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Rating: Uncertain, incomplete, blurred, nuanced, confused, indeterminate, approximate, elusive.
These are some of the meanings we generally associate with the term vagueness. The superlative would therefore lead to the idea of an excessively undefined portrait, so much so that it dissolves into a nebulous image, incapable of conveying any perceptible visual information. A portrait that we can therefore only imagine, based on what we seem to glimpse, destined to take on details and contours according to our perception and the elaboration that derives from it.
This could be a plausible "reading" of the sense of a title as evocative as it is enigmatic, like the one chosen by Trovesi and his two travel companions for a record that confirms, a few months after the first listen, a refined and distilled nature, a constant lyricism not without subtly ironic accents, an overall quality of indisputable excellence.
Whatever surprises still await revelation by the end of 2007, the record released by the trio for ECM will certainly find a place in my hypothetical end-of-year ranking.
"Vaghissimo Ritratto" collects and condenses some characteristics of an approach to sound matter that Trovesi (clarinetist, saxophonist, and composer) has declined, over the course of a career that began in the '70s, in highly personal works where marriages between seemingly distant music styles were celebrated. Immersing the sensitivity of an academic background and a "experimental" spirit in revisiting European popular heritage ("Dances"- 1985), or, leading the acrobatic octet, achieving international recognition ("From G to G" '92) or using an unknown and "denatured" theme (of medieval origin and probably "obscene" nature, which transformed and was handed down in the following three centuries in sacred forms) to stage, supported by a rustic flair and full of delightful "irreverence", a kind of journey through time and compositional structures, as in "Les Hommes Armés" ('96). Or again, gifting, in partnership with accordionist Gianni Coscia, one of the most pleasant and refined examples to date of revisiting a popular tradition as rich as it was, at least in those years, neglected or snubbed (Radici '92).
I mention four records to which I am particularly attached (and which I recommend without hesitation), but this gentleman's production is rich in further and very worthy developments, both in the domain of a recognizable sound, especially his now unmistakable clarinet, and in compositional maturity, also demonstrated by performances of his original compositions by great international orchestras. A path that has continued to intersect different sources and stimuli, one of the latest stages of which is excellently described in Hal's review on DeBaser for a record dedicated to revisiting Kurt Weill ("Round About Weill" -2005). Meanwhile, the partnership with Coscia continued with "In Cerca di Cibo," also ECM.
In "Vaghissimo Ritratto," Trovesi's established collaboration with the refined and versatile pianist Umberto Petrin is complemented by the well-balanced interventions of percussion and electronics by Fulvio Maras. The album, which is characterized by an attitude of subtraction and delicate yet dynamic interplay among crystal-clear sounds, presents the reinterpretation of a diverse songbook that, reconciling Monteverdi and Palestrina with Jacques Brel and Luigi Tenco, revolves around the figure of a 19th-century author unknown to me, Alfredo Piatti, honored through citations and original compositions.
I mentioned the attitude of subtraction: in the ample sound space generated by the three, the quality of the tracks, every subtle nuance of the alto clarinet's timbre, the measured and suggestive percussion and electronic stimuli, the lyrical precision of the piano, and some splendid phrases have the opportunity to "resonate" at every moment, shining like single isolated and bright pearls, even after repeated listens.
A richness that unfolds meticulously yet incessantly, taking on abstract and "experimental" hues at times, at certain moments almost "ethnic," elsewhere abandoning itself to a blissful "singability," in compositions that seem, as always in Trovesi, to naturally leave space for the musician's inherently jazzistic nature, leading to improvisational detours and free zones skirting a "free" spirit.
I also used the term distilled, referring to the music of this record: it indeed seems to come from a pure yet not diaphanous source, teeming with riches accumulated over time and wonderfully re-proposed with modern sensitivity and spirit: of that modernity that does not call upon the new but is capable of being classic upon its very appearance.
Rating: 4.5
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