Stefano Bonaccorso Bryan Beaver

This is an interesting title in the wake of the notion that Stefano Battaglia composed most of these pieces and has performed them on earlier recordings – both solo and with various groups – and that Tony Oxley is such a renowned improviser…

Sheik Yer Zappa represents Stefano Bollani’s hommage to an authentic rock icon. Recorded live during a tour, this cd includes songs of Frank Zappa’s, plus three pieces composed by Bollani’s himself and inspired by the rock star. Bollani is a jazz artist, and this means that Zappa’s songs are reworked and elaborated with his personal touch: he is producing a musical cocktail with his personal shaker (from this comes the title, which also plays on Zappa’s own words). So the results can be in some cases different from the original, but the attitude remains: the typical attitude, and the artistry with which Frank Zappa was able to capture and blend music from all over the world.

Works by the famous theorbo virtuoso Kapsberger have often been recorded, but little space has so far been given to repertoire drawn directly from manuscript sources. Kapsberger maintained a privileged relationship with his city of birth throughout his life. The Venice of Willaert, Gabrieli and Monteverdi, however, is not just a magnificent past: it is still alive today and continues its musical tradition in the so-called Second Venetian School of Malipiero, Maderna, Nono and whose most recent protagonist is Claudio Ambrosini (1948-), winner of the Prix de Rome and the Leone d'Oro at the Venice Biennale, whose works have already been recorded, among others, on the Kairos and Stradivarius labels. Kapsberger, Secret Pages reveals an astonishing instrumental challenge between lesser-known works by Kapsberger in which we admire ideas and creative intuition, and Ambrosini's unpublished works, which contain equal amount of creativity and unexpected possibilities for the instrument.

Francois Couperin, known as ‘le grand’, won renown when, at the early age of 25 in 1693, he was appointed to a high position in Louis XIV’s private chapel. In the following years he compiled the core of his greatest works, the four monumental Pieces de clavecin, which represent the apex of his compositional mastery with a refined use of counterpoint and a galant taste for embellishments and rich, often subtly melancholic characterization. This album features eight preludes from Couperin’s L’Art de toucher le clavecin to create small suites that freely use pieces from the first two books of the Pieces de clavecin.

Praticamente la storia dietro è che Bollani è stato invitato a comporre la colonna sonora per il film "Caos calmo" di Moretti. Lui ha deciso di raggruppare un gruppo di musicisti con i quali ha lavorato negli ultimi anni (sotto il nome "I visionari"), gruppo che comprende anche Ferruccio Spinetti che abitualmente registra e recita in duo con la moglie di Stefano Bollani, Petra Magoni.