Leonardo Saraceni, 58, was born in Castrovillari (Cosenza). Pianist and composer of international fame, he founded and directs, since 1989, the Music School “F. Cilea ", among the oldest and most renowned, where many young people from his hometown and neighboring countries attend instrument and singing courses. Married to Rosalba Magnoli, president of the Academy of Arts, founder of the Magnoli Arte editions and coordinator of the “Città di Castrovillari” international award, he has a daughter, Iole, who graduated in Lyric Singing and is about to graduate in Modern Literature.
The bond with the family
His bond with Calabria is strong, as is that with his family of origin: his father, Francesco, 91, a retired lawyer; his mother, Iole, 86, worked as a herbalist. The second of three children, his sister Carla, who is five years older than him, has a degree in philosophy; his brother Alessandro, the youngest, is an organist and teaches in schools.
Leonardo Saraceni: a brilliant career
The love for music, which began at an early age, still sees him as an acclaimed performer in many cities in Europe and overseas. In August 2010, directed by Maestro Jose Maria Melgar, he premiered his latest opera, the Piano Concerto n.1 op.15, in the Juarez National Theater, in Guanajuato (Mexico). In 2013, in Romania he premiered the Piano Concerto n.1 op.15, with the Banatul Philharmonic. He is professor for the annual masters at the Celaya and Guanajuato Conservatory and president of the "Music in the World International Prize", which has been held in Rome since 2016. In this interview he tells about himself by retracing, for us, the salient phases of his extraordinary career artistic and speaks to us of the difficulties that young people encounter today in order to assert themselves in this world.
Maestro Saraceni, how was your passion for music born?
«I was 5 years old and, to tell the truth, I don't know if it was already passion, but I know for sure that not a single day has passed since then that I didn't think about my piano. Even when I could not exercise, the thought was there, albeit light but there was, as there was for the ball, the bicycle, the friends with whom I played "'nde vanedde" (in the alleys ed). Music has always been essential to me, like breathing and walking. Since I was also small physically, so much so that sitting on the piano stool my legs dangled in the void, the teacher built me a chair on which to rest my feet ».
How has it matured?
«Growing up, I attended classical high school, then I moved to Bologna to study at Dams and then to Rome, where I studied piano as a private practitioner, earning my diploma in just four years at the Pescara conservatory. At the same time I was admitted to the composition course at the Santa Cecilia conservatory, which I continued in L'Aquila with the Maestro Paolo Arcà, at the time director at the “La Scala” Theater in Milan. So, after I don't know how many dozens of concerts done everywhere for myriads of associations, in '92 I began my real and well-deserved concert career, which continues successfully today ».
It has been defined "the Calabrian Mozart". What do you remember of your first solo concert, which took place when you were just 11 years old?
“I remember my mother made me wear a good communion dress along with a tie that gave me the tone of a real little man. The huge hall, packed with people, was the school's gym. At one point, while I was playing, the electricity meter went off, leaving everyone in the dark, including me and the piano, but I continued as if nothing had happened. From a first start of the incredulous voices of those present, everything fell into the deepest silence. Only the music floated in the air. Thinking about it now it's really fantastic, I was playing Chopin's Prelude op.28 n.15. When the power returned and the lights came back on, some were standing on chairs applauding. This episode remains an incredible and beautiful memory. At the time, however, it was an event of normal administration, as it is for all children who face the most arduous tests and courage armed only with naivety and joy ».
His collaboration with Casa Ricordi, through the national Ricordi-Scuola circuit, has contributed to the artistic training of young aspiring musicians. Tell us about it?
«The collaboration with Casa Ricordi has also contributed in part to my professional and didactic growth, providing me with a series of pedagogical tools with which I was able to transfer to my students the skills necessary for their artistic growth. Especially to those talented who today are in their careers thanks to those teachings, and for me this is a source of great pride. In this regard, I like to remember that I was the only Italian teacher, and perhaps I still am today, to graduate a pupil in piano at the age of sixteen, with a grade of 10/10, old system, at the Pescara conservatory. Returning instead to Casa Ricordi, it was also a formative experience from a human point of view. Schools and teachers, from all over Italy, gathered in Rome on the second floor of the building that housed the Bank of Italy, located in Piazza Venezia, where among other things the Italian 90's World Cup was exhibited, and we discussed the didactic publications to be adopted, the new texts to be published, the innovative methodologies. It all lasted until Ricordi was bought and dismembered by other music giants, it was the early 90s ».
How difficult is it to establish yourself in this field today?
«The question is rather complex because the didactic conditions of basic training have changed, which is that important and fundamental phase where talents are formed which, with the new reform, has undergone many changes, unfortunately not all positive. Today, a recent music graduate does not have the skills to pursue a concert career, even if they did. Nor can he be a teacher, both for the total lack of experience and because the State does not "enable" him to do so, unless after a rather complex and, in some ways, questionable process. Consequently, there are many "lection factories" around which do not give any guarantee on preparation, other than self-celebration, and are not regulated by anything ».
Is it all so complicated?
“Obviously it's not all like that, God forbid, but in these conditions, affirming oneself in this world is just an impossible dream. As proof of this, for example, it is clear to everyone that there are very few Italian competitors in international music competitions. It is equally clear that these few competitors are very good, naturally led by masters of fame and experience, but still few remain. I am obviously referring to the competitions that have internationally renowned musicians in their commission and the prestigious ones that also serve as a “needle of the balance”, to measure the real Italian didactic situation ».
What should be done to change things?
«If Italy does not undertake a serious reform of music teaching, as is already happening abroad, I see it as hard for our students. In all likelihood, many hidden talents will not be discovered and will never have a chance, unless you are lucky enough to meet a true Master. Someone who follows them on a serious path, who makes them experience, at the right time, outside the borders, so that they can compare and measure their skills with those who know best, and also, provide them with the means to fully enter in the healthy and honest "professional competition" that will surely, in the end, allow him to establish himself in this world. It is not a difficult world, but I would say "selective", in a good sense, where the artistic nature that one is capable of expressing must be able to withstand the competition at an international level, because today this is what we are talking about ».
She is often around the world. Where did you have the most beautiful experience?
«Each concert is a beautiful, fascinating and in some ways even crazy experience. Emotions "burn" without stopping, from the beginning to the end of the performance. In my concerts I play by heart and without intervals, precisely in order not to interrupt that "magic" that is created and which embraces the listeners with emotional warmth. I do this for at least an hour and a half, sometimes even two hours. One of the most vivid memories I have in my mind is when, in 2010, in Mexico, I played my Piano Concerto op.10 at the Teatro Juarez in Guanajuato for the world premiere. There were over 1200 people standing there applauding. It was impressive. If you don't live it you can't understand it. Among other things, it is a splendid theater, a work of art, a World Heritage Site, where the great musicians such as Lorin Varencove Maazel and Claudio Arrau performed. I played the same piano as his, directed by Maestro Jose Maria Melgar.
Since then my notoriety has started to grow, and today I have reached more than 1 million visitors on Google. I am also one of the few composers in the world who has written a concert for piano and orchestra according to the canons of cultured music. Critics of the time wrote that such original and intense music was not heard from Sergei Rachmaninoff's concertos for piano and orchestra. For this reason I was invited in 700 in Romania by one of the major European orchestras, the Banatul Philharmonic, to repeat the performance in the European premiere. I felt another great emotion when I saw my publications on sale in the Mondadori stores, La Feltrinelli, Libreria Universitaria ».
He wrote: “Every time I compose I turn to the emotions hidden deep within our soul. For her there is still a lot to write, to discover and to tell ”. How much poetry is there in music?
«I am convinced, from experience and from what my knowledge is, that the whole music has already been written, from the oldest to the most modern, from the most cultured to the most popular. Instead, there is still a lot to write about our emotions, because every person has within him the "little boy" that is revealed only in those most intimate, loving sensations, those that fill you with joy when you taste happiness for something that has gratified you. All of this is music. Poetry is when you tell yourself about others and if you can do it in music then poetry and music are one, the sound of a beating in a beating heart. If you separate them they lose all life, like the waves of the sea breaking on the shoreline. I once wrote somewhere that: “It is true that music accompanies words, but when you have read, heard and understood the words, they too soon become music. This is why where the words end the music begins ”. It is no coincidence that I titled my cd “Lezioni che restano”, which includes my original compositions for piano ».
Can you tell us about the haiku project?
«The haiku are the Japanese poems composed of only three lines, poetic and essential images. Very intense. The origin and meaning of this literary genre originated in Japan in the XNUMXth century. The idea of creating original compositions on this poetic form was kindly requested by my talented colleague and pianist Giusy Caruso, one of the best known Italian interpreters of contemporary music. I worked on this project during the summer of 2019, and I made it in December at the “MaMu” in Milan in collaboration with the prestigious and historic Italian Society of Contemporary Music. I was told that soon a CD will be produced with these original music of mine together with those of the other composers who participated in it. The verses that inspired us are those of Matsuo Bashō, Kawataba Bōsha, Kobayashi Issa, Katō Shuson, Katō Shuson, Takarai Kikaku ».
What does Leonardo Saraceni think about when he plays?
«I think about what I" say "through my interpretation and how I have to say it to make myself understood by the listener. The concert for me is, after all, the final and easier part of a painstaking and very tiring preparation done previously during the study. Everything I play has already been well planned and outlined in my mind according to my personal schemes. Each passage and each phrasing must "come out" as I thought, prepared and metabolized it. For this reason, when I play my attention and my concentration are very high. For some passages, at times, I also memorize the "gesture". Everything must flow naturally and precisely, the aim is to give the audience what beautiful music expresses. And while I play I'm happy, but I don't get distracted. Furthermore, I also manage to perceive that the audience “enjoys” the music that comes to them, because I manage to make myself understood. I who have to reproduce the musical thought as I planned it in the study phase, instead, I suffer. But it's part of the "job"».
What connection does it have with your homeland?
“I was born there in Calabria and I think I know it well, in all its positive and negative aspects, both geographical and human. There are my loved ones, my best memories and my past. I spent my childhood there. In 1989, I founded the “F. Cilea ”, named after the great Calabrian musician from Palmi, who has always been a hotbed of young talents, who through musical events export the image of healthy and honest Calabria everywhere. It is in this land that, together with my brothers, I take care of my elderly parents and it is here that, twenty-five years ago, I got married to Rosalba and our daughter Iole was born.
In Calabria I was lucky enough to train alongside a fantastic teacher who, if he were still alive today, would be one of the great composers and performers in the world: Louis Roig, South American. From him I learned that sense of discipline that helped me overcome many obstacles that piano technique often presents in front of you. Calabria is a “singular” land, of a unique beauty in the world, which bewitches and attracts. A land that has always had important personalities in all fields of human knowledge, all over the world. A land that takes you and welcomes you like a mother, but then sends you away because it does not have the means, or the will, to support you ».
(Photo Leonardo Saraceni website and Facebook page)
