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Rating: All the arts contribute to the greatest art of all: the art of living. (Bertolt Brecht)
August has faded among the gentle folds of these clouds, now colored by the sunset with a soft red, and I really don’t know what to do. I decide to take a moment and look for a prematurely autumnal album. The choice is swift and falls on Round About Weill (ECM 2005) by Gianluigi Trovesi (clarinet) and Gianni Coscia (accordion). A curious album already in its premise, as it is a tribute to the music of Kurt Weill (1900 – 1950), the eclectic German composer who indissolubly tied his name to that of the brilliant - and ever-relevant - playwright Bertolt Brecht and fascinated entire generations of listeners, but not only. Indeed, countless musicians have drawn from his music, from Jim Morrison's The Doors (Alabama Song) to Nick Cave (Mack The Knife), not to mention Ute Lemper and mezzo-soprano Teresa Stratas with more "classic" interpretations.
In light of these prestigious examples, before starting the album, I wonder how Trovesi and Coscia approached this sacred monster, his music that is poor and rich at the same time, reminiscent of bitter laughs, evident pretenses, sparse dusty stages, and dim cabarets. From the title of the album alone, I imagine something that does not completely mimic Weill, but rather evokes him. I think this is a good thing and I am sure Trovesi and Coscia will not disappoint me, also because they are great musicians. They have amply demonstrated this with their previous albums (Radici in 1994 and In cerca di cibo in 1999).
Let’s listen then, and from the beginning, it’s evident the atmosphere the two aim to create with the original composition "Dov'è la città", in which they indeed circle around Weill: the notes murmur of distant cities, dawns and dusks, diaphanous lights and sudden flashes of a fake sun. The mechanisms are clear and show that their approach is free, aimed at recreating the original suggestions of Weill's poetics through interpretations that find new insertions sometimes cultured, but more often deriving from popular music, being thus consistent with the inspirational source. Weill's musical themes are mostly taken from the opera "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny" from 1930, which the two interlace with quotes (Blue Moon, My Funny Valentine), alternating original pieces and small rarefied yet elegant ironies, which eventually surprise, becoming true flashes of genius ("La cumparsita" and "Tristezze di Fra Martino"). Freedom, as mentioned, in the choice of combined tracks, but also in execution. And Gianluigi Trovesi's clarinet seems the perfect emblem of this freedom, especially when it plays the theme of "Youkali", a tango with a scent of France, on which the two enjoy wandering now languidly, now sweetly, now showing a mocking smile.
The music is often a slight oscillation, dictated by the pure and rich sound of Gianluigi Trovesi's clarinet, which combined with the sparkling accordion of Gianni Coscia, leaves no void, no space occupied by silence. And when silence arrives, it's just the prelude to a new melancholic paraphrase of Weill, which unfolds with a flowing breath capable of subliminally insinuating itself into the mind, painting with tangos and marches and those foggy cabarets a nostalgia that the music brings closer and pushes away until it becomes unreachable, blurring its contours in a way so imperceptible it seems like a dream vanishing upon waking.
Nostalgic, audacious, cultured, ironic, original, and vital, Trovesi and Coscia have created a small gem that highlights their great talent and their equally great culture.
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