PianoLab

PianoLab crowns my collaboration project with the composer Francesco Maria Paradiso.

The subtitle Ridotti dell'udibile refers to the most authentic meaning of the project: the ambition was not only to move forward the repertoire of a group of young musicians, more or less unconsciously resigned to retrace the furrow of a consolidated tradition, but to show them how much the field of their future activities was open, branched and largely unexplored. Putting aside for a moment the solid certainties on which everyone rested their steps, for once free from the burdens of an interpretative orthodoxy often rigid and cumbersome, the participants in the project had the opportunity to renew the relationship with their cultural baggage, developing listening skills, creativity and freedom of personal expression on an unprecedented scale.

All this is summarized in the 5 movements of PianoLab, each dedicated to a particular aspect of writing for and the possibilities of interaction with live electronics, an open work that can be reborn with each performance, with many stimuli and opportunities which the piece offers. Improvisation plays a fundamental role here, not only as an implicit suggestion of the text but even more as a need of adaptation and communication between the pianist and his electronic partner, now leading, now letting himself be led, also through a renewed piano gesture as an additional means of expressive communication.

Andrea Ivaldi, pianist, 9 February 2022