Listening to these recordings immediately aroused in me a pleasant feeling the reasons for which I had difficulty in understanding and for which I was almost led to mistrust. I had to think about it again and I tried to explain to myself the reason for this feeling which initially seemed difficult for me to motivate. I think the main reason for this reaction is the fact that the flute and the harpsichord seem here to possess a new sound compared to the traditional one. Obviously, I am not talking about the classical flute and harpsichord, but about those of the twentieth century. The flute over the last fifty years, which had reached one of its highest points in “Gazzelloni Musik” in the sixties and seventies, had always proposed tone coloured research bordering on sound and noise, unpublished peaks of highly virtuous, unsuspected and provocative acoustics: today it has preserved these possibilities, but it has also joined other resources to them. It is still capable of tone coloured adventures, but it seems to have freed itself of their absolutism: now it also knows how to switch with unconstraint to charming and singable aspects from which it used to flee before. It has become like a mature man who has not cancelled the impetuses of adolescence but who knows how to use them as he wants, as much as he wants and when he wants.

I could say the same thing about the harpsichord. Musicians in the second half of the twentieth century had discovered the fadeless tone colour of a machine with a rattling and mechanical sound and they had fallen in love with it because it matched perfectly their mistrust in expressiveness and their antiromantic ideology. Naturally the harpsichord had much more than that behind it: nobility, refinement, elegance and charm were part of its identity card, but at the time they were of no use. Even in this case listening to the CD teaches us how the years have passed and how the today’s sensitivity, without giving up the aggressiveness of the past decades, has also acquired new, more curious, more original and more tempting expressive possibilities. In short, it is as if the two instruments had reached a state of maturity, of disinhibition, of suppleness of sound which allows them to throw themselves into territories which until now were unknown. Among the novelty aspects I find that the cooperation between the two instruments is important, too. The tradition, in this case the ancient tradition, wanted the keyboard to “accompany” the soloist’s song: not for nothing did the harpsichord have one of its highest moments of glory during the period of the thorough bass and the legacy of this basic function was then left to the piano. In our CD things are different: obviously here the tonal chords and backing on which the task of accompanying was traditionally based are no longer of any use and therefore the harpsichord has become a second soloist, full of initiatives, of dense, vivacious and captivating tone coloured proposals. In short, the two instruments converse, become protagonists or deuteragonists depending on the situation and alternate the respective bravura greatly benefiting the listener’s ears.

As far as the choices of music are concerned, my impression is that the ambition of this CD is to offer a panorama, maybe incomplete, but sufficiently representative of the widespread trends of modern composers. In fact, the stylistic trends are greatly varied and probably even this variety played a role in the pleasantness I talked about initially. However, the history of this stylistic variety has dramatic events behind it: it is not clear or serene, even if it seems pleasant, rather I would say that it is tortuous and suffered. The ending of the “hard” avant-garde of the first post-war decades was not at all painless or simple. In the apparent casualness of today’s choices are hidden tensions, doubts, ruptures and violence and even resentments that are still alive. However, the CD does not reveal partiality for one or the other of the various opposing trends: it allows cohabitation, it mitigates blows, it has a sort of ecumenical serenity and it is able to document impartially what already exists. This is a big advantage for those who are curious to understand where the world is going. In fact, until a few years ago so-called contemporary music had to be unpleasant, aggressive and provocative, a sort of protest towards the world which was leading to desperation. These pieces, even if they possess highly knowing techniques, are hardly ever provocative: they can be aggressive, they preserve moments of corrosion, but they generally do not make this characteristic their point of force.

Do we want to label all this in terms of “post-modernity”? For what the label is worth it may be possible, but rather than the labels it may be more useful to find something in the content. For example, there is a curious aspect which strikes the listener: it seems that human truths are being rediscovered today to which the modern ear was no longer accustomed. Some pieces are emotionally involved, intense and dramatic, even violent, other pieces are more relaxed and light, others more enjoyable, some are subtle and airy, others are ironic. In short, each piece possesses its own “mood” as Orazio Vecchi would have said at the time in which he composed and presented his Veglie di Siena (1604). The discovery of  more or less pathetic or strange moods, at the beginning of the baroque period, followed the golden and a little indistinct solemnity of the Palestrinian beauty. Monteverdi called it second practice. But is it possible that we are entering a second artistic practice too, which follows the austerity and rigours of the post-war years? And what reasons would there be for this change? Are we perhaps facing a rediscovery of the communicative confidence and trust in human sentiments? Judging by how the world has been going over the last few years this kind of perspective would not seem really credible. Or maybe artists see more deeply or further than other human beings? Let us hope so, even if personally speaking it seems improbable. Therefore, to conclude, there is only one road I can take. It is limited, neutral, banal, but maybe it is the only one possible: I will simply say that we are facing a CD which is easy to listen to and which can even please those who are not contemporary music experts.

Mario Baroni