Dissenting opinions on Giovanni Allevi

Hi Stefanus, just yesterday I expressed my disappointment regarding Allevi, or rather his music. As I have just read in the linked article by Christian, Allevi's music bores me; I don't find it interesting and it doesn't move me; it is a musical imprint that I cannot follow. I have nothing against the person—I saw some interviews years ago and found him a bit egocentric, and I consider him lucky as he was in the right place at the right time. Technically, I judge him based on what I hear; he doesn't seem comparable to the great names of international fame; he carries his music forward and has found his audience, nothing more. If he graduated from the conservatory with a 10, I find that an enviable and deserved result, but this does not advance him in the ranking of my favorite musicians.

To me, as a layman, it seems that Allevi, Einaudi and all the gang make music that is all the same and boring, based on the repetition of insipid and childish themes. It's just my opinion. In the specific case of Allevi, the aggravating factor is the fact that he behaves as if he were God on earth.

Stefanus wrote:

To me, as a layman, it seems that Allevi, Einaudi, and the whole lot make music that is all the same and boring, based on the repetition of insipid and childish themes. It's just my opinion. In the specific case of Allevi, the aggravating factor is the fact that he behaves as if he were God on earth.

I have nothing else to add...

(Except that Allevi actually has some "little problem"... but it has earned him quite a lot of money...)

I would also be interested to know the opinion of others and of Simone and Paolo on the matter. It seems to me they have never expressed an opinion regarding Allevi.

Einaudi

Allevi

Bomoll

Find the differences (except for the egocentrism, which is quite obvious, and the audience comments that go too far using terms like "this is real music" etc.

There are much younger kids writing interesting pieces without benefiting from the same publicity, and this is not right.

His pop music, there is nothing wrong with it.

What do you want Stefano to answer you? It seems to me that you have already summarized it... I agree on some things and disagree on others, as is the case regarding Christian's article.

In my opinion, the discussion could take several directions.

In any case, I don't understand why every time we deal with Allevi, there must be talk of jealousy and envy, as if a public figure must necessarily be either loved or hated... Allevi is totally indifferent to me, just as Cradle of Filth are indifferent to me because I don't find their music interesting. He is a guy who started writing music (I don't even want to get into the merits regarding quality) and was followed. There are those who like it and those who don't. He started making money, built an image, and so far there are no problems. Certainly, there are some things I do not approve of... The fact that he was chosen to conduct the New Year's Eve concert at the Chamber of Deputies, for example (a simple and pure marketing move), that he presents himself as an author of "contemporary classical music." No! He composes Pop music!

I simply believe that if he stayed in his place, he wouldn't infuriate anyone.

To say that people are jealous of Allevi seems a bit exaggerated; perhaps some truly are, but Riccardo Muti, Uto Ughi, I believe they truly have very little to envy Allevi for; if anything, it is the opposite, and if I were completely devoid of any musical foundation and had to side with someone's opinion, I would prefer to trust Muti's words even if perhaps at first I wouldn't deeply understand their meaning. At the very least, I would ask myself... "Why has a great Maestro like Riccardo Muti expressed such a judgment on Allevi's music?"

Regarding how he achieved success... Stories circulate linking him to Jovanotti, claiming that Jovanotti himself sponsored his first album. Now you understand well that nowadays, if you don't invest time and money in your image, you won't go very far, and having a figure known to the public between ages 12 and 60 like Jovanotti is certainly a good media calling card. Now, one cannot say that Jovanotti is the point of reference for music in Italy, but he certainly knows what is trending in the commercial market (today World Music) and probably realized that Allevi's music could find resonance among today's youth and invested in him.

What I mean is that it is probably true that there are people around who are much more deserving than Allevi of being in the spotlight, but if you cannot invest, you remain in the shadows.

To make a discussion about talent, one would have to start from zero without anyone's help and come into the open due to undeniable personal qualities. A random example from recent decades? Yuja Wang. She came into the open because she has unique technical skills in the world, and it was inevitable that she would emerge and make her way solely through the merit of her pianistic skill.

To return to Maurizio's post, Bomoll is the prime example. He emerged a couple of years ago. Any keyword searched on YouTube related to the piano and concerts, his videos appeared as "Recommended Videos." He must have spent quite a bit of money on YouTube advertising. Being constantly present and inventing a "recognizable distinctive brand" is a marketing strategy to remain imprinted in people's minds (I know well what I am talking about because it is my job; I work in IT, Pro Audio, and Marketing).

Just as Allevi created his character of the 40-year-old scatterbrain with hair combed with firecrackers. The fact that people talk about him, whether in a good or bad way, as we are doing here, just as Christian did in his article and video, only serves to increase the value of his public image. An extreme example of this concept is when public figures who are fading away cause scandals. It is just another way to get people talking and bring that person back to the center of discussions. Look at Andrea Dipré... Someone who exploits people with evident mental and physical problems to create a character should be erased from the face of the earth, yet his videos also get 5 million views.

If we then have to talk about his music, we enter the subjective realm. What can I say? I don't like it, not in the strict sense of the term; there are some pleasant and evocative little tunes, but they don't seem to me like things destined to last over time, and not because I am a Chopin and classical music fanatic; I am just saying that, for my personal musical sensibility, if I listen first to a piece by Allevi and then to Battisti's "I giardini di Marzo," Allevi disappears, but I repeat, it is my personal opinion.

Besides, as long as

they write music and there are those who follow them, it doesn't hurt anyone, so for what reason have it out with them?

Great, I agree 1000%, but when you talk about "investing in one's own image," are you talking about money?

I am talking about money and not just that. I am also talking about skills and targets. Certainly, if one has skills, they avoid spending money to cover their shortcomings. What I mean is that if you know marketing strategies, you don't need to have a marketing expert on your payroll; if you have IT skills, you don't need the IT specialist who creates and manages your website. If you are an expert in communication, you don't need someone to write the articles you publish on your site. Then, it also depends on the target. If you want to explode at high levels, it is impossible not to spend money because you need television appearances, journalists, and mass media talking about you.

At certain levels, it is impossible to think about not spending.

If I open a company that wants to sell a product on a national level—let's say, for example, an application that allows you to chat with a person by entering their license plate number as the message recipient—you need fairly strong advertising. If the idea is promising, even better; it means it will make its mark with less effort. The problem lies in circles. If few people know about it, it will be difficult for it to expand on its own like an oil slick, unless it is so revolutionary that it makes people talk about it automatically and uncontrollably, especially since thousands of new applications come out every day.

So you have to move through various channels: internet, TV, newspapers, radio, etc. This advertising has a cost.

And then the target comes into play... We have spent some money here and we are still spending it, and it's not like we have a million subscribers. There is a motivation that must be sought in the approach we chose to take. If we had wanted to reach 200,000 subscribers above, we would have had to talk about World Music or, changing the subject, sexual issues related to youth. The point is that we deliberately cast our hook into a small pond with few fish and, in addition, we are constantly careful to select which fish enter the net.

I must certainly acknowledge that despite my intermittent participation in discussions, there is a slightly different atmosphere in this forum compared to others. I would say a more academic atmosphere. Both regarding the piano and professional audio discussions. I have seen high-level content here that others can only dream of. However, opening the discussion to more "commercial" topics might attract many more subscribers who could then also become interested in the native areas of this forum. Have you ever thought about this solution?

We are going a little bit OT anyway, yes, the thing has been examined several times. In short, the point is that this project was not born out of a remunerative motive but out of passion. When you do something out of passion, you want to see it grow the way you have it in mind, without falling into content that you don't like just for the sake of seeing the subscriber count grow. I don't judge those who do it, they are choices, but I can tell you that for me, getting on YouTube with a video where I arrange a piece by DJ Francesco on the piano just to gain a handful of subscribers would be a truly sad thing for the simple reason that I prefer to dedicate my time to endeavors that give me greater satisfaction. Having said this, I believe I am also speaking on behalf of Paolo.

I apologize for the off-topic, sometimes discussions take different turns. Your point seems like an appreciable one to me. However, I remain curious to also know Paolo's opinion on the topic of the thread.

Look, in the end, the matter is simple...

Allevi has been hanging around "the scene" for a lifetime (the guy is over forty years old), like many actors who leave their "book" at various agencies waiting for a call, for a job...

He never had anything to do with art music and he didn't even satisfy Jovanotti, who contacted him for an arrangement.

In practice, Allevi remained on "stand-by" until the talent show craze exploded with various "friends" of Maria De Filippi...

Due to a curious convergence of trends and events, a few years ago Allevi found himself representing the ideal of the "nerd pianist," disheveled, careless, awkward, and the agency that represented him, an expert in these things, seized the opportunity and made millions.

After a life "on the margins," he was the right man in the right place at the right time and had his moment.

Things might also have gone as you say, but do they come from reliable sources or is it your own thought?

Because I just went to read on Wikipedia which states verbatim:

"From Ascoli Piceno, at the invitation of Saturnino Celani, bassist for Jovanotti and his childhood friend as well as contemporary, he moves to Milan to collect his piano production in a CD, and his work is welcomed by Lorenzo Cherubini (Jovanotti) himself, who, with his label Soleluna, together with Universal Italia, decides to publish, in 1997[6] Allevi's first solo piano album, titled 13 Dita and produced in studio by Saturnino[7]. Subsequently, he continues to collaborate with Saturnino and Jovanotti in their pop concerts; thus, Allevi opens Jovanotti's concerts alone at the piano during the L'Albero tour, in which he performs some tracks from 13 Dita.[3]

In 1998, he composed the soundtrack for the short film Venceremos by Giovanni Stefano Ghidini and Sergio Pappalettera, long-time collaborators of Jovanotti, presented at the Sundance Film Festival in the United States. In 1999, the Japanese musician Nanae Mimura, a marimba soloist, performed some tracks from 13 Dita, transcribed by her herself for her instrument,[3][6] at the Tokyo Theater and in a concert at the Weill Recital Hall, a secondary hall of Carnegie Hall in New York. Furthermore, in 2002, she participated in the creation of Jovanotti's album Lorenzo 2002 - Il quinto mondo as co-author of some tracks and playing piano and keyboards. Meanwhile, 13 Dita receives critical success and Jovanotti again invites the musician to participate as a pianist on the Il quinto mondo - Jovanotti 2002 tour, for which he also handles the arrangements for the sixteen-piece band."

From what is said here, it seems that he collaborated very often with Jovanotti and that Jovanotti himself published his first album with his label "Soleluna" and "Universal Italia".

So I would like to understand if these are personal opinions for which you take responsibility for what you say, or if there is documentation attesting to these things... It is just a question of mine, it is not a provocation, I assure you... Given the tone, it could be misunderstood. In that case, could you post the links for me to read a testimony that his arrangement does not even satisfy Jovanotti?"

Our “shy” hairy boy is, in reality, something else entirely...

http://www.lettera43.it/cultura/allevi-la-parabola-discendente-della-musica_43675103288.htm

http://www.ilpost.it/2015/03/23/libro-saturnino-giovanni-allevi/

Stefanus, it's all written in the articles I linked you...

He worked with Jovanotti, but it didn't last... the guy wanted to reach the top... he wanted to get rid of all the "pebbles" accumulated over decades of "musical marginalization"... he even wrote a book about these things. (from which more piles of money...)

You should see what pages full of contempt and resentment towards everything and everyone. A disgrace.

Very interesting Celibidache. Could you give me the name of the book? The matter is starting to arouse my interest.

If I remember correctly, it is called "La musica in testa".

Things would seem to be as Celibidache says. I have tried to be less direct and more diplomatic...

Diplomacy is always the best approach, but with an individual like that, honestly it's hard to just sit idly by.

I know that type of person well (they are mass-produced, naturally...) and behind the apparent harmlessness, at the first opportunity, there are new "Neros" ready to set the whole world on fire. Essentially, clearly sociopathic manic-depressives.

In that book, he launches into asylum-like disquisitions about how his conservatory classmates—those who were better, more gifted, and more hardworking than him—are now perhaps just ordinary bankers, while he instead is a star...

The whole thing is permeated by a pressing implicit contempt, envy, and sarcasm for any composer who isn't him.

Deeply uneducational for young people.