Not a CD, DVD or concert retire today but deails of a project hat may well be of interest from one of the most increasing musicians out there, from his publicists:
Johann Sebastian Bach was born 440 years ago – on 21 March 1685 Italian pianist Filippo Gorini announces a special gift to mark this anniversary: from today 14 March* until 21 March 2025 (incl.) a series of 14 half-hour films, each one featuring Gorini in discussion with luminaries of the world of music, arts and science on the subject of Bach’s final masterpiece,The Art of Fugue, will be free to view here: https://www.theartoffugueexplored.com/documentaryAfter 21 March 2025, the films will still be available on his website but subject to a subscription fee. This special arrangement has been made by Filippo Gorini with the series presenter, Unitel.* 14 March is the annual UNESCO International Day of Mathematics, chosen by Filippo to mark another of his passions – mathematics!)The series was launched last year (on 21 March) to great acclaim on Italian television (see below for details). The majority of the films are in English, with English subtitles for those in Italian and Russian.
QUESTION: What do the following people have in common? German sculptor and painter Alexander Polzin, Austrian pianist Alfred Brendel, American stage director Peter Sellars, Canadian architect Frank Gehry, British cellist Steven Isserlis, Turkish mathematician Betül Tanbay, Russian film director Aleksandr Sokurov, Vancouver Recital Series director Leila Getz, Italian neuro scientist Alice Mado Proverbio, Lebanese writer Dominique Eddé, British mathematician Marcus du Sautoy, German choreographer Sasha Waltz, British composer George Benjamin and young Italian pianist Filippo Gorini (a 2020 Borletti-Buitoni Trust award-winner).
ANSWER: A passion for the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and a profound appreciation of his last unfinished masterpiece, The Art of Fugue. So much so, that all of them accepted Gorini’s invitation to meet with him and discuss in depth their love of Bach, each prompted by one of the counterpoints in this legendary and enigmatic work as the starting point for their conversation.
More than a decade ago (when he was 18) Filippo Gorini began thinking about a project to explore The Art of Fugue – not only to find personal pathways towards understanding and knowing the work more deeply, but also to share his discoveries in a wide variety of ways – live, digital and virtual – with the largest possible audience. Global lockdown and his 2020 BBT Award provided him with the unexpected opportunity to research and prepare this epic quest.
The project launched in Autumn 2020 with a haunting recital filmed without audience in Turin’s extraordinary Mole Antonelliana* building and a critically acclaimed recital disc on Alpha Classics. The Art of Fugue is a continuing thread in his programmes and tours, with more than 30 live recitals throughout the world to date.
This documentary film series marks another major phase of the exploration. Gorini firmly believes that historic masterpieces such as this are vitally connected to contemporary life and culture and deserve constant exploration; “In this project all the forces that have meant most in my life come together organically, from my love of music – especially counterpoint forms – to my passions for art, architecture, mathematics and science.”
Remarkably ambitious in scope, this part of the project has seen Gorini travelling far and wide, from Istanbul to Los Angeles, and welcomed into the homes, studios and retreats of some of the world’s most eminent cultural commentators and practitioners in the worlds of art and science. Touchstone topics of their conversations about The Art of Fugue include time, memory, infinity, rituals, symmetry, nature, life and death, and reveal the importance of Bach’s music in their careers, creativity and personal discoveries.
Filippo Gorini comments; “More and more ideas are taking shape involving film and visual arts, and just as The Art of Fugue is unfinished, so it seems like my work on it will only get more intensive and dedicated. There is nothing more I could welcome in my artistic life than to make such an eternal masterpiece its centre for many years, and my hope is I can bring this seemingly difficult work close to the heart of whoever will choose to listen to me.”
Bach: The Art of Fugue Explored is entirely curated by Filippo Gorini, organised in consultation with Keynote Artist Management and Ute Fesquet and supported by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust and Deutsche Telekom.
Watch the trailer for the series here: https://www.bbtrust.com/artist/filippo-gorini/video/
*Italy’s National Museum of Cinema
|
FILIPPO GORINI piano |
|
Born 1995 into a family of nuclear physicists.
Awards and prizes include Italy’s most prestigious musical acccolade ‘Premio Abbiati’ in 2022, Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award 2020, Telekom-Beethoven Competition (First and Audience prizes) 2015, Neuhaus Competition Moscow 2013 (First prize)“Una Vita per la Musica – Giovani” of La Fenice Theatre, Young Euro Classic Award and Beethoven-Ring of Bonn. Most recently he received the Franco Buitoni Award in recognition of his Sonata for 7 Cities initiative, a radical reorganisation of his professional life to allow month-long residencies in cities around the world that encompass performance, education, outreach and philanthropy. https://www.sonatafor7cities.com
Concert appearances include Wigmore Hall London, Tonhalle Zurich, Meany Hall Seattle, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Berlin Konzerthaus, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Munich Herkulessaal, Società del Quartetto di Milano, Louis Vuitton Foundation Paris.
Orchestras he has recently guested with include Santa Cecilia Orchestra Rome, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchester, Verdi Orchestra Milan, Flanders Symphony Orchestra, Gyeonggi Philharmonic Seoul, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra and Ópera Nacional de Chile. In 2023-24, he will debut in Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Carnegie Hall New York, at Cal Performances Berkeley, and with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
Festival appearances include Al Bustan Festival Lebanon, Cliburn Beethoven Festival, Naples Associazione Scarlatti, Accademia Filharmonica Romana, Ravello Festival, Ravenna Festival and Festival Bach Montreal, as well as a chamber music tour in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington DC for the Marlboro Music Festival.
Chamber music collaborators include Steven Isserlis/Prussia Cove and Chamber Music Connects the World in Kronberg and with such musicians as Marc Bouchkov, Itamar Zorman, Pablo Ferrandez, Brannon Cho and Erica Piccotti.
Recordings on Alpha Classics of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations (winner of Diapason d’Or Award), Beethoven’s Op. 106 & Op. 111 and Bach’s The Art of Fugue, all critically acclaimed.
