Stefano Bottoli

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challenge between lesser-known works by Kapsberger in which we admire ideas and creative intuition, and Ambrosini's unpublished works, which contain equal amount of creativity and unexpected possibilities for the instrument.

Stefano di Battista (born February 14, 1969) is an Italian jazz musician who plays soprano and alto saxophone. Di Battista began playing at thirteen with friends and became interested in jazz after hearing Art Pepper. In Italy he received guidance from Massimo Urbani and by his twenties di Battista was performing in Paris. He put out his debut as a leader in 1997 and has toured with the Elvin Jones Jazz Machine.

The Italian saxophonist pays tribute to the great Ennio Morricone, who passed away last summer. The album features Morricone’s most famous works (Once Upon a Time in America, The Mission, The Great Silence etc.) as well as an unpublished song dedicated to Stefano, who had the chance to work with the Maestro in his later years.
Ennio Morricone’s film music provides an infinite treasure trove of creative thinking, associated with the most varied of images. It is also extremely versatile, just waiting to be delved into, reworked and rediscovered - his compositions would still be equally enjoyable and perfectly recognisable performed by a Bulgarian choir or a quintet of ocarinas. But throwing jazz into the mix takes things to a whole new level, creating what feels like a perfect match, a natural, perhaps even inevitable partnership…

Staged for the first time at Teatro Nuovo in Naples in 1826, Don Gregorio is the Neapolitan version of one of Donizetti’s earliest masterpieces, L’ajo nell’imbarazzo (1824). This is the first representation in Italy in modern times, and a world premiere recording. Director Roberto Recchia sets the performance in the 1920s, at a time when restrictions and false morality were strongly linked with Italian political and social situation. In its new adaptation, the work differs from the original version in several aspects, the most important being the insertion of spoken dialogues in Neapolitan dialect in place of the recitatives. But Donizetti’s musical verve remains unchanged as he underlines the very enjoyable farcical situations of this comic work. The characters are inspired by Italian Commedia dell’Arte, but possess at the same time a deeper psychological and human dimension.

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.

The working relationship between Stefano Scodanibbio and the Arditti Quartet has existed since the mid 80’s. I remember very well looking at his first Quartet ‘Visas,’ which included some very unusual harmonics for the string instruments. These harmonics are very difficult to play and originate from Stefanos’s great command and knowledge of double bass. I suppose in the beginning of our relationship, I needed convincing that these techniques were actually possible on the violin.