"A Musician's Guide" #24 with Antonio Pompa-Baldi｜Convergence: Arrangement and Illumination

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[00:00:16]So anyway, then I did many many other cooperations  with Roberto. I recorded his 25 Pittorici Preludi which I think is a masterpiece. And his piano  sonata which he wrote for me, I played his piano concerto which he wrote for me. Oh! He also made arrangements or piano elaborations of classical Neapolitan songs, you  know the Neapolitan songs from the classical tradition that Pavarotti used to sing, or  Beniamino Gigli before him used to sing, and most singers lyrical opera singers used to sing. So a collection of those he transcribed again, these are not transcriptions, they are  elaborations, and they are fantastic.

[00:01:06]So I recorded a whole album called  "Simply Napoli" of this music.

[00:01:12]And then I you know he wrote a piece for a  interreligious celebration around Christmas time that would quote music from different religions  and different cultures and weave them together in a beautiful piece which I played in concert. He wrote the Ravel piece (Ravel en Rêve), I even don't remember how much more music but... Oh! Yes! Two of the things that I'm really proud of that I asked him to write, well, no! Actually  I asked him to write one thing, and he wrote two.

[00:01:45]I had asked him to write... because I told  him Liszt wrote so many Opera paraphrases, and so many other composers did. But nobody  really wrote a great great great piece on “La Bohème”, and “La Bohème” is my favorite Opera. And so then he started writing one, and then when he sent me the score, he sent me two scores  and said, "I'm sorry but somehow in this creative process I also decided to write one  on “Carmen” you know, so I had two operas now and they are one is 25 minutes, and the  other one is 30 minutes, so very long."

[00:02:22]And I would say these are probably the some  of the most difficult physically music I've ever had to play. Because in some he didn't try  that on purpose. It just came up like that. And it's great music because the originals are great,  but he wrote it very beautifully for the piano, and I recorded that too, always for the Steinway  label. So those two operas are also, you know, something that I really love to play and...  but so Roberto wrote a mix of original pieces, arrangements, elaborations you name  it. So and our cooperation continues.

[00:03:02]Oh! And I'm almost forgot! Recently in 2021,  this is also a genius work I think he wrote.

[00:03:12]I asked him, you know, we were  celebrating the 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). You know, he's  the most important Poet in Italian history, he died in 1321. So in 2021, it  was the 700 year of his passing.

[00:03:35]Of course, we were in the middle of the pandemic,  but I had asked Roberto to write a piece based on Dante, or on The Divine Comedy. And he wrote  three books just like The Divine Comedy, Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. And so I planned  performances of Inferno in 80 concerts or something like that, but unfortunately  most of them were cancelled in 2021, but I was still able to play it in a few  concerts and I played it later 2022, 2023.

[00:04:15]I played this piece a lot, I played  it in Poland as a premiere, and it was recorded and the video is on YouTube,  only the first book, Inferno, because the whole piece lasts one hour or 55 minutes. But the first book, Inferno, is about 22 minutes, 21 22 minutes. And it shows how much  eclecticism, how much versatility Roberto has, because every time he can use different  styles, different techniques, he always has his own voice, which I can recognize. But this piece is almost always atonal, and sometimes even onomatotopic, because  it's almost expresses noise, for example, the third movement is called Cerberus,  the three-headed dog, you know, the beast, the ferocious beast. So that, you know, you  can hear the growling and you can hear... yeah, so and then but it's extremely interesting,  so this is another project, I did record it, but it hasn't been issued yet by Steinway. I'm  hoping that they will next year or this year.

[00:05:21]That's really amazing! The CD that you mentioned earlier, called Poulenc meets Piaf, you know  by the way, I have that CD actually.

[00:05:31]Oh, yeah?

[00:05:33]And I should have brought it  last time and ask you to sign it.

[00:05:38]Well, no.... I mean, maybe next  time. I'm glad you know it.

[00:05:41]Yeah! We'll find another chance. And if  I remember correctly, you have also made some transcriptions and arrangements.  So could you tell me more about this?

[00:05:54]Yeah! Because I mean, I sometimes like  to explore some things myself. I mean I don't have much time unfortunately, I have so  many ideas, so many things I would like to do, but time is really little. But during the pandemic, well, before the pandemic, I had done my own version  of "Vocalise"of Rachmaninoff for solo piano, and I played it in several instances. And I also transcribed...during the pandemic, the whole Respighi violin sonata, you know, this  is one of my favorite works in its original form for violin and piano. But I also somehow  thought it could be a great piano piece, because Respighi never wrote a piano sonata...  well... he did, he did write, I even recorded it, but it's not a great piece. It's a very youthful  piece that shows a lot of potential, but it's not a meaningful piece in the literature. His violin sonata definitely is, and so I worked on transcribing it, and it has been  published by Muse Press, a Japanese publisher.

[00:07:10]And you know over the course of this I discovered  that very few people might want to play this piece, because it really requires... it's very  difficult, and I usually don't get rid of any of the original notes. I just find way to incorporate  them into the score. But it requires a... I would say phenomenal ability to voice lead, and to  layer, and also it requires very large hands, because... and a very sophisticated use of pedal. In fact, in this score of the Respighi sonata, the use of the middle pedal is required  many times, many many times, like maybe a 100 times throughout the... it's a 30-minute  piece. So, but I enjoyed it very much, and I enjoyed learning it and recording it. So I...  yeah, I hope that someone someday will play it.

[00:08:09]The another thing that I transcribed is the Busoni  Duettino Concertante. This is a two piano piece, a piece for two pianos. But it actually is a  Mozart piece, because Busoni created this two piano piece basically from Mozart piano concerto  in F Major Köchel 459, the last movement, (music) and this is the theme. And Busoni basically transcribed this for two pianos, he replaced the  cadenza with one of his own. But aside from that, it's a pretty faithful transcription, I mean,  it's very free, but it is Mozart's music.

[00:08:55]So I took the Busoni two piano version,  and I wanted to condense it into one piano.

[00:09:01]Again, this is one of the most highly virtuosic  pieces ever, because of... not because I wanted to write something that difficult, but because  to do the things that two pianists can do, and to preserve the integrity of the score. One pianist only with 10 fingers needs to play extremely fast double notes, extremely fast  octaves, and plus, it has to keep the lightness of spirit of the piece. And plus, there is a fugato  section, which it's much easier for two pianists.

[00:09:35]But for one pianist to do the fugato section,  it requires... again, a very large hand, and very quick ability to finger substitute,  and a very refined use of pedal. But I had fun with it, and I enjoyed it. And then I also, this is not a exactly a transcription, it's more like  a original composition based on a piece.

[00:09:58]I wrote a very short, 6 minutes piece based  on a soundtrack of a movie, movie is very old, I think it's from the 1930s, it's a movie by  Charlie Chaplin. And the Charlie Chaplin also wrote this melody. I think the movie was called  “Modern Times” (1936), and this melody did not have words. It was just melody in the movie. But 20 years later, because it was such a beautiful melody. I think it was... some very  famous American singer like Bing Crosby, or Nat King Cole, or maybe both decided to sing it. So they somebody wrote words for it, and the title of this song was "Smile".  I don't know if you know this.

[00:10:51]Yeah, I know it! (Singing) It's a very f very famous melody that  later also Barbra Streisand and Judy Garland, Michael Jackson, so many artists covered. So I took that theme... one day, I was just fooling around improvising. And  I wasn't improvising really on that tune. I was improvising on its harmonic riff. And so I was just like using those chords to create my own melody, and  then I decided to record myself.

[00:11:32]So I recorded that improvisation, and then  I went further, and I played the tune, and I made some variations on the  tune, and then I wrote it down.

[00:11:42]And I performed it a few times, I enjoy it,  it's been recorded only as a live performance.

[00:11:50]But yeah, I don't know if it will ever be  published because I don't think during my lifetime, because the... I don't own the copyright  to the song. The family of Charlie Chaplan does, and they don't let anybody use it for free,  they want millions, I don't have millions, so… That's really fantastic! And you know, I have also  done some transcriptions and arrangements myself, and one of them was "The Four Seasons of Buenos  Aires" by Piazzolla. I arranged it for piano solo, and added my own touches here and there, and it  feels like you take the music apart and reshape it, and then to rebuild it in your own language,  it's such a creative and rewarding process.

[00:12:39]Do you have a recording of it? I mean  the public performance has been recorded or no.

[00:12:45]No.

[00:12:46]Oh, that's too bad! Because  I would love to listen to it.

[00:12:51]Yeah, I hope so.... And I would love to ask you about your Spirio project in  particular. You know Steinway’s technology, especially the way it captures and transfers  performance data, and feels almost futuristic.

[00:13:07]Could you share your experience  working with this project?

[00:13:12]Yeah! Of course! When it comes to the technical  side of it, of course I don't have the knowledge, the technical knowledge. But the technology is  really... it sounds like... it seems like magic, but of course it's scientific, and there is  engineers is working who worked very hard on it, and still work on making it better and better. But I was lucky enough to be sort of at the right place, at the right time, because  I was communicating with Steinway, and with the person in charge of both  Spirio development and the Steinway label.

[00:13:46]So because I was doing recordings, I was also  asked to go to New York and test the Spirio, record music and make suggestions. This was in... I think I want to say 2012 13. I think Spirio was launched in 2014. And before it was launched, I was already testing it, and not just me, of  course, other artists as well, testing it, and giving feedback, and recording  music, and then listening to the playback, and seeing if it was being captured really in  with high fidelity, and making adjustments.

[00:14:27]And I recorded an enormous amount  of music in the first three years or so... uh or four years that it was launched. I went to New York often, and every time in a couple of days I would record... I don't know  maybe six hours of music, and then go next time and record six hours more... I recorded... I don't  even know how many hundreds of pieces for how many hours of days of music if you listen straight. And so I think it is a wonderful technology that has a lot of possible applications,  especially for educational purposes.

[00:15:06]But also it's just fascinating and in the  way that it can reduce costs for recordings for example. Because you can record on a  Spirio piano, and the editing can be done before you go in front of a microphone.  So then when you wheel the piano and you put it in front of the microphone, the pianist  doesn't even need to be there. You just hit play, and your performance of the piece gets captured.  So basically you to record a 70minute disc, you just need 70 minutes of studio time, which  reduces costs considerably for the label.

[00:15:45]But I don't think that is the most important  use for it at least for me personally.

[00:15:50]What is important is that you know, this even  though it's an expensive technology, because it's pianos you know Steinway pianos are expensive  because they are by far the best in the world, and when you add the Spirio technology the expense  of the piano gets even higher, but even people who don't have it at home can go to a Steinway  shop, and listen to live performances captured on Spirio, and the sound is so similar to the live  performance that it really can be said that 95% of what you hear is the actual performance. Why do I say 95%, and I don't say 100%?

[00:16:28]Because when I am playing, I am constantly  adjusting to the physical characteristics of the instrument in the acoustic where I am. So when you play it back, it's a different instrument. Even if you regulate it exactly in the same way, pianos are all different,  and then the acoustics will be different, so there will be some things that I would adjust  if I were there. But since I am not there, I don't adjust. And so I would say... but still  it is quite incredible how faithful it is.

[00:17:05]That's wonderful!