Antonello Venditti
Notte prima degli esami

I apologize in advance if this review disgusts you... my goal is not to get a 5-star rating, but simply to share my opinion on what I believe is one of the most beautiful songs ever written: I'm referring to "Notte prima degli esami" by Antonello Venditti.

Many may not like his style, but I can only say that Venditti's songs have been the soundtrack of 18 years of my short life. Every note played on his piano brings to mind a more or less happy episode, and I believe this is the true aim of music: to penetrate our soul and accompany us over time, creating with our person indissoluble bonds…

I think no one has ever managed, like Venditti, to express in musical form the anxieties, the joys, and fears of entire generations of young people, particularly students. I am obviously referring to the musical trilogy about school, composed of "Compagno di scuola", "Giulio Cesare", and, in particular, "Notte prima degli esami" (included in the album "Cuore" and especially appreciated lately thanks to the success of the namesake and wonderful film of 2006). Who doesn't remember, after the chills of the first piano notes, the "four guys with a guitar and a piano on their shoulder...", the maturity viewed as an unreachable and anxiously desired girl? Personally, I believe that if it were possible to consider a song as a different form of poetry, well, this song is a striking example of poetry in music. Try listening to it, isolating yourself from the world around you, going back a few years… probably, listening attentively, you will be able, as I always manage to, to perceive that very particular atmosphere that characterized numerous nights of our youth, when, looking at the ceiling, we questioned ourselves about what would happen, about our future, about what has passed and will never return, about our dreams that we wished to come true soon… In this song, there is a choral manifestation of an entire generation of young people who find themselves at the fateful transition to adulthood (the so-called maturity): visual images (the night), emotional (the tears of fear, love), alternate in a crescendo of emotions, taking us back to the most beautiful age of an individual, when everything is a dream and real life still seems distant.

Every word about this song can only diminish its value: I tried, I don't know if I succeeded… I just know that for me it is simply fantastic.