Under A Crescent Moon - Giacomo Susani [CD]

Following the success of Intrecci - New Compositions and Arrangements for Solo Guitar (Stradivarius, 2024), winner of the Amadeusd'Oro award, Giacomo Susani presents his new recording project Under a Crescent Moon, an album that continues and deepens the explorationof the expressive possibilities of the classical guitar. The CD is the winner of the "Per Chi Crea" grant by SIAE and the ItalianMinistry of Culture (MiC), 2024 edition, as was the previous album Intrecci, which won the 2023 edition. Unlike the previous work,structured in distinct pairs of pieces, Under a Crescent Moon takes on a more unified character. All the music-original compositionsand arrangements-was conceived, studied, and recorded within a highly concentrated period of just over one month, giving the albuma strong linguistic and expressive coherence. The three original works share a consistency of language that defines a distinctive style,while remaining sufficiently flexible to convey clearly defined expressive nuances and, consequently, ever-changing musical qualities.The album's title is drawn from a haiku by Matsuo Basho and serves as a poetic invitation to delve into the intangible and evocativesonorities of the guitar, it's resonances, and the richness of it's sound. As the artist explains:"The guitar is not only the recipient of my abstract ideas, but a generative engine of visions, sounds, and form: at once a poetic inspirationand concrete destination of the creative act"The album features three large-scale original compositions:Due appunti - structured in two movements (Preludio and Toccata), the piece moves from the mysterious and questioning character ofthe Preludio to the brilliant and highly fluid Toccata, which radically transforms the music's character from suspended to assertive andforward-driving.Under a Crescent Moon - six musical miniatures inspired by as many haiku by Matsuo Basho, translating poetic imagery and contentinto sound. These brief yet densely expressive poems inspire six musical moments, each aiming to depict not only the image evoked bythe words, but also their emotional resonance in the composer.Suite a uno - a five-movement suite (Preludio, Arabesque, Interludio, Corale, Finale) built upon a single harmonic structure, maintaininga clear formal coherence.Arrangements of masterpieces by Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel frame and permeate the original compositions: from Ravel'sPrelude in A minor to selected piano pieces from Debussy's Children's Corner and Preludes (Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum, The LittleShepherd, Golliwogg's Cakewalk, La Fille aux cheveux de lin). These are not simply transcriptions, but true arrangements that engagedeeply with the idiomatic nature of the guitar.The recording was made using a remarkable historical guitar built in 1926 by Spanish luthier Domingo Esteso. Now celebrating it's 100thanniversary, the instrument displays extraordinary elegance, depth, and nobility-an ideal medium for these sonorities and a powerfulsource of inspiration for their imagination.