This page contains a whole
series of comments, quotations and entire reviews related to compositions and
performances, concerts and recordings by Sergio Calligaris.
All quotations, that I've grouped into three chapters related to Calligaris as composer,
pianist and artist, have been pronounced by influential people within the musical
environment, both artistic and critical: this testifies how Maestro Calligaris enjoys
their respect, which makes him one of the most appreciated contemporary musicians all over
the world.
Nevertheless, I'd like to make precede all texts of this page by a prologue that I
consider very significant, with my translation into English of a short letter sent to
Maestro Calligaris by his friend Franco Campegiani, bright intellect of poet and
philosopher, as well as journalist and critic of art.
A private letter (dated 18th April 2004), not intended for publishing, in spontaneity and
authenticity of which words the Maestro distinguished such an extraordinary evocation of
the poetic essence of his music to obtain the consent to publish it hereafter.
Words that, gushed out a soul deeply similar to the Composer's, are endowed with the
ability to universalize the expression of all feelings aroused by his listening and that
everyone loves Calligaris' music can feel intimately own.
«I've listened again to your music full of anxiety and sweetness, storms and dawns,
thunders and lightning that explode in a clear sky.
A lacerating expressive power inside regions of endless tenderness. Oasis of peace and
fields of battle. There's the pace of the conqueror and also the rest of the tired
warrior. Wonderful harmony of opposites!
When I can, I love to listen again to your music, and this is a rapture towards
unfrequented spheres of the soul, that recount of cosmic faith and vital strength. I've
improperly used the verb "listen", because your art involves totally. It isn't
merely auditory, but even visual, olfactory, tactile.
I obviously mean superior senses, spiritual supersenses, where the physicality is present,
but at the same time it is transformed, surpassed. When I maintain the spirituality of the
art, I don't intend to distinguish the soul and the man, but I mean that the man is raised
by art to the spiritual spheres. There, on those peaks, it is the real power of mankind,
his real love, his equilibrium, his thirst for freedom and justice, his aim and his élan
towards the infinity.»
Sergio Calligaris, the composer
Sergio Calligaris, the pianist
Sergio Calligaris, the artist
As epilogue of this page, I eventually wish to take the opportunity to make accessible
a "personal" appendix completely concerned with a composition, the Piano
Concerto op.29: this holds particular importance not only within Maestro's catalogue, but
also for the friendship itself between Maestro and me. I entitled this appendix "Quodlibet".