concert

Recitals @ 28th MilanoMusica Festival

Emanuele will perform 2 Solo Recitals in Milan for one of Italian most prestigious Festival, the 28th Edition of Milano Musica. Performances will take place at Gallerie d’Italia on 12nd and 19th November at 7 pm. and will feature two different thematic programs. Both are related with the imposing exhibition which compares sculptures made by Antonio Canova and his Danish contemporary Bertel Thorvaldsen.

The first one – “Anima e Danza” – intersperses some beautiful Couperin “Pieces de clavecin” with important works related to the world of Dance written by Niccolò Castiglioni, George Benjamin and Francesco Filidei, with his recent Berceuse for piano. As an elusive end of this journey will be Maurice Ravel’s rendition of Waltzes, the seminal series of “Valses nobles et sentimentales”.

The second one – “Musica, Respiro delle Statue” – is more about contemplation and will start with Morton Feldman’s 25 minutes long “Palais de Mari”, inspired by the Syrian Royal Palace, and alternate then Berio Six Encores with Erik Satie’s “Crossed-up Dances”. As an Homage to Ancient Statues, Karol Szymanovski at the beginning of 20th century wrote his flamboyant “Metopes op. 29″, inspired by Greek Temples and Mythological figures represented on them.

New York and Toronto Recitals

Emanuele Torquati has been invited to give a Recital at Columbia University for its Fall Concerts Series. He will present “Nordic Ballads”, a project recently performed in Berlin and in Italy, a collection of a very specific genre of Ballads, coming from Nordic legends and/or from Nordic tradition. Program will feature trascendental Ballads op. 10 by Johannes Brahms, as well as rare works by Zemlinsky and Grieg, plus a more recent piece by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho.The event will take place on 28th October at 7 pm at the Teatro of the Italian Academy.

On 30th October at 7 pm, Emanuele will give another Recital in Toronto, at Heliconian Concert Hall, for the Italian Institute of Culture. For this occasion, he will present “Natura degli Affetti”, a journey between different characters, in ancient Italian “Affetti”, and musical epoques, the Baroque and the Contemporary one. The project is a costant justaxposition of landscapes and colours, from Domenico Scarlatti luminous Sonatas to rare Transcriptions made by Bela Bartòk of works by Zipoli and Frescobaldi, to the humourous Filastrocca by Francesco Filidei and the bright Sonatina by Niccolò Castiglioni.

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Skrjabin Piano Concerto with AVANTI! and Matthias Pintscher

On next 25th June Emanuele Torquati will perform rare Aleksandr Skrjabin Piano Concerto in f# sharp minor in Finland, under the baton of Matthias Pintscher. This year is the 100th Anniversary of Skrjabin’s death and this Concerto is a hidden gem of the repertoire for Piano and Orchestra and was composed in 1897, when the composer was only 25.

This will be the opening concert of of “AVANTI – Summer Sounds / Idyll”, the prestigious Festival organized by AVANTI! Chamber Orchestra since 30 years. It will be a full immersion in different music genre’s, ranging from chamber to symphonic and also electronic sets. In the past years, great composers served as Artistic directors of this important event, a.o. Franco Donatoni, Helmuth Lachenmann, Jonathan Harvey and Kaija Saariaho.

Portrait Concert Ablinger/Furrer at Austrian Cultural Forum Rome

Emanuele Torquati will perform an extensive program for a prestigious Portrait concert featuring music by Peter Ablinger and Beat Furrer. Both of them will present for the occasion, which will take place at Austrian Cultural Forum in Rome on 20th May at 8,00 pm.

Program includes a various selection from “Voices and Piano” for piano and CD, an extensive piano cycle written by Peter Ablinger since 1998 and still in progress. Selection made by Emanuele Torquati, who performed the works under composer’s supervision, includes German actress Hanna Schygulla, as well as great characters such as Pierpaolo Pasolini and Josè Luis Borges, and also a piece devoted to him, featuring the unforgettable Anna Magnani.
WATCH A VIDEO ON “PASOLINI” PERFORMED BY EMANUELE

The second half of the concert, will start with first Beat Furrer’s piano piece, the seminal “Voicelessness, the snow has no voice” (1986). Afterwards, outstanding flutist Manuel Zurria will join Emanuele for “Presto” (1997), a virtuosic Duo for flute and piano.
LISTEN TO “VOICELESSNESS, THE SNOW HAS NO VOICE” PERFORMED BY EMANUELE

London Recital

Emanuele will make his Solo Debut in London on next 18th March in the exclusive Rosenfeld Porcini Gallery, with a fascinating program featuring works by Brahms, Sciarrino and Castiglioni. The core of the evening will be the Piano music by Alexander von Zemlinsky, whom Emanuele devoted his last CD, “A Ray of Light”, which won great critical acclaim since its release on last December.
Anthony Beaumont, well-known musicologist and author of Zemlinsky’s most extensive Biography, wrote: “I much appreciate Torquati’s feel for Viennese rubato and for the ‘great gesture’ of Zemlinsky’s early compositions, but also his sense of humour, his delightfully dry staccato, which is essential in some of these works. This is the third CD of Zemlinsky’s piano music to come my way — and by far the most enjoyable It is a pleasure to hear them so well and idiomatically played, and so well recorded”.

Listen to some Zemlinsky HERE!

Duo Dillon-Torquati in France

Emanuele Torquati will come back in France with his chamber music partner, renowned cellist Francesco Dillon, after last year’s concerts in Paris, which received great critical acclaim.

The Duo will be on stage in Strasbourg on 25th and in Paris on 27th with two Recitals, featuring the rare Sonata written in 1888 by Francesco Cilea, famous for his opera “Adriana Lecouvreur”, and two milestone of 20th century cello and piano repertoire: Janàcek’s seminal “Pohadka” and highly demanding Sostakovic Sonata in D minor op. 40. Both concerts will take place at the local Italian Cultural Institutes.

Last venue of the Tour will be the prestigious Hotel de Galliffet on 2nd March, where the Duo will present a Portrait on Italian rising talent’s composer, Francesco Filidei. His chamber and solo works will be interspersed by some late Franz Liszt oeuvres, such as La lugubre gondola, part of one of the Duo last recordings. Violin virtuoso Saori Furukawa will join the Duo for Filidei’s “Corde vuote” and Liszt’s Tristia, a rarely performed version of “La Vallée d’Obermann” made by the composer himself.

Fall Concerts @ Berlin, Addis Abeba, Prague

Emanuele Torquati will extensively perform during this Fall, both as soloist and chamber musician.

He will present two new Solo Projects: the first in Berlin at Piano Salon Christophori on 15th October, focused on Ballads, including Brahms seminal Ballads op. 10 and rare works by Alexander von Zemlinsky and Edvard Grieg major work, Ballade op. 24; the second – “Natura degli Affetti” – in Addis Abeba for the Italian Cultural Institute on 10th November, based on a dialogue between Italian Baroque and New Music pieces, with contrasting characters and musical landscapes.

More, he will present a chamber music Recital with his usual partner, cellist Francesco Dillon, on 31st October in Pinerolo at Teatro del Lavoro, and on 21st November in Prague for the 7th edition of Contempuls Festival. The Duo will present a varied selection of New Music works by Thomas Larcher, David Lang, and Salvatore Sciarrino’s masterwork “Melencolia 1″. This program include also two new works recently written for the Duo from rising Italian talents, Daniele Ghisi and Silvia Borzelli.

Gala Concert for Fazioli@ IIC Paris

Duo Dillon-Torquati recently performed at the Italian Institute of Culture in Paris for a Gala Concert. In fact, Marina Valensise, dynamic and vibrant director of the IIC, decided to provide a new Fazioli grand piano for the Hall and this was the opening event of the funding campaign. Here’s the link for supporting this important initiative!

The Duo proposed a journey in Fairy tales of the Romantic period, presenting important works by Ferruccio Busoni, Robert Schumann and Edvard Grieg. CLICK HERE FOR THE LIVE VIDEO!

Sciarrino @ NDF ’14 Sweden

Emanuele Torquati has been invited to take part in NEW DIRECTIONS FESTIVAL 2014, that will take place in Lulea (Sweden) from 22nd till 24th May. The Festival is focused on Salvatore Sciarrino’s music, and the composer himself will be present and will teach during a workshop for young composers. Emanuele will perform on 23rd May with cellist Francesco Dillon, DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES project, featuring a.o. Sciarrino’s Melencolia 1, and on 24th May two Sciarrino’s seminal works, Perduto in una città d’acque (1990-91) and Due Notturni crudeli (2001).

“Perduto” was written straight after Luigi Nono’s death and the “città d’acque” of the title is Venice, where Nono lived his life. The first of 2 Notturni crudeli is based on an ecstatic repetition of very high chords interspersed with extremely fast notes in other registers, and brings the listener to a timeless dimension; the second, “Furia, metallo” is a relentless alternance between loud chords and fast figurations.
LISTEN HERE to Melencolia 1 performed by Duo Dillon-Torquati

Berlin, Festivaletteratura, MITO and Trinity College Dublin

Emanuele Torquati will perform several concerts from end of August on, with different Solo and Chamber music projects. He will continue the collaboration with narrator Luca Scarlini, for two monographic tales on Ciaikovsky, playing a selection from “The Seasons op. 37/bis” and 18 Morceaux op. 72, and a completely new one on Marcel Proust, the latter for prestigious Festivaletteratura Mantova. The debut of this project will also include the performance of rares Reynaldo Hahn’s “Portraits de peintres”, on Proust’s texts, beside a selection of composers quoted in the “Recherche” and loved by the famous French writer. The concerts will take place on 27th August in Bormio and on 7th September in Mantova, with a repeat performance on 9th for Torri dell’Acqua Budrio.

More, on 30th October, Emanuele will give a Lecture-Recital at prestigious Trinity College Dublin, for the recently established Music Composition Centre. This institution is providing a new platform for composers equipped for the emerging music of the 21st century. In this occasion, Torquati will offer an extremely varied New Music program, featuring rising talents such as Samy Moussa and Francesco Filidei, along with important works by Pascal Dusapin, Michel Van der Aa and Jonathan Harvey, recently passed away.

As it regards his Chamber music projects, Emanuele will be first in Berlin, presenting “DISTANT VOICES STILL LIVES” with cellist Francesco Dillon on 3rd September at Deutsche Bank KunstHalle during “SUEDEN – Villa Romana in Berlin”. After that, they will take part in Italy’s biggest Festival, MITO Settembremusica, on 17th September in Turin, playing a Recital with music by Lucia Ronchetti, Sergeri Rachmaninov and Edvard Grieg.