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"Cantarelli: When The Music Becomes Ecstasy.
The famous musician-composer walks again the polyphonic tradition
with his Choir in Pontedell'Olio, Italy."

What's the flavor of the Angels' canto? "Canto that so much wins our muses / our sirens, in those sweet pipes / how much the first splendor has refused what it is" (Dante Alighieri, from "Paradise" XII, vv. 7-9). Poet Dante Alighieri expressed this way the superiority of the angels' canto over the secular one, but also together their bond. The sweetness of earthly cantos is "reflection" of the ideal and divine one. ("The nature imitates the divine archetypal ideas," Paradise XVIII, vv. 109-111). The musical evening called "Fammi Cantare Con Gli Angeli / Let Me Sing With The Angels" featuring Beppe Cantarelli and his Millennium Choir in Pontedell'Olio (Italy) last May 31, 2004, has been an endeavor to re-create on earth the musical dimension of ecstasy typical of the mystical rapture, an endeavor to build a stairway of light in between present and infinity (see the composition "Eternità / Eternity"), an endeavor to "exalt" life and "exalt ourselves" through listening (see the beautiful "Magnificat / My Soul Exalts God" performed in different formats and arrangements). The opening of the concert could not have been programmed in any other way but with the "Sanctus / Holy" e the Hosanna, the pre-eminently canto of angelic joy, performed by the choir with the strength of he who shouts his enthusiasm. The composition is part in ancient Latin, part in contemporary Italian, as usual with the polyglot Cantarelli, capable of absorbing the inspiration from the musicality of both languages (see also his "Panis Angelicus / Bread Of The Angels"): a fusion of different phonetics, present and distant traditions, various enticements. The uniformity of the topics and of the atmosphere it has developed through the evening with an ever changing dynamic in between the selections. Now Cantarelli as a soloist, from "minstrel" to "laudante" ("glorifying tenor"), from ancient modalities of "to declaim while singing" to vocal performances full of lyrical pathos and drama, accompanied by his acoustic guitar ("Tu Che Parli Con Gli Angeli / You Who Speak To The Angels") and by Irina Martinova's violoncello, musician with an extensive worldwide experience ("Benedizione / Blessing"). Now Cantarelli interacts and performs with the Millennium Choir, sometimes conducted by himself ("Sanctus / Holy," "Kyrie / Mercy," "Magnificat / My Soul Exalts") and sometimes by Giovanna Gattuso ("Padre E` Giunta L'Ora / Father The Hour Has Come," "Panis Angelicus / Bread Of The Angels," "Noi Liberamente Persi, Adagio in RE minore / Lost Of Our Own Free Will, Adagio in D minor,"). Extraordinary guests of this evening have been mezzosoprano Paola Leveroni and Russian soprano Irina Lazareva, both singers with exceptional "curricula": Ms. Leveroni has been directed by Franco Zeffirelli and conducted by Placido Domingo in a 2002-2003 "Traviata" at the Theater Giuseppe Verdi in Busseto (Italy) and at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow (Russia), while Ms. Lazareva has sung a Mass composed by Stelvio Cipriani for the Pope in The Vatican. The presence of two female voices with colors so different, very warm the Leveroni's and shrill the Lazareva's, has brought further richness and variety to the overall sound impact united to the solo tenor flavor of the composer and to the choral background. The choir's arrangements are treated by lyricist, composer, arranger and conductor Beppe Cantarelli with respectful attention to the full polyphonic tradition: from the "canon process" to the "gospel shout", from vocal orchestrations almost orchestral and symphonic to antiphonal arrangements. His conducting is charged with emphasis, almost suggesting a process of identifying himself and becoming one in a most intimate way between his own feelings, his music and the choir singers all. As a conclusion then, a final prayer, "Ave Maria, Mai Più La Guerra / Hail Mary, Let There Be No More War," composition open to hope and charged with deep emotions. Standing ovation and encore requests by the numerous audience who packed the church.
From the "Libertà" (Piacenza, Italy) - Art & Culture Section
by Giorgia Gazzola, Musicologist, Music Critic, Teacher & Soprano
July 13, 2004
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