Antonello Venditti
Da San Siro a Samarcanda

THE REVIEW

Third live album of Venditti's career, after "Circo Massimo" and "Centocittà", and not considering "Bologna 2 settembre 1974," this double CD marks the end of Antonello's "second period". Twenty-two tracks to retrace exactly twenty years of career, between civil commitment and emotions. San Siro was one of the designated stadiums for the tour that year, and Samarcanda was the program hosted on Raitre by Michele Santoro where Antonello appeared live. The title, curiously, could also have been given to a Vecchioni record, as the Milanese singer-songwriter also had two precise references in San Siro and in Samarcanda.

One of the twenty-two tracks is the unreleased "L'amore insegna agli uomini," which closes the live album. A hopeful song in the vein of "Stella," appreciable. Antonello, after opening with recent hits from the albums of the "sentimental quartet" ("Cuore", "Venditti e segreti", "In questo mondo di ladri", "Benvenuti in paradiso"), returns to the first phase of his career and then accompanies himself on the piano, from which he had already begun to separate. "Roma Capoccia," his first great success, "Le cose della vita," "Sara," and perhaps his greatest masterpiece, "Lo stambecco ferito." Then, apart from the other masterpiece "Modena," where he plays on stage with Gato Barbieri, the other songs on the record all belong to the second period, the period 1984-1991. Gato Barbieri also plays in "Alta marea," but it is a one-time event, as Amedeo Bianchi would play in the following years.

Hope, civil commitment, satire and sentiments, the four main ingredients of Antonello Venditti's poetry and music, who in that 1992 toured Italy with this tour, and in the faces of the fans, there was a different Italy, where the frenzy of mass cell phone usage and later social networks did not yet reign, and people sang at the top of their lungs, perhaps not as much today. In addition to the double CD format, "Da San Siro a Samarcanda" was also released on VHS, with an interview with Antonello between songs and with some tracks only hinted at. A good album, the best live recording of the last great Venditti. Recommended for a first approach for those who do not know the Artist.