Duo Dillon-Torquati’s upcoming project is about Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer, Noble Prize Winner in 2011. Very passionate into music, Transtromer devoted several poems to composers of the past, such as Edvard Grieg and Franz Schubert, took inspiration from specific works of the repertoire, such as Liszt “La lugubre gondola”, and used peculiar musical forms (a.o. Preludes and Nocturnes). “TRANCE-TROMER: Words and Sounds around Tomas Transtromer”, includes a varied selection of musical works from the Romantic repertoire (Grieg, Liszt, Schumann) and features two world premieres, by Silvia Borzelli and Laurent Durupt, especially written for this project. Verses, read by different voices in different languages, will be interspersed with music, and sometimes rielaborated with electronic treatments. The project will be presented on 3rd October (9,15 pm) at 5th Edition of music@villaromana Concert series in Florence.

Emanuele Torquati was invited as artist in residence at the Italian Institute of Culture in Paris in February. He will work for one month at Hotel de Galliffet, presenting his activities in 2 public performances in the frame of “Les Promesses de l’Art”, a program recently started by IIC Paris for supporting rising talents in different disciplines.

The first concert will take place on 6th February at 8 pm and is part of the “Projet Bloom”, a collective enterprise of artistic excitement. Tunneling underground, building bridges, provoking collisions, it wants to reinvent the conditions of production and the reception of works. The program is built around some Liszt’s Piano Pieces composed in Italy, such as “La lugubre gondola” and “Richard Wagner – Venezia”, and will put these in communication with other works by Romitelli, Sciarrino and Marinetti, performed by “Projet Bloom”. The program will be presented also on 11th February at “J.B. Lully” Conservatory in Puteaux.

The second concert will take place on 18th February at 8 pm and it will be a Duo Recital with flutist Matteo Cesari, winner of Kranichsteiner Musikpreis. The program will feature important works for flute and piano based on “Songs”, such as Schubert Introduction, Theme and Variations on Trockne Blumen, Debussy Chansons de Bilitis, and Toshio Hosokawa’s Lied. More, Torquati will premiere some pieces written for him by Stefano Gervasoni and Cesari will give the French premiere of Matthias Pintscher virtuosic “Beyond – a system of passing”.

Duo Dillon-Torquati will perform a new version of DISTANT VOICES STILL LIVES project on 8th December in Strasbourg, at L’Imaginaire Festival, and on 24th February 2014 in London, at the Italian Institute of Culture.

A journey on the thread of memory, a search, a pursuit of  a multitude of fugitive voices: voices that tell a story, voices that sing, absent voices, voices only evoked. It is a musical journey for cello and piano, through romantic Lieder (Schumann transcribed by his friend Grutzmacher, Schubert, Liszt), contemporary Lieder (Pagliarani and Bauckholt), folk and ancient songs (Ghisi), the ghosts  of well-known songs (Stardust in Sciarrino), phrases of celebrated men and of the common man (Chet Baker in Jakob TV, Ablinger) transformed into a game of mirrors and echoes that seeks to transcend the barriers of style and type in order to create a new red thread between sounds which are only apparently distant one from another.

The project has been presented in several Festivals in Italy and in Europe, among others Ny Musik Oslo, DeutscheBank Kunsthalle Berlin and in Teatro Argentino La Plata (Argentina).

Important composers such as Carola Bauckholt, Yannis Kyrikiades, Peter Ablinger and Mario Pagliarani gave their contribution to the project, but also rising talents such as Daniele Ghisi, Andrea Agostini and Josè Manuel Serrano wrote new pieces to be premiered.

On 1st December a new Schumann CD of Duo Dillon-Torquati has been released by Brilliantclassics.
Combining communicative performances with engaging programming, this release is dedicated to Schumann’s music for cello and piano — works that were written after a period devoted almost exclusively to the piano, and whose aim it was to extend musical knowledge and practice.

Indeed, in surveying some of the composer’s most acclaimed works, such as the Piano Quintet Op.44 and Three Romances Op.94 (originally scored for oboe), the compilation also features the linchpin of Schumann’s work, J.S. Bach. Bach’s contrapuntal influence on the composer was immense, and it is therefore unsurprising that Schumann arranged a number of his works — including the complete solo cello suites. Suite No.3 is the one chosen for this release, and is coupled with the Sarabande from No.5 in C minor, this time arranged by F.W. Grützmacher. One of the 19th century’s most acclaimed cellists, Grützmacher played a major role in widening appreciation of significant works, and the compilation offers five such transcriptions by this highly adept arranger. Teaming up once again to deliver consummate readings of these works are the seasoned Duo Dillon-Torquati, both of whom enjoy busy international careers.
This is the second issue of Schumann transcriptions for cello by the duo Francesco Dillon and Emanuele Torquati, “quasi novelli Florestan ed Eusebio, l’ardente violoncello di Dillon e il sensibile pianoforte di Torquati si muovono ‘da padroni’, con immaginativa sprezzatura sentimentale ed ispirata condotta tecnica nel multiforme universo schumanniano” (GP. Minardi).

Their earlier issue received enthusiastic comment in the international press: “comes across with vibrant conviction” (Musicweb International)

On next 5th December at 9,15 pm there will be the last concert of music@villaromana concerts series, devoted to 2 of the most genial and original Italian contemporary composers. They belong to different generations, but somehow their work has some points of contact and source of inspiration: the first one is Salvatore Sciarrino (1947), while the second is Francesco Filidei (1973). Emanuele Torquati, together with cellist Francesco Dillon and soprano Valentina Coladonato, will perform Sciarrino’s masterwork “Vanitas” (1981), with the significant subtitle “natura morta in un atto” (still life in one act), a 50 minutes long pieces in 5 parts, which explores a unique world of sounds and echoes between the singers and instrumentalists.
In the second part of the evening violinist Aldo Campagnari (Prometeo String Quartet) will join the Trio and several chamber and solo works by Francesco Filidei, going from istrumental virtuosity (his Piano Toccata) until more performative pieces, with a new work commissioned by Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung.

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.

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

Some of these works will be included in Duo Dillon-Torquati next engagements, e.g. on 6th June at Casa della Musica in Parma, on 3rd July at Orsanmichele for Orchestra da camera fiorentina, on 12th August at Camerino Festival.

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
CLICK HERE FOR AUDIO SAMPLE
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.