Da Vinci Classics
Giancarlo Parisi, Rossella Perrone
Physical and Digital Release: 29 November 2019
Giancarlo Parisi and Rossella Perrone revisit Villa-Lobos through transcriptions for saxello, zi flute and guitar, tracing the changing colours and melodic voices of Lua Nova.
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13.67€
Digital programme · 12 tracks
Timings refer to the digital edition. Transcriptions for guitar, saxello and zi flute.
Rossella Perrone: Born in Milan, she studied guitar with Paolo Paolini at Giuseppe Verdi Conservatoire and graduated with the highest grade in 1995. She continued her studies with Massimo Laura at Lugano Conservatoire where she obtained her MA with Honors. She perfectionated her technical and interpretative skills with Oscar Chiglia at Accademia Chigiana in Siena and with David Russel and Matteo Mela. Later, she obtained the teaching qualification with the highest grade at Conservatoire of Milan. In 2011 she published with Carisch the essay “Leuto, tiorba and Mandolin in Vivaldi’s compositions”. As solist, she won the first prize in several music competitions, such as the National Competition in Genoa and the International Competition in Nova Milanese. She played with the Orchestra of Teatro La Fenice in Venice, with the Musica Rara Ensamble, with the choir of the Verdi Orchestra in Milan and with the “A. Viotti” Orchestra. She also featured several recording for labels such as Bayer Records, for the Italian Swiss Radio and for Decca. For Decca in 2003 she accompanied the singer Juan Diego Florez for the “Una Furtiva Lagrima” recording. From 1995 to 2010 she taught guitar at the Italian Swiss Conservatoire in Lugano.
Born in Messina, Giancarlo Parisi is a flautist, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. After graduating in flute, he devoted himself to the study of flutes and single-reed woodwind instruments and began his career composing and performing music for theatre.
In the 1990s he collaborated in the studio and in concert with leading artists on the Italian music scene, including Fabrizio De André, Mia Martini, PFM and Eugenio Finardi. Through several original projects, including Asteriskos, for which he composed all the music, he has appeared at numerous international folk and world music festivals.
He has taken part in several editions of La Notte della Taranta, collaborating with Stewart Copeland, Vittorio Cosma and Giovanni Sollima. A leading exponent of the Sicilian zampogna a paro, he developed and patented a chromatic version of this traditionally diatonic bagpipe, opening it to previously inaccessible musical languages and possibilities. He composed and performed Concerto No. 1 for chromatic zampogna a paro and orchestra.
With the Italian woodwind maker Rampone & Cazzani, he devised the revival of the saxello. In June 2014 he conceived, developed and patented a new two-timbre flute headjoint, the Zi-Flute by Parisi, produced and marketed by Briccialdi Flute.
Heitor Villa-Lobos (b Rio de Janeiro, 5 March 1887; d Rio de Janeiro, 17 Nov 1959). Brazilian composer. Heitor Villa-Lobos stands as the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music. This significance stems not only from his international recognition, but from his achievement in creating unique compositional styles in which contemporary European techniques and reinterpreted elements of national music are combined. His highly successful career stood as a model for subsequent generations of Brazilian composers.
The unusual blend of zi flute, bagpipes, saxello and the sound of classical guitar distinguishes the unique richness of this duo, together with the choice of the masterpieces of one of the most interesting artists of the XXth century: Heitor Villa-Lobos. Some of the chosen pieces (such as the Preludes and the Suite Populaire Bresilienne dances) composed for guitar by Villa-Lobos by grasping and skilfully using its distinctive traits and its grammar, have been rearranged for this unusual duo. In these new arrangements the woodwind instrument fathers the melodies in…
The unusual blend of zi flute, bagpipes, saxello and the sound of classical guitar distinguishes the unique richness of this duo, together with the choice of the masterpieces of one of the most interesting artists of the XXth century: Heitor Villa-Lobos. Some of the chosen pieces (such as the Preludes and the Suite Populaire Bresilienne dances) composed for guitar by Villa-Lobos by grasping and skilfully using its distinctive traits and its grammar, have been rearranged for this unusual duo. In these new arrangements the woodwind instrument fathers the melodies in constant dialogue with the guitar and generates improvisational moments with ethnic echoes. By merging his homeland floklore with indigenous music and European classical music elements, where Bach stands as the absolute reference, Villa-Lobos’ music is the ideal balance among a melancholic lyricism, a creative mix of popular elements and a visceral modernism. The Choro (“the essence of the brazilian musical soul”, as Villa-Lobos defined it) becomes the backbone of the Suite Populaire Bresilienne, where the typical language of carioca music builds on the European dance rhythms. The Brazilian songs Xangò and Estrella e Lua Nova, composed for orchestra and voice and resulting from Villa-Lobos’ researches on the ethnomusical aspects of the Brazilian culture in several travels through the north-est lands and the Amazon, show Villa-Lobos’ ability to reinvent folklore. He deals with these themes with an extremely original and advanced touch and evokes them with the unique richness of the saxello, zi flute or the bagpipes. His melodies are based on a harsh style, with reminiscence of the Old Continent composition rules together with an essential, very evocative and often percussive accompaniment that revives the Indios roots. In these unfortunate times, in which deforestation in Brazil is endangering one of the most important natural resources on our Planet, this project wants to be a musical tribute to the Indios people and the Amazon facing a great risk of extinction. The inspiration for the artwork created by the artist Carla Zaffaroni comes from the rainforest bamboo as a metaphore of life and hope because of its vitality, its strenght and its grow speed. Therefore, bamboo becomes the symbol of spiritual elevation resulting from the constant dialogue between creativity and the environmental and civic issues of our times.
Selected awards, reviews and interviews. Radio broadcasts and podcasts are listed separately below.
Bresciaoggi
An appreciative account of Giancarlo Parisi and Rossella Perrone’s Villa-Lobos programme, drawing attention to its distinctive instrumentation and Brazilian musical influences. Published in the print edition; no numerical rating is assigned.
Broadcasts, conversations and listening features dedicated to this recording.
Radio UNAM
The official FM schedule lists Villa-Lobos’s Lua Nova at 16:36, performed by Rossella Perrone and Giancarlo Eliodoro Parisi, with the Da Vinci Classics 2019 recording identified as the source.
Explore the broadcast ↗ - Radio UNAM
