Emanuele Torquati has been invited with his long-term chamber music partner Francesco Dillon to take part at 75th edition of Festival del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, one of the oldest and most prestigious Italian music Festivals. For this special occasion, Duo Dillon-Torquati will give the premiere of “La quarta parte della terra”, a project completely devoted to Southamerican repertoire and inspired by Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci. In one of his letters, he named the new lands that he was about to discover, “The fourth part of Earth” (La quarta parte della terra).
In order to celebrate the 500th Anniversary from his death, Dillon-Torquati chose a wide selection of pieces written by most prominent Latinamerican composers, e.g. Alberto Ginastera, Heitor Villa Lobos, Carlos Guastavino and Astor Piazzolla.
The program is inspired by the idea of a mesmerizing journey between evocations, sounds and images, with the contribution of video artist Luca Di Pierro (USA-Italy) and film maker Gaston Solnicki (Argentina).
The project will feature Villa Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras n. 2 and the beautiful Song of the Black Swan, as well as virtuosic pieces like Ginastera’s Pampeana n. 2 and Piazzolla’s Le Grand Tango. Last but not least, Francesco Dillon will perform a new cello solo piece with electronics by Martin Bauer, while Emanuele Torquati will present Tango errante by Maria Cecilia Villanueva.
Duo Dillon-Torquati is going to perform extensively in the first two months of the year.
Their engagements include 3 concerts in Pescara, Rome and Campobasso, with a program devoted to Franz Liszt (recently released for Brilliant Classics), Busoni, Bartòk and Strauss, including a premiere of Italian composer Mauro Cardi especially written for them.
After this first round of concerts, they’re going to present a second version of last year successful project “DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES”, at Area Sismica, Villa Romana and NY Musikk in Oslo. This new edition will include beside Brahms and Schumann Lieder, a world premiere by Argentinian composer Martin Bauer and German composer Carola Bauckholt, a new piece by emerging talent Daniele Ghisi, plus Peter Ablinger Voices and piano and Jacob TV piece for cello, piano and electronic based on Chet Baker’s last interview.
Emanuele Torquati will take part in South American biggest New Music Festival, CICLO DE CONCIERTOS DE MUSICA CONTEMPORANEA in Buenos Aires. The opening concert will be a Recital with a selection of Peter Ablinger’s extensive cycle VOICES AND PIANO (1998-). Special guest will be the composer himself, playing the electronics. Voices includes Hanna Schygulla, Jorge Luis Borges, Pierpaolo Pasolini and Marcel Duchamp, among others. The event will take place on 12th November at Teatro Colòn. READ CONCERT’S REVIEW HERE
Torquati will perform three times more at the Festival, giving the Argentinian premiere of Feldman’s Piano and String Quartet on 23rd Nov. with Prometeo String Quartet, performing the project “DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES” with cellist Francesco Dillon on 27th Nov., and finally taking part in the 18th hours marathon performance of Erik Satie VEXATIONS between 29th and 30th Nov.
READ CONCERT REVIEW OF FELDMAN PIANO AND SQ
Emanuele Torquati will perform one of Feldman’s last pieces, PIANO AND STRING QUARTET (1985) with Prometeo String Quartet. This fascinating 80 minutes long work will be presented with a new video made especially for this occasion by visual artist Luca Di Pierro.
The performances will take place on 13th October at Villa Bassi in Abano Terme, on 15th October at Villa Romana in Florence and on 23rd November in Argentina, at Teatro San Martin Buenos Aires. This performance will be the Argentinian premiere of this work and will be part of the 15th Edition of CICLOS DE CONCIERTOS DE MUSICA CONTEMPORANEA.
READ BUENOS AIRES CONCERT’S REVIEW HERE
On 28th September at Austrian Forum Rome (8 pm, free admission), Duo Dillon-Torquati will premiere FOCUS AUSTRIA. The project is solely devoted to Austrian music and includes a varied selection of both unknown Romantic pieces, eg. Heinrich von Herzongeberg Drei Legenden op. 62 and Alexander von Zemlinsky Drei Stuecke, and New music.
Emanuele Torquati will perform Beat Furrer’s Voicelessness - The snow has no voice and Francesco Dillon In freier Lust….verbunden by Georg Friedrich Haas. Last piece on the program will be the Duo “Mumien” by pianist and composer Thomas Larcher.
Following the recent release of his Liszt CD for Brilliant Classics, Emanuele Torquati will perform an all-Liszt Recital at MITO Settembremusica, featuring a wide selection from Second and Third Year of Années de Pèlerinage. The concert will take place on 17th September in Milan at Teatro dell’Arsenale, at 5 pm, and will have the contribution of narrator Luca Scarlini. LISTEN TO A CD SAMPLE HERE
Franz Liszt’s Complete Works for cello and piano are now available! This new, last release of Duo formed by cellist Francesco Dillon and Emanuele Torquati has been made for dutch label Brilliant. The program includes five original works written by Liszt, a.o. fascinating late piece La lugubre gondola, and rare Liszt’s epoque transcriptions of Six Consolations, Angelus! and Liebestraum n. 3. Read here the official presentation.
BUY IT ON AMAZON.COM
Emanuele Torquati will perform 3 different projects on May-June. The first is Ciaikovsky Tale, with narrator Luca Scarlini, which was premiered at MITO Settembremusica last year, with dates on 5th May and on 5th June at Festival Le corde dell’anima. The second one is DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES with cellist Francesco Dillon, a wide selection of Songs without words from both Romantic repertoire and New Music, a.o. Sciarrino, Lachenmann and Walter Zimmermann. This new project will be presented on 18th May at Trento State Conservatory and on 6th June at Traiettorie Festival in Parma. Listen to Mendelssohn’s Song without words op. 38 n. 3
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Last but not least is TRANSIT, a Solo New Music Recital which includes pieces written for Emanuele Torquati and premiered by him, a.o. Michel Van der Aa Transit for piano, electronics and video projection. Planned performances are on 19th May at Venice State Conservatory and on 21st June at Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart.
Brilliant classics has just released the new double CD with Schumann rarities performed by Duo Dillon-Torquati. The album has already been broadcasted on several EU radios, a.o. BBC Radio3, Swiss RSI, RTE Lyric, RAI Radio3 and it will be CD of the Week on Irish RTE Lyric from 24th January. Furthermore, it will be officially presented in Milan on next 8th february 7 pm at the Gallery of Modern Art. It is available online on Amazon. Read reviews here.
CLICK HERE FOR LAST BROADCAST ON RADIO FRANCE!
Torquati’s upcoming engagements include New York Recital (31st March), at the Bohemian National Hall with his Janacek project, as well in Boston, at Longy School and Boston University (4th and 5th April) and in Heidelberg, for the Heidelberger Fruehling (10th-17th April).
Torquati will give the WP of several works especially written for him, a.o. Arturas Bumsteinas new work for piano and electronics (5th March at Area Sismica), Ryan Carter (12th April at Heidelberger Fruehling), and Régis Campo “Sounding” for cello and piano.
Emanuele Torquati will give his Solo Debut in Paris on 9th November 8 pm at Czech Centre with his project “Intimate Sketches - Visions on Leos Janacek”, premiered in February in San Francisco.
This European premiere will be followed by several performances in Italy, namely in Venice, Udine and Treviso.
A full-length video of the project is available on www.limenmusic.com
Emanuele Torquati terrà il suo debutto solistico parigino il prossimo 9 novembre alle 20 presso il Centre Culturel Tcheque, con il progetto “Intimate Sketches - Visions on Leos Janacek”, inaugurato lo scorso febbraio a San Francisco.
Il concerto verrà replicato nel tour italiano, con date a Venezia, Udine e Treviso.
Sul sito www.limenmusic.com è ora disponibile il video completo del progetto.
