany the course of a day, from dawn to nightfall. each piece corresponds to a time of day, with its own particular light.

The common question as to who was the most important Hungarian composer of the twentieth century – Béla Bartók or Zoltán Kodály – would have been vehemently rejected by the two like-minded friends. On the one hand, they shared many ideas and goals, such as researching Hungarian folk music, which they recorded in the countryside before and after the First World War using a wax cylinder phonograph. Bartók and Kodály made the original music of the peasant societies, which has nothing to do with the idea of Csárdás fire and Puszta romanticism, the basis of their own idioms, which they further developed in very personal ways. On the other hand, the careers of the two composers progressed in entirely different ways. While Bartók embraced international modernism and went into American exile at the height of fascist rule in Hungary, Kodály remained in his home country even under politically difficult circumstances, devoting himself unswervingly to his great task: integrating music into the school curriculum in order to make it the basis of national consciousness and social behaviour.

The common question as to who was the most important Hungarian composer of the twentieth century – Béla Bartók or Zoltán Kodály – would have been vehemently rejected by the two like-minded friends. On the one hand, they shared many ideas and goals, such as researching Hungarian folk music, which they recorded in the countryside before and after the First World War using a wax cylinder phonograph. Bartók and Kodály made the original music of the peasant societies, which has nothing to do with the idea of Csárdás fire and Puszta romanticism, the basis of their own idioms, which they further developed in very personal ways. On the other hand, the careers of the two composers progressed in entirely different ways. While Bartók embraced international modernism and went into American exile at the height of fascist rule in Hungary, Kodály remained in his home country even under politically difficult circumstances, devoting himself unswervingly to his great task: integrating music into the school curriculum in order to make it the basis of national consciousness and social behaviour.