Mauro Mezzini

The violinist, organist, composer and librettist Attilio Malachia Ariosti was born in Bologna in 1666. His career took him to Mantua and Venice, the most enlightened musical and artistic centers of northern Italy at the time, then to Berlin and finally Vienna in 1703. Expelled from the Papal State for moral reasons, by 1716 he was living in London where, together with Bononcini and Handel, he became a permanent composer of the Royal Academy.

An acclaimed Italian guitar virtuoso and composer, Mauro Giuliani, along with Fernando Sor, was one of the last great classical proponents of his instrument until its revival in the early twentieth century. He studied counterpoint and the cello, but on the six-string guitar he was entirely self-taught, and that became his principal instrument early on. Italy abounded with fine guitarists at the beginning of the nineteenth century (Carulli remains the most familiar today), but few of them could make a living because of the public's preoccupation with opera. So Giuliani embarked on a successful tour of Europe when he was 19, and in 1806 he settled in Vienna, where he entered the musical circle of Diabelli, Moscheles, and Hummel. He solidified his reputation with the 1808 premiere of his Guitar Concerto in A major, Op. 30, and was soon heralded as the greatest living guitar virtuoso. Even Beethoven noticed Giuliani, and wrote of his admiration for him. Perhaps to return the favor, Giuliani played cello in the 1813 premiere of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7.

In October 2020, Justin Adams, whose post-punk approach has been en-riched by a passion for Arabic and African trance/blues, and Mauro Durante, a visionary inheritor of the Taranta roots of his native Puglia got together to make an intense and intimate album: Still Moving. They recorded live in the studio, without overdubs. Together they found what was essential in their common sound, reaching into traditional music from Italy (folk songs like 'Damme La Manu', classics like 'Amara Terra Mia') and America ('Little Moses', the Carter Family classic). Original songs, like 'Dark Road Down' mix the wild pizzica rhythm of Southern Italy and trance boogie, while 'Djinn Pulse' goes from serene instrumental minimalism to hypnotic catharsis. The title song 'Still Moving' evokes Mediterranean migration with the ancient frame drum and raw electric guitar providing a starkly beautiful landscape.

Very popular artist in Italy, both as a solo artist and as session musician, Mauro Pagani had a good solo career after leaving Premiata Forneria Marconi in 1976, tired of the long hard work on the road. In his early days as a musician, Pagani had played with Gli Araldi, JB Club, I Dalton. His love for the world music strongly emerged in his 1978 first album, simply entitled Mauro Pagani, featuring many of the best Italian musicians of that time, among which Area's members Demetrio Stratos, Patrizio Fariselli, Giulio Capiozzo and Ares Tavolazzi, PFM's old cohorts Franco Mussida, Patrick Djivas and Franz Di Cioccio, singer Teresa De Sio. The album is very far from his old band's works, with strong oriental folklore influences, but definitely a very good one.

Mauro Borgioni (bass) dedicates this CD to the composer Cazzati. The focus is on solo motets for bass with concertante voices, for which he has enlisted the Ensemble Seicento Stravagante with organ, cornett and violin. The vocal works are complemented by instrumental sonatas by Cazzati.