Composer(s)

BERIO, Luciano; BOULEZ Pierre, TOSI Daniel and others

Title

Sequenza and other works

Artist(s)

Diego Tosi, violin

Catalogue

SOLSTICE SOCD 225

Rating

5/5 Highly recommended

Buy

www.solstice-music.com and type Diego Tosi in the Search box

 

Composer(s)

SCELSI, Giacinto; MANTOVANI, Bruno

Title

Various

Artist(s)

Diego Tosi, violin, Timothé Tosi, cello, Jay Gottlieb, piano

Catalogue

SOLSTICE SOCD 242

Rating

5/5 Highly recommended

Buy

www.solstice-music.com and type Diego Tosi in the Search box

 

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CDs SOLSTICE SOCD 225 and SOCD 242

Berio, Scelsi and other contemporary composers

Diego Tosi, violin

 

In the catalogue of the CD label Solstice the space dedicated to the modern and contemporary music of more or less known authors seems to have a certain importance. It’s the case of two recent CDs in which the young emerging French violinist Diego Tosi has a primary role.

The SOCD 242 is an hommage to the great Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi in the twentieth anniversary of his death. The programme of the CD presents his compositional evolution. Scelsi moves from a language based on a fairly tonal context, and proceeds gradually towards a very originel sound dimension, through a more and more speculative conception and treatment of the intervals. The early unpublished Sonata for violin and piano shows the beginning of this process. The following phase of his musical thought (here represented by the fourth Divertimento and Xnoybis) brings him to privilegiate instruments tbat allow to investigate the continuous interval fields; so we see the writing for strings to assume a more and more remarkable relevance in comparison to that for piano. The new structures sprung up from this research are centered around a single sound, like a metaphysical entity, characterized by “three dimensions” (pitch, duration and depth) and investigated through micro-oscillations and micro-variations in pitch, timbre, dynamics, attacks. Besides his solo performances, Diego Tosi shows a great feeling with excellent interpreters like the American pianist Jay Gottlieb, a renowned specialist of the contemporary repertoire, and his brother Timothé as cellist.

In the SOCD 225 Diego Tosi presents contemporary works for solo violin: he chooses seven pieces that represent significant steps of the multi-faceted route of his formation, as explained in the beautiful booklet: the works of the French composers Canat de Chizy (Irisations) and Ballif (the inclusion of the “Solfeggietto” is an hommage to the memory of this last author, whose death is recent) , “Flammes synthétiques” by Daniel Tosi, acclaimed conductor and composer, father of the interpreter, a piece of Joan Guinjoan (Tensio), one of the most appreciated Spanish composers, and finally the examples of the compositional art of Boulez (Anthems) and Xenakis (Mikka S), are in the Tosi’s vision of this programme like suggestive satellites that rotate around a star, Berio’s Sequenza for violin. Diego Tosi describes the fascination exerted by this piece on his imagination, and his will to come to a level of analysis as deep as possible. This intent is extremely easy to be perceived by listening to his performance, that shows his perfect understanding of the composer’s aesthetical project – Berio defined his Sequenzas as virtuoso pieces, of an intellectual and mental virtuosity, even more than instrumental virtuosity, though the technical difficulties are absolutely relevant.

The brightness of the sound, the attention to the timbre and to the rhythmical precision, the clarity in highlighting the formal architecture, and the expresive taste shown in particular in the famous central section with the repeated notes, make this Tosi’s astonishing performance of the Sequenza one of the most beautiful that one can find in the international discographic repertoire.

 

F.W. for Rosenfinger.com

 

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