Gianluca Fortino
Les Productions D’Oz: 10 pages
Swiss born Fortino, now residing in Italy, has written much music for guitar and loves many kinds of musical styles as evidenced by this latest set of pieces.
Cielo e Terra (Sky and Earth) is marked Sostenuto and has a constant crotchet of mainly a two note idea (but on occasions three) that keeps the beat whilst the lower –voiced melody leaps and cavorts around it in spectacular fashion, in essence making sure you don’t take the crotchet beat of the pair of notes above, too fast! The time signature swaps between three and four throughout, and the hardest part of this opener is instantly finding the correct fingers to keep both elements going. Nevertheless this is quirky and lots of fun.
Un Bassotto a Passeggio (A dachshund on a walk), has the marking Trascinato e lentamente (dragging and slowly) and here has a low plodding bass line with the sad theme over the top, in a two voiced structure. A middle section marked, Piu Mosso Malinconico of a moving quavers idea is obviously where the owner tries to get the dog to speed up! But he fails as, the opening idea returns quickly and the piece dies away with a Tonic Major chord
Per Un Amico (For a Friend) is dedicated, one assumes, to a late friend who is named on the score. This Adagio con Sentimento is a moving , devastated set of harmonies underneath a slow mournful melody that has its moments of difficulty owing to the need for a constant legato, and the occasional difficulty in achieving that with the part – writing involved.
And in case you were thinking that things were getting too serious, the final Valserino Irriverente takes things entirely in the other direction with an Allegro full of ‘wrong’ notes and unexpectedly humorous elements entirely written around the standard waltz idea of bass note, and two chords.
All in all this is a lovely set of characterful pieces that really work as a set and would be ideal in a concert .The difficulty factor is reasonable , so beginners are not going to be able to cope with this (yet!).Nevertheless I can highly recommend this.
Chris Dumigan
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