Roberto Gremmo

Robert HP Platz, composer and conductor, was born in Baden-Baden in 1951. He studied composition with Wolfgang Fortner and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Robert HP Platz sees his entire work as a global architecture in constant evolution. He has composed for music theater, orchestral works, ensemble music, chamber music, children’s music and solo pieces, often including electronic sounds. His friendship with visual artists and authors, his affinity for Italian and French culture, which goes back to his childhood, and his fascination for Japanese culture are further inspiration for his multi-faceted musical world. This CD is dedicated to his compositions for flute, written between 1993 and 2018, and presents an important facet of his artistic work, presenting different aspects of his poetics in the 11 tracks. These expressive pieces, composed with deep technical knowledge of the flute, form a special context in this compilation and thus present a unique musical language. The unifying factors are motivation, choice of instruments and the organization of tonal centers that form bridges from work to work.

Unforeseen and born out of unique circumstances, this is a unique record. This is the first album I have made devoted entirely to French song. I think this is no more than my French listeners deserve. We have made numerous journeys together, from the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies to South America with Pasión, from Italy to the United States with Little Italy, but I thought it was finally time to play the music of our own native land, too. Thats why I am dedicating this album in its entirety to French song, but with a twist. Between the lines, as it were, in this repertoire, I have sought to highlight all the variety of genres and influences from near and far that are now intrinsic elements of French musical identity and heritage. As many are no doubt aware, I am passionate about different musical cultures from all over the world. As we explore the French repertoire, we shall make many musical discoveries on our travels…

The Goldberg Variations are the most complex of J. S. Bach’s works from a technical point of view. All the harpsichord’s technical and expressive resources are thoroughly explored and used to great effect. The complexity, imagination, richness of ideas and internal references that animate this work make it a monumental piece of immeasurable depth. The instrument that Roberto Loreggian plays for this recording is a copy of a harpsichord made by Michael Mietke in the early years of the 18th century; exchanges between the maker and Bach are historically documented. Consequently, Loreggian is able to fully convey the complexity of this legendary work. An outstanding scholar in organ and harpsichord performance, Loreggian has appeared at some of the most important international music venues and at renowned festivals. Both as soloist and accompanist, he has collaborated with numerous performers and orchestras, recording his performances on several music labels and receiving praise from music critics, in addition to several awards.

On 7th February 1857, after a delay of one year due to problems of copyright on a possible production of King Lear, Verdi accepted and signed a new agreement with the Teatro di San Carlo of Naples for an opera to be staged in January or February 1858. Not long after he had put behind the experiences of Simon Boccanegra (June 1857) and Aroldo (August), Verdi, then, had to face the issue of a new subject for Naples, which would no longer be King Lear, discarded for various reasons, and not even El tesorero del Rey by António García Gutiérrez or Ruy Blas by Hugo, to which he had given more serious thought, but Gustave III by Eugène Scribe, a play written in 1833 for Daniel Auber in which the king of Sweden is assassinated, in 1792, by a group of noblemen led by Jacob Ankarström. The composition of the score, between October 1857 and January 1858, went hand in hand with Verdi’s complex relationship with the Neapolitan censors, who would end up distorting the libretto and unnerving the composer to the point that he ended up refusing to stage the opera and breaking his agreement with the theatre.

In Raffaele Calace’s considerable musical production – approximately 200 opus numbers – 9 pieces are for solo guitar, obviously not including his single composition for Hawaiian guitar, Piccolo fiore op. 168. This statistical datum takes on a greater importance if we consider that Calace’s other solo pieces were all for the two main instruments to which he devoted his existence, the mandolin and the cantabile lute: for these instruments he composed respectively 30 and 26 works, in addition to his handbooks, which are a fundamental point of reference for the modern teaching of these instruments. Nonetheless, it would be a mistake to consider this production unworthy of interest: it shows us the taste and charm of a period, and offers us compositions that are refined and far from commonplace. These pieces convey the emotions and intimacy of the romanticism that could be felt in drawing-room music, during the so-called “periodiche”, the musical gatherings in the Neapolitan middle-class homes. The young guitarist Roberto Guarnieri plays Calace's music on a precious 1936 "Mozzani” guitar part of the collection of the Modenese luthier Lorenzo Frignani.