Music that takes you back 500 years
Noted Italian Guitarist premieres in Kyiv
A concert of the Suona Italiano (Italian Sound) cycle took place at the National Philharmonic Society in Kyiv, starring the noted guitarist, Emanuele Buono, winner of numerous international music competitions.
Organized with the aid of the Italian embassy and the Institute of Culture, the concert was meant to serve several purposes: music (Buono’s guitar sounded its usual crystal clear virtuoso self) and education, familiarizing the Ukrainian music lovers with a Western classical guitar repertoire.
The concert started with Buono performing three ricercars, late Renaissance and early Baroque instrumental compositions, made famous by Francesco da Milano (in his time compared with the divine Michelangelo) whose music, back in the 16th century, could be heard all over Europe. Nowadays it is being revived in Italy. Buono’s guitar sounded soft and somewhat restrained, like the lute for which da Milano had written his compositions.
His rendition of the Andante and Rondo by the founder of the Spanish classical guitar school, Dionisio Aguado Garcia, carried the audience to the 19th century and everyone could hear the Gypsy overtones (some listeners were reminded of the famous Gypsy romance “Dark Eyes”).
Doing Joaquin Rodrigo’s 20th-century Tres Piezas espanolas, Buono demonstrated virtuosity complete with spectacular slides, leaving the audience happy before the intermission.
The second part of the concert proved even more enjoyable as the guitarist offered renditions built on contrast: seven pieces of Silvius Leopold Weiss’s exquisite Suite No.6 (the composer was the great Johann Sebastian Bach’s contemporary) seemed to echo Niccolo Paganini’s magic guitar and his famous sequences. Rossiniana I, op. 119, by Mauro Giuliani, the most prominent representative of the Italian classical guitar school, was flawlessly light and transparent, just like the shining Rossini to whom the composition was dedicated.
Emanuele Buono’s age (born in Turin, 1987) is almost teens for a professional guitarist, although his service record will soon boast 20 years. He started learning to play the guitar at nine, at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan, under the able guidance of professors Paolo Paolini, Maria Vittoria Jedlowski, and Paolo Cherici. In 2005 he graduated with honors and proceeded to polish his skills at the Francisco Tarrega Music Academy in Pordenone under the tutorage of the renowned guitarists Stefano Viola and Paolo Pegoraro. He took Oscar Ghiglia’s advanced training course at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena. The 27-year-old musician is a winner of numerous national and international competitions in Italy, Croatia, Spain, Austria, and the most prestigious Pepperdine University Parkening International Guitar Competition (Malibu, US). Among his trophies is the Golden Guitar awarded the best concert player of the year by the 13th International Guitar Congress of Alessandria (Sept. 27, 2008).
Not surprisingly, Buono is frequently invited to perform at the most prestigious concert halls in Europe and the US, including Carnegie Hall, Raitt Recital Hall (Pepperdine University, Malibu), Schubert Theater in Vienna, Manuel de Falla Hall in Madrid, and Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
His repertoire embraces various historical periods from the Renaissance to the 20th century, and the concert in Kyiv and the enchanted audience served as absolute proof of his mastery.
