Review of Sylvano Bussotti Complete Music for Solo Guitar by Sergio Sorrentino, Creative Sources Recordings, 2016
“Three composers have influenced me – listening to their music as much as their personal acquaintance:
Luigi Dallpiccola, when I was fourteen
Pierre Boulez, when I was twenty-four
John Cage, when I was twenty-six” *
Can I say it? It was time! Finally a collection of all pieces for solo guitar composed by the italian composer Sylvano Bussotti! I would say that this CD was necessary: Bussotti in fact has since long time ago created several interesting compositions for classical guitar, creating around himself a kind of musical cult linked not only to the beauty of his musical ideas but also to his own compositions, realizing the unique scores with a particular way of representing the same musical notes.
This CD presents five Bussotti’s compositions, in an ideal cycle that starts with Ultima Rara (1969) and ends with Rara (eco siero) (1964-67), where the guitar begins to become a music medium between the archaic world and modernism, creating new sounds, with almost theatrical ideas.
“A “creator” is influenced more than anything by musical culture.” *
Within this ideal musical ring there are three more tracks: Ermafrodito (1999), created on commission of the German guitarist Hans-Jürgen Gerung(for those who wish to learn more about Ermafrodito and Gerung you can read my interviews to him in my book Visionary Guitars Chatting with Guitarists), Nuvola Barocca (2011) and the new Popolaresca, composed in 1989, an unprecedented score by theopera Bozzetto Siciliano, delivered by the Maestro himself to the guitarist Sergio Sorrentino, on the occasion and for the realization of this cd.
“Self-repetition is to my mind primary a bilogical characteristic of man rather than of composers.” *
An ideal close for this music cycle is rightly A piece for Guitar for the 60th Birthday of Sylvano Bussotti, created in 1991 by Toru Takemitsu.
If I had to give a first, quick opinion about this cd after a first listening to, I would define this as Sorrentino’s mature record. I’m following Sergio Sorrentino from several years, years in which he devoted himself with full and complete belief in the evolution of an artistic and challenging path between contemporary music, recovery and innovation of the italian chitarra battente, music for theater, participation with artists that moved in alternative areas, each leaving traces of his passion and his creative intelligence. With this record, he marks an important step in his career and in his discography with a disc of which, I am sure, we will talk a lot about. Hightly recommended!
* Balint Andras Varga, Three Questions for Sixty-five Composers, University of Rochester Press, 2011
1) ULTIMA RARA (for guitar and voice – 1969) 8:19
2) POPOLARESCA (for guitar solo – unedited manuscript from the Opera “Bozzetto Siciliano” 1989) 2:09
3) ERMAFRODITO (for guitar and voice – 1999) 19:05
4) NUVOLA BAROCCA (for guitar solo – 2011) 7:15
5) RARA (eco sierologico) for guitar solo – 1964/1967 9:30
6) Bonus track: TORU TAKEMITSU (1930-1996): A PIECE FOR GUITAR FOR THE 60th BIRTHDAY OF SYLVANO BUSSOTTI (for guitar solo – 1991) 1:54
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