BRING A PIANO BACK TO LIFE

https://www.retedeldono.it/en/bdonations/205982

The link above will bring you to Mr. Bartoli’s epic campaign to restore his 1959 Steinway. The crowdfunding platform is in Italian, but below is an English translation. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

During the pandemic, in an unprecedented programme of cultural divulgation, pianist Sandro Ivo Bartoli recorded Domenico Scarlatti’s complete Sonatas: 558 films which he freely shared through his YouTube channel. Introducing each episode with his colloquial yet informed style, Bartoli reached a global audience, including a multitude of people that were not previously accustomed to classical music. This resulted in thousands of channel subscriptions, hundreds of thousands of views, and an avalanche of comments asking him to do more. Bartoli is keen not to disappoint, and intends to do much more. Yet, in order to be able to continue this work, his piano needs a complete restoration. Bring A Piano Back To Life ia a project which will enable anybody to take part in this great adventure, donating a new lease of life to the instrument which will donate music.

Bring A Piano Back To Life: why?

«Recording all the Sonatas by Scarlatti taught me many things – says Bartoli – but the biggest of all has been the realization of how much our societies need serious, entertaining and accessible musical divulgation. As a musician, I have always considered it part of my mission to make this wonderful art form accessible to a vast audience, and especially to those individuals who are not accustomed to Classical music. I knew that I had an an audience of aficionados who followed my concerts eagerly, but with internet it was possible to reach a much larger audience. It has been very exciting to see how many people became passionate about Classical music through my little films.

When the project finished, on Christmas Day 2021, many came forward asking me to do more, to continue with this divulgatory work. How can one disappoint the expectations of those eager to learn? It would be a betrayal of those principles which are, or should be, at the core of my work.

In my small ways, I will continue to earn my living doing what I have always done: giving concerts. However, it has become an imperative priority to continue my work online, building on the musical sharing which began with Scarlatti. My project is quite simple: to make my repertoire available to all who have an internet connection.

Following on what I did with Scarlatti, I will realise a broad range of video projects such as, for example, all the Sonatas by Hayd Franz Joseph Haydn, the Nocturnes of Chopin, or Clementi’s Gradus ad Parnassum. With the intent of being useful to the many young students who follow my channel, I will film a selection of teaching pieces – especially Etudes – of various authors such as Czerny, Heller, Liszt: the daily diet of all who approach piano studies. In addition, in my years as a concert pianist, I have had many pieces written for and dedicated to me. The third and final part of my project will consist of bringing to the public this new and unknown music, thus closing an indeal trajectory which spans from the dawn of the pianoforte era (with Bach, Scarlatti and Clementi) to, quite literally, our days.

It is an ambitious and onerous work, but a work which will – in my intentions at least – give a modicum of music education to thousands of people who would not otherwise have access to that great heritage of humankind we call “Music”».

Restoration.

Pianos are complex machines, made of thousands of mobile parts which are capable of creating magic. Like any machine, however, pianos are susceptible to wear. After a certain limit, the instrument’s tonal capabilities rapidly degenerate, rendering it impossible for the pianist to realise the myriad of tone colours which distinugish noteworthy interpretations. The protagonist of thie project is Steinway & Sons’ Model B-211 364.122 of 1959: taxed with the enormous workload of the Scarlatti project, it is in need of a complete restoration. The experts of Piano Team recommend a series of actions which will bring the instrument back to its former tonal splendour, rendering it once again suitable for excellent recordings. In detail, the restoration includes: the renewal of the soundboard, keeping the piano in a controlled climate chamber; the complete restoration of the keyboard, the complete substitution of all mechanical parts (action, hammers), the restoration of the cast iron frame, the substitution of the legs attachments, the substitution of pins and strings, a new pedalboard, the restoration of the case and a final repolish of the external areas.

Film.

Such a great amount of work on a musical instrument is a noteworthy event, which requires specific knowledge and many months of work. In line with the divulgatory charcater of Sandro Ivo Bartoli’s YouTube channel, the restoration will be documented in a series of films by Emanuele Zampieri and Luca Damiani who will follow each step of the restoration process, beginning with the long journey that the instrument will need to make from its home in Tuscany to Piano Team’s laboratory in Verona. At the end of the restoration, all the films will be reunited in a documentary which, for the first time, will reveal the secrets that lay inside a piano: the magic assonance of the various parts, which together create a unique sound.

How to take part.

Helping us, you will help musical divulgation globally. We will gratefully accept any donation, big and small, but with a donation of € 500 it is possible to adopt one of the piano’s 88 keys. Donors who will opt for this solution will receive an authentic piano key, autographed by Maestro Bartoli.

Businesses will have the opportunity to purchase publicity on Sandro Ivo Bartoli’s YouTube channel, in so doing gaining complete tax deductibility. For more information, please contact Maestro Bartoli directly at info@sandroivobartoli.com

All donors who wish to will be mentioned individually in the final documentary, to be released at the end of the restoration process.

SCARLATTI / ALL SONATAS REACHES 60

Sandro Ivo Bartoli’s project to record and introduce all the Sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti reaches its 60th episode today. Much interaction has taken place with the public already, and Sandro has decided to publish a Q&A session to answer some of the questions that you have asked him. The first Q&A is available on the YT channel, here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXLTrFO9mwpQMSv9tSmZYPQ?view_as=subscriber

SCARLATTI/ALL SONATAS

These are hard times, and the future is uncertain. People are dying.
Because of Coronavirus we live in total isolation, and theatres are closed until further notice. I am concert pianist, and a life without music seems to me an unbearable sentence. It’s time to act!

Isolation inspires introspection, and as a musician I thought to accompany the natural progression of this terrible circumstance with a musical video diary: a pill of music a day, offered first on Facebook and later posted on Youtube. The well over 500 Sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti will be my diary. They are a universe of their own in the firmament of music: happy, solemn, devilish, lyric, irreverent, revolutionary, popular, touching, simple, entertaining, fiendishly difficult, crazy. Above all, they are the work of a genius. To survey them all will be an expedient to try and ease the long road to normalcy. An open hand, if you will, towards a better future.

We know very little of Scarlatti’s life. His dates (Neaples, October 26th 1685 – Madrid, July 23rd 1757) attest to a long existence of which documentary evidence is very scant indeed: of his presence in Florence, Venice, Rome and Lisbon, where in 1719 he became Music Master to the royal family, are established facts. In Lisbon he became the music master of Maria Barbara of Braganza, a relevant figure in Scarlatti’s biography. We know of further travels to Paris, Rome, Neaples and London, but the dearth of undisputable information is disarming. As a result, much of the deductions put forth by scholars have more the scent of legend than that of certainty to them. No autograph manuscript of the Sonatas exists. In fact, the very survival of these masterpieces appears to be the outcome of a shady deed: the Sonatas have come down to us in very elegant copies possibly commissioned by Maria Barbara, whom by then had become the Queen of Spain, in exchange for her extinguishing the Maestro’s gambling debts. Apparently, most of the Sonatas were written as “lessons” for Maria Barbara, and if that were the case she must have been a keyboard player of incalculable talent. The technical and musical innovation put forth by Scarlatti as the story unfolded were of epic reach: hands crossing at the keyboard, chains of fast repeated notes played with different fingers on the same key, and dissonant harmonies centuries ahead of their time contributed to the mad race towards a unique form of musical expression. Within the Sonatas royal dance forms (minuets, gavottes) found their place alongside popoular ones (fandangos, jotas), and imaginative imitations of other instruments such as the guitar, the mandolin or the castanets. From the magical forest of Scarlatti’s Sonatas also emerged marvellous cantabiles of various inspiration, monumental sequoias raching toward the light.

The question as to whether this music ought to be destined to the harpsichord, the clavichord, or whether it is licit to interpret them on the modern piano is an open ended one. For once with Scarlatti we have a piece of undisputable data: the Maestro knew Cristofori’s piano (quite possibly since its first appearance at Florence in 1700), and had several exemplars at his disposal while in the service of Maria Barbara. From here to state unequivocally that Scarlatti wrote at least some of his Sonatas for the piano is an unsubstantiated assumption. Inevitably, though, I am biased. My approach will be a simple one: as I am a pianist, I will play as a pianist and will use the full resources of my intrument. I will film in my studio in Vecchiano, in the province of Pisa, Italy, on my old Steinway and Sons model “B” from 1959.

In the spirit of friendly communion, each episode will have a brief spoken introduction, possibly highlighting the most salient aspects of the music being offered. Those who will have the time and means will be encouraged to interact with me along the way, and I will make efforts to respond to every question, curiosity, suggestion and so on. The order in which I will perform the Sonatas is a mystery, and for me too. I will not seek a chronological sequence, as those we have (Kirkpatrick and Pestelli to name but two) are the result of informed guess work. Instead, I will adopt the time-tested method of common sense; a project of this magnitude will require months of work, study and production: a certain flexibility in the musical discourse and in the broadcasting calendar has to be factored in. The only certainty is that there will be a new entry every day until completion. I am about to embark on this project with devout gratitude: to play all the Sonatas by Scarlatti will be an adventurous and thrilling voyage of discovery, a dream becoming reality. Scarlatti must have had quite a sense of humour. In the preface of the “30 Essercizi for Harpsichord”, his only work to appear in print during his lifetime, he penned a funny advice to the reader. It is a glimpse into the spirit in which these works were conceived, and in which they continue to live on:
«do not expect, whether you are a dilettante or a professor, to find in these compositions any profound intention, but rather an ingenious banter in the art to exercise you in rigorous play of the harpsichord. No point of view or ambition guided me, but obedience brought me to publish it. […] Therefore do show yourself more humane than critic, and you will thereby grow your own pleasure. […] Live happily».

Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto Op.23

Mr Bartoli’s string of international engagements reaches new heights this month when he performs Tchaikovsky’s timeless Piano concerto No.1 with the Wilde-Gungl Symphonieorchester and Michele Carulli at the Herkulessaal in Munich. It is a welcome comeback for the award-winning team: Bartoli and Carulli won a Diapason D’Or for their recording of Gian Francesco Malipiero’s complete Piano Concertos on CPO, and have collaborated many times in the past, notably in concertos by Rachmaninov and Respighi. Few tickets are still available here: https://www.muenchenticket.de/guide/tickets/25fg6/Symphoniekonzert.html

pianofortissimo launched

Mr Bartoli’s three-date concert series in the magnificent Gipsoteca od Ancient Art in Pisa has been announced today. Within the three recitals, which will take place on Fridays March 23rd, April 6th and April 20th, Mr Bartoli will survey a sizable amount of piano literature spanning four centuries of music making. Each concert is themed around a significant chapter of the piano’s history, beginning with “A tea in Vienna” with works by Haydn, Schubert and Beethoven. “A vojage to Italy” charts the Romantics reaction to the musical allure of the belpaese with works by Frescobaldi-Respighi, Clementi and Liszt, while “The pianist at the opera” covers the fantastic influence that musical drama exterted in the concert hall.

VOIX DES ARTS AND TEXTURA REVIEWS OF PUCCINI’S PIANO MUSIC

Two more rave reviews have come in covering Mr Bartoli’s recent Puccini album. Mr Joseph Andrew Newsome on Voix des Arts wrote that (Bartoli’s performances) “celebrate the beauties of Puccini’s music with a blaze of passion that no pseudo-academic disapprobation can wholly extinguish”, while Ron Schepper on Textura commented: “Of the fourteen selections, four will be the most familiar to Puccini devotees, “Vissi d’arte,” “Un bel di vedremi,” “Coro a boccia chiusa” (the well-known “Humming Chorus” from Madama Butterfly), and “Piccolo Valzer,” an early piano setting that eventually became “Musetta’s Waltz” from La bohème. The latter serves as a representative illustration of the recording in the elegance with which Bartoli voices its tender melodies, and how expertly he effects the tempo modulations and realizes the song’s entrancing lilt”. Read the full reviews here (Voix-des-Arts): http://www.voix-des-arts.com/2018/01/personal-perspectives-sandro-ivo.html and here (Textura): http://www.textura.org/archives/b/bartoli_puccini.htm