MUSICA E SCUOLA, Year 19th - Nr.21
(Gioiosa Editrice - Sannicandro Garganico, FG)
December 2005 (page 27):
A meeting with...
Sergio Calligaris,
by Walter Tortoreto

In its program of artistic raising, supported by a hidden but precious work for internal reorganization, the Association of I Solisti Aquilani meets Sergio Calligaris' music.
Of the well-known Italian-Argentinian musician, I Solisti performed three demanding works in three different evenings (23rd and 30th July and 24th August), set in a frame of pages of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century entrusted to the violins of Stefania Franchini, Melanie Budde and Laura Gorna, to the cellos of Massimo Magri and Fernando Caida Greco and to the pianism of Stefania Mormone and Calligaris himself. In the occasion of the last date in Rocca di Mezzo, Maestro Calligaris, with the courtesy distinguishing him, answered our questions.

Maestro, three works of yours in three different concerts make think to a tribute similar to the famous "beneficiate" in the nineteenth century.

I do actually feel honoured from this important acknowledgement. Those three works refer to different periods but they are united by a writing whose style is immediately recognizeable. The event, presented by the President of the Consortium for the cultural development of the Rocche, Giovanni Cocciante, together with the managers of the Solisti Aquilani, contributes to the cultural and turistic raising of a territory which has been imposing itself in national field with numerous and valid initiatives.

You currently conserve a vast fame in the Abruzzi. What memory do you have of your years spent in this region?

I worked for a long time in the Abruzzi, at the Conservatories of Pescara and L'Aquila, after having taught in the United States and in Naples, and I am often in touch with my pupils, some of whom are excellent musicians. But in spite of leaving L'Aquila, not so much time ago yet, I have not interrupted my work ties because I come to these wonderful mountains on holiday and I can compose in absolute meditation. The serenity of these places supports both the inspiration of creating the thematic structure of my pieces and the hard task at my small table, when all themes are combined in the various movements and in the form of each movement.

You anticipated the raising of the tonal music, from which you never went away?

It is a matter of coherence. I feel myself a man of my time and, in fact, my themes, those more relaxed as well as the stormy or even brutal ones, arise from everyday life. But I avoid the labyrinths of certain experimentations because I aspire to an expressive music.
In my music I tell my time's life, with the melancholy or the storms that difficulties stir up in our heart, the engrossed contemplation of certain adagios or the energy, the violence, the rhythmic freedom of other episodes. And the mystery where we live or the dream… Opus 36 for Strings of 1995, the Concerto for Strings of the 1989 and the Doppio Concerto Opus 37 form a sort of sound fresco of our life in all its aspects.

You recently received an important international acknowledgement. What is it about?

Last year I was awarded with the Prize as International Musician of the Year by the International Biographical Centre of Cambridge.
It is a prestigious commendation granted only to very few musical personalities of certain international influence. A commission of specialists selects thousands of musical biographies before taking a decision.
The Prize numbers 142 editions. You can therefore understand my joy and satisfaction for an acknowledgement of such exceptional importance.

Walter Tortoreto