Porqueddu: The Impressionistic Guitar Riccardo D'Alo & Lorenzo Micheli Pucci

• Cristiano Porqueddu (b. 1975): Sonata No. 1, des couleurs sur la Toile:
• 1 Porqueddu: Sonata No. 1, des couleurs sur la Toile: I. Les fleurs Imaginaires 08:06
• 2 Porqueddu: Sonata No. 1, des couleurs sur la Toile: II. Chanson au Crépuscule 05:26
• 3 Porqueddu: Sonata No. 1, des couleurs sur la Toile: III. La terre des Lumières 04:26
• Sonata No. 2, sonata di Picerno:
• 4 Porqueddu: Sonata No. 2, sonata di Picerno: I. Racconti dal li Foj 07:37
• 5 Porqueddu: Sonata No. 2, sonata di Picerno: II. I monti Blu 02:30
• 6 Porqueddu: Sonata No. 2, sonata di Picerno: III. Campane a Festa 04:28
• Sonata No. 3, Il rito del Fuoco:
• 7 Porqueddu: Sonata No. 3, Il rito del Fuoco: I. Allegro Fantastico 06:22
• 8 Porqueddu: Sonata No. 3, Il rito del Fuoco: II. Adagio Incantato 05:26
• 9 Porqueddu: Sonata No. 3, Il rito del Fuoco: III. Mosso Misterioso 05:06
• Diptico de la Oscuridad:
• 10 Porqueddu: Diptico de la Oscuridad: I. El lejano Tañido 04:37
• 11 Porqueddu: Diptico de la Oscuridad: II. La mañana llena de Tempestad 04:11
• Metamorfosis de la Soledad:
• 12 Porqueddu: Metamorfosis de la Soledad: I. Grave 02:38
• 13 Porqueddu: Metamorfosis de la Soledad: II. Allegro non Troppo 00:56
• 14 Porqueddu: Metamorfosis de la Soledad: III. Come una Canzone 02:09
• 15 Porqueddu: Metamorfosis de la Soledad: IV. Adagio 02:12
• 16 Porqueddu: Metamorfosis de la Soledad: V. Andantino con grazia e Tema 03:23
• Studies from Eight Views from Xiaoxiang:
• 17 Porqueddu: Studies from Eight Views from Xiaoxiang: I. The Snow in the Evening on the Xiang River 06:10
• 18 Porqueddu: Studies from Eight Views from Xiaoxiang: II. The Rain at Night on the Xiaoxiang 05:04
• 19 Porqueddu: Studies from Eight Views from Xiaoxiang: III. The Wild Geese Coming Home 04:59
• 20 Porqueddu: Studies from Eight Views from Xiaoxiang: IV. The Evening Gong at Qingliang Temple 04:28
• 21 Porqueddu: Studies from Eight Views from Xiaoxiang: V. The Temple in the Mountain 04:00
• 22 Porqueddu: Studies from Eight Views from Xiaoxiang: VI. The Fishing Village in the Evening Glow 03:49
• 23 Porqueddu: Studies from Eight Views from Xiaoxiang: VII. The Moon in Autumn on Dongting Lake 05:06
• 24 Porqueddu: Studies from Eight Views from Xiaoxiang: VIII. The Sailing Ship Returning Home 04:56
• Total Runtime 01:48:05

Info for Porqueddu: The Impressionistic Guitar

The first album of this double-album set contains Sardinian composer Cristiano Porqueddu’s first three sonatas for solo guitar, written between 2013 and 2019 and performed here by his compatriot Riccardo D’Alò. ‘Des couleurs sur la toile’, in three movements, pays homage to the painter Gesuino Curreli, the composer’s maternal uncle, who paints landscapes of contemporary Oliena, a town in northern Sardinia. ‘Sonata di Picerno’ – completed in 2015 and dedicated to Italian guitarist Christian Saggese – is a musical portrait of the distinctive town of Picerno in the beautiful Basilicata region of Italy. All three of its movements narrate an entirely fictional leyenda (legend). Sonata No.3, ‘Il rito del fuoco’, is based on an ancient Sardinian legend that tells of Saint Anthony and his pig stealing fire from hell to give to humanity. It is a cyclical composition, which remains anchored in the harmonic and thematic elements introduced in the first section throughout.

The recordings on the 2nd album – performed by Lorenzo Micheli Pucci, a guitarist from Piedmont in northern Italy – were written by Porqueddu between 2011 and 2020. Díptico de la oscuridad is a homage to Pablo Neruda’s poetic atmospheres and is dedicated to Italo-Australian guitarist Ermanno Brignolo. Metamórfosis de la soledad, dedicated to Italian guitarist Alberto Mesirca, stems directly from observing the artistic solitude glimpsed by the composer in artwork by Gastone Cecconello on a personal visit to his studio. It takes the form of a series of short movements based on Angelo Gilardino’s study ‘Soledad’ from his collection Studi di Virtuosità e di Trascendenza. These movements offer a prismatic vision of the material from the introduction to the study, heavily abridged to allow it to be used as a theme for a cycle of variations. In 2019 and 2020, Porqueddu’s figurative art studies led him to discover the wonderful ancient Chinese artwork Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers, a set of eight parchments dating from the Song Dynasty, approximately 1150 AD. Porqueddu wrote the solo Studies from Eight Views from Xiaoxiang while studying Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s 21 Greeting Cards for guitar. They are built on clearly identifiable melodic sketches, and alternate between demanding technical skill and a capacity for introspection from the performer.

Riccardo D'Alo, classical guitar
Lorenzo Micheli Pucci, classical guitar

Riccardo D'Alo
Born and raised in Sardinia, Riccardo D'Alò discovered his love for the classical guitar in Abruzzo, where he came across his first instrument, a small guitar that his grandfather had carved from a piece of wood. His studies led him to delve into the original repertoire for guitar and to obtain a degree at the Conservatorio 'Vivaldi' in Alessandria, where he studied with Luigi Biscaldi and Fréréric Zigante. He furthered his research with teachers such as Angelo Gilardino, Ermanno Brignolo, Massimo Lonardi and Javier Riba at the Rafael Orozco Superior Conservatory of Music in Cordoba. His concert activity is based on original programmes for guitar and he is already a dedicatee of compositions by Kevin Swierkosz-Lenart and Cristiano Porqueddu with whom he is currently pursuing a course of advanced training aimed at designing record releases and researching 20th and 21st century repertoire.

Lorenzo Michele Pucci
was born in 1998. He began studying classical guitar at the age of six under the guidance of Maria Grazia Citterio. He attended specialisation courses with Maestros Piera Dadomo, Vincenzo Torricella,Tilman Hoppstock, Ares Tavolazzi and Rolf Lieslevand. In 2012, he met Maestro Luigi Biscaldi with whom he deepened his knowledge of the modern and contemporary repertoire. He is dedicatee of works by A. Gilardino, K. Swierkosz-Lenart, C. Porqueddu. He plays with T. Bruno (violin), G. Martinelli (guitar). In 2018, he founded the Durandarte Collective together with his brother Eugenio (contemporary dance).

Booklet for Porqueddu: The Impressionistic Guitar