QUATTRO CANTI (Four Songs) for guitar and orchestra, dedicated to guitarist Lapo Vannucci, will be premiered next June 2 in Vidin, Bulgaria. Lapo Vannucci (guitar) with the Vidin Symphony Orchestra directed by Robert Gutter.
Quattro Canti for guitar and orchestra is part of the “Concerto Trilogy” composed for guitarist Lapo Vannucci and pianist Luca Torrigiani.
The trilogy consists of a concerto for guitar and orchestra, a concerto for piano and orchestra and a “Double Concerto” for guitar, piano and orchestra. The three concerts still retain their own autonomy and can of course be performed separately.
Quattro Canti, as the title suggests, is a guitar concerto divided into four movements. However this is not the only interpretation, as happens in my other works.
Who knows Palermo will surely guess my intention to describe musically the heart of my city, ideally placed at Quattro Canti (“Four Corners”), a monumental crossroads become one of the most characteristic symbols of Palermo.
Two possible interpretations though: living the music experience becoming carried away by the flow of the four movements leaded by the guitar song or ideally standing in the center of Palermo at Quattro Canti, between Via Maqueda and Corso Vittorio Emanuele and from there watching the soul of the city.
I wanted to represent musically four images of the city seen from this precise privileged position.
1. Al Qasr, this is the Arabic name of the Corso Vittorio Emanuele, Cassaro for the people of Palermo, the historical home of the Urban dynamic and carefree social life as well as a place of dramatic events that have marked the history of the city.
2. Teatro del Sole (The Theatre of the Sun) is one of the names of the “Four Corners”: at any time of day the sun is there, to observe and protect it. Canto del Sole (The Song of the Sun) is a slow movement, is a hymn and a prayer, a tribute to that beautiful light that makes look so beautiful every single stone in the city.
3. The Spanish viceroy Don Juan Fernandez Pacheco de Villena y Ascalon wanted Palermo having this monument and the third movement is a tribute to a nobleman who I imagine very proud and elegant.
4. Watching the sea from the Quattro Canti is impossible without seeing Porta Felice (The Happy Door). It is the entrance to the sea, the symbol of the beginning of a journey, it is a symbol of freedom, image of happiness.
