On December 08, at our 2th subscription concert at the Stadtcasino Basel, we will present "Disruptive Tradition", featuring works by Unsuk Chin and Sofia Gubaidulina.
Alice Di Piazza, who is considered and described by international critics as one of the most talented pianists of her generation, will not only be the soloist of the evening in Gubaidulina’s "Introitus" and present her Chaconne for Solo Piano, but has a very special relationship with Gubaidulina. The revised version of the "Introitus" from 2016 presented in Basel on December 8 was created in close collaboration between the pianist and the composer.
We are very excited about this collaboration and asked her a few questions to get to know her better.
1. How did you first come into contact with "classical music" and why have you never been able to get away from it?
I don't remember a moment in my life without the piano. During my early years I lived a lot with my paternal grandmother. She was a pianist. Every evening, unfailingly, she would sit at the piano, and I would sit on her lap, entranced. I was so fascinated that I would put my little hands on hers as she played, to feel her movements on the keyboard. Until one day, it was my little hands on the keyboard and not hers... I was 3 years old… and I haven't stopped playing since. To stop would have been like "losing my voice", to become mute.
2. You started studying piano at the age of 3 and later also became interested in orchestral conducting, counterpoint, fugue and composition. Did these studies open up new horizons for you as a pianist? And if so, how did it influence your musical thinking?
When I was a child, not having many toys, I used to spend hours creating musical stories on the piano by first making use of the instrument's infinite variety of sounds and later beginning to create simple melodies that defined the characters in my stories. I was young, 16 years old, when I began composition lessons with Sicilian composer Eliodoro Sollima. The study of counterpoint and fugue allowed me to "enter" more deeply into the musical text to better understand its inherent structure and texture. Conducting has not only allowed me to be able to better "decipher" the orchestral score but also to deepen my physical, bodily relationship to the sound.
3. Our joint project focuses on works by Sofia Gubaidulina, with whom you have a very special relationship. What fascinates you about her works and why?
What immediately moved me in Sofia's music is the high spiritual content with which all her music is imbued. I'm so deeply attracted by the powerful atmosphere of her works, the depth, the darkness and at the same time the light… a kind of spiritual light. All the symbolic meaning of the content of her music influences constantly the constructive principles of her writing. This is so original, so innovative.
4. If you hadn't become an artist, what would you have become?
Philosophy professor.
5. The Basel Sinfonietta has made it its mission to perform "music at the pulse of time" and to participate in social discourse with its programs. How do you think this can be achieved?
I have always considered art and especially music in its archaic meaning of Catharsis.
The social role of art is so profound that I cannot find the right words to describe it. I regularly try to add, to my standard concert activity, projects with high humanistic content, such as going to play in prisons, hospitals, supporting associations such as Médecins Sans Frontières, Musique Esperance or Mary’s meals...
