two albums published by Giuseppe Perna https://itunes.apple...rna/id348585663
REVIEW BY ETTORE GARZIA http://ettoregarzia....attica Musicale REVIEW OF THE NEW COLLECTIONS BY GIUSEPPE PERNA Friday, October 5, 2012 The true breath of the Mediterranean: the new collections by Giuseppe Perna. Many pianists have been captivated by their own cultural origins. In the last twenty years, the reconsideration of relations between East and West has prompted producers and professionals interested in promoting many projects of musicians who found themselves along that sort of looking glass, which goes from Morocco to the Middle East and then climbs up into Europe to reach Russian ethnicities (see the ECM pianists). But very few have taken into consideration the oldest derivations involving the entire Mediterranean area in an Oriental-type modality: in this sense, the pianist Giuseppe Perna is an oasis in a desert. His two latest solo piano CDs just published retrace this "virtuoso" combination between classical expression as we have known it from Romanticism to Debussy's Impressionism and the theories of harmonic relationships usable through modal scales. But it is a path made of originality that, while having the usual reference characters as its temporal stylistic substrate, escapes any repetition because it approaches modality in depth as a fruit not only of specific artistic preparation (which you are now coming to know through his articles on this blog), but also of a heartfelt penetration into the implied objects of the compositions. "Taormina" is the most mature example of Perna-oriented, which for the first time tackles the "risky" format of long-duration tracks. The thoughtful shadows of "Il fuoco dell'Etna" alternate with the melodic openings to the beauty of "Canto della Sicilia"; "La Valle dell'Agrò" establishes a new contact between ancient Western history and Eastern-style mysticism, a splendid piece played entirely in full exploration of the harmonic possibilities drawn from modal improvisation, just as in "Canto per Francesca Martinez Paris" one also perceives a complete sense of dramaturgy in the development of the composition. "Canto per Taormina" admits, alongside the doubt and mystery that constitute the leitmotif of the piece, splendid harmonic-instrumental oases: a contrast handled in a very personal way, wonderfully enriched by the occasional slowing of tempos. "The other side of jazz" has a greater openness towards improvisations reminiscent of Jarrett, where the sense of the classical nature of the composition prevails and there is an indirect and light presence of minimal themes in the style of Satie. "Melissa" (to which Giuseppe is fond) has a winning melody that respects its characteristics, just as "Doubt" re-proposes those "melodic" improvisations with tonal colorings that you wouldn't expect in a composition dedicated to modality. "Memories" follows patterns that could belong to the recently exported "modern-classical" trend, but even here the episode presents such seriousness and "emotional" variation that I struggle to find similar material in Italy. "Dream State" will take you back into an oniric listening state useful for capitalizing on human spiritual changes and the emptiness of many widely recognized modern behavioral models, and it is also the piece closest to that jazz which, in its interpretation, approaches something that is more a spirit of freedom and search for beauty, and less dependence on African-American models. Finally, I remind you that the two CDs are available for direct download on iTunes. https://itunes.apple...rna/id348585663
GIUSEPPE PERNA'S LAST TWO COLLECTIONS
Often in art and therefore in music, innovation is not always important, but an idea or a feeling that through the music itself transmits the prerogatives of the artist and ultimately the needs of man: this principle can be applied with great adherence to Giuseppe Perna. Someone might turn up their nose when they don't find certain instrumental elements, especially today when skill is measured only on technical abilities, but one forgets that often the things most listened to over time have nothing to offer but simplicity and a great emotional breath: Perna's particular "chromatized" modality is his strength, and I challenge you to find pianists who have a sound like his. Giuseppe is publishing two new collections ("Perna modal songs" and "Morning Mediterranean")* with tracks selected from a wider range of privately recorded improvisations that demonstrate all his value.
file:///C:/Users/GENERICO/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.jpg The first track of "Perna modal songs" is
"Sonorous cells" which begins with an unbalanced piano, sounding almost on the verge of being out of tune, introducing a thoughtful texture that is a direct expression of his modal ruminations. A fatalistic halo steeped in darkness pervades the twelve minutes of the piece, which lives through splendid musical frames that evoke memories and melancholies of life; "Ghost" was composed spontaneously after Giuseppe listened to some contemporary music pieces: by using image similarities thanks to an extensive use of the piano, it is one of his most "dissonant" tracks: actual ghosts circling the piano waiting for a response; "Jarrett in love with Debussy" is pure Perna-sound: a beautiful stylistic crossover between different sensibilities of piano history filtered through his perspective; "Dorian chant in E-Flat n. 1" is one of his masterpieces: in a dark and almost metaphysical atmosphere, his piano projects into various harmonic "figures" that bring timeless images to mind; Giuseppe begins to use mode notation to title his pieces, as happens with the subsequent "Dorian chant in G-Flat n. 1" in which a certain dramatic texture seems to reappear, though always wrapped in a refined and sensitive packaging that makes you "float" on the clouds; "Requiem to George Russell" is an admirer's tribute to the man who was the first in jazz to build a true theory of modal harmonization: the composition in Db Phrygian is a sort of loss of consciousness that pushes into reflective and mysterious impressionistic territories; "Meditation IV C" concludes the work by bringing us back to the starting point after having caressed one of those beautiful dreams of purity that, when they end, make us open our eyes to an unfaithful reality.
file:///C:/Users/GENERICO/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.jpg"Morning Mediterranean" is more unbalanced towards an ethnic characterization of the product (which is not ethnic in the restrictive sense of the word) and opens with the theme of "Locrian chant n. 1 in Db" in which an "Arabic" vein, completely internalized in the sound, clashes with extemporaneous and evocative melodies, just as the melodic notation of "A Aeolian chant n. 1" distills within itself all the research on the pianist's musical vocation and at times opens up to glimpses of unusual melodism. "Eb Dorian chant n. 2" is a successful variation of the first chant played on "Perna modal songs", while the beautiful "The day after" uses a bimodal structure (Phrygian and Aeolian) to express a caustic and dreamy realization; "To Donatella" is almost a "snapshot" of memory which, as often happens in his case, approaches that breath of "modern" classicism, avoiding what many pianists (especially those of new-age background) confuse with banality. These recordings are breaths of oxygen for the soul!
