Giovanni Allevi
Live

Finally, we arrive at the live album by Giovanni Allevi, the most beloved Italian pianist of this century. After the great success of "Joy," which broadened the listening audience, this double live recording from a theater in Milan hit the market a few weeks ago.

Emotions guaranteed, as always in Allevi's works, where he gathers his pieces as if in a greatest hits collection.

A greatest hits?

Indeed, I would say that this is exactly what it is. In a music review, one must be as honest as possible, even unfortunately pointing out the negative aspects of the work. In this case, we are not talking about a flaw, but a well-established fact.

If you tried to listen to this album, eliminating the applause between one piece and another, you would have EXACTLY a greatest hits, meaning a collection of Allevi's studio pieces. Who would ever notice the difference with a live track? All pieces are performed as they were written, without variations. And perhaps this is what would not encourage Allevi's fans to buy this album, which would seem almost useless, except for the unreleased track "Aria" (very beautiful).

Allow me to add that Allevi has another little flaw, which might easily be a personal fixation: anyway, I think a good pianist should remind themselves a bit more often of the incredible potential of the piano, whose name already distinguishes two ways of playing it. Therefore, it seems that Allevi composes too many calm pieces, where he merely caresses the piano, slides over it without giving it a more pronounced, even violent accent. The pieces that enjoy this characteristic can be counted "on 13 fingers" (excuse the ugly pun!), among which are "Piano Karate", "Jazzmatic", and "New Renaissance" (one of my favorites).

Now you may say: "You've criticized Allevi so far, and you give four stars?" I want to clarify that I had no intention of doing that, I simply got off my chest those small shortcomings that make it incomplete. But with this, I also want to assure you that the album, like all the previous ones, is exceptional, and that you should at least once listen to this artist, very sweet but above all sincere, like my review. And that's one of the best qualities a musician can have.

Here are the tracks not to be missed: "Back To Life", "Come Sei Veramente", "Follow You", "L'Orologio Degli Dei", the aforementioned tracks, and the unreleased "Aria".