Giovanni Sollima
We Were Trees

The Jimi Hendrix of the cello. Such a definition is, in every respect, a bona fide oxymoron. Yet this is exactly how our Giovanni Sollima is referred to in the States, where he has carved out a marble reputation with a series of phenomenal performances that over the years have set audiences alight from New York and beyond.

Giovanni Sollima, divided between Neo-classicism, Jazz, Rock and neo-minimalist influences, in addition to being an extraordinary instrumentalist, shines in his own light when he engages in the composition of music that magically balances between a brazenly pop accessibility and the rigor and austerity typical of a retro classicism, yet certainly suggestive and fascinating.

If such a blend would make the most libertarian of conservatives turn up their nose, it cannot but spark at least a bit of curiosity in any lover of good music, considering that the music present in this "We were trees" is of disarming beauty and intensity.

The masterpiece of the album is placed right at the beginning. "Violoncellez, Vibrez!" which dates back to 1993 and is in every respect the pinnacle of Sollima's art. Here the Sicilian cellist is accompanied by an exceptional ensemble, the Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop from Berlin, and by a young cellist of good standing. A wonderful, unmissable piece.

The pizzicato introducing "Tree raga Song" is just a sublime precursor to the magnificent string quartet that bursts at the heart of this extraordinary piece which is simultaneously solemn, modern, and imaginative. The undulating and oblique tone, clearly Mediterranean-inspired, and the melodic line, now led by the violin, now by Sollima's cello, provide glimpses of pure emotion, interspersed with moments of pause and expectation where the strings vibrate restlessly until a new kaleidoscopic explosion, which is again a blow to the heart, again a whirl of emotions. A gem set between sky and earth, like a village perched on a cliff over the sea.

Remarkable compositions like "concerto", "Igiul", "The Architect", perfectly fit into this Classical-Pop work where a well-known rock acquaintance makes a cameo (without offense for the "old", but by now, that's it), the wonderful Patti Smith who in "Yet can I hear" monotonously recites a pagan litany written by her own hand.

Overall, waving goodbye to petty snobbery, there's no comparison to be made with Classical Music in the proper sense. Nothing in common apart from a great listening experience. Which can be appreciated at any level of musical knowledge, and only because when music manages to cross the border of technicality and rhetorical, self-serving musical theory and touch some chord related to emotion, the pure pleasure of hearing, everything goes to heaven, all the theory from A to Z becomes wastepaper, and everything returns to the origin, to the reason it exists, music; and you find yourself simply and solely "enjoying".