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Rating: Concert At Mediterraneo Theatre - Salvatore Maresca Serra
Even though I have recently grasped in my life the importance of being a blogger, my occupation is not writing, nor reviewing, and I do not intend to talk about professions, even though they are noble, necessary, and irreplaceable. Instead, I intend to talk about art, a virtue that, if it does not surpass the "profession" of doing things, is not art. Nikolaev Tarabukin—a critic I have long appreciated (because I am not a kid)—argued under the regime of the Soviet republics something extremely necessary to post-modern culture, that is, to its cradle, its precursor, its imprinting: "Art belongs to all spheres of professions and all professions can become art." This premise is necessary to discuss the fact that art is (put simply) a quality that ferries any profession (if one agrees with Tarabukin) into the olympus of an executive, expressive, communicative perfection that belongs to the sphere of genius. It's also evident that in contemporary criticism, currents and schools of thought reject all this, placing art in a completely opposite sphere; for example, they return it to popular creativity; they deny it the identity and authority of the artist, causing the influence exercised by great artistic individuals over the centuries to slip into a basement of oblivion, de-institution and disestablishment from the socio-cultural role.
Individual identity seems to have greatly disturbed the leftist intelligentsia culture. And then, in an era where the "serial reproducibility" of images— for example—wedded to industrial production stigmatized by Warhol's pop art and company, theoretically questions the "Author", is it still—or can it still be—the true, irreplaceable peculiar quality of art the skill? The genius? I think it's a wonderful question. Warhol— for example—doesn't paint, doesn't draw but screen prints, that is, prints like any typographical worker. Thinking like Duchamp, Warhol denies that art is a sublime craft because the craft elevated to a sublime level must necessarily be considered art (because it is perfect, it is what we define as "beautiful" because we have been accustomed for centuries to see beauty in the classic perfection of skillful, supreme, unsurpassable, ineffable execution) and all this must be denied because it annoys. Who doesn’t remember Marcel Duchamp’s work that scandalized the Metropolitan Museum of Art? The title was "Fountain", but the reality was a urinal. Sure, no one can deny that even a urinal (gushing a flow of water like in highway restrooms, the kind where you pee standing up) can be considered a fountain. Thus, with a hallucinatory and conjectural operation, a urinal can be renamed art and thus be considered a fountain: the work of art is no longer in the consistent and undeniable skill of the executor but in the visionary capacity of the author. The author (as Picasso stated) no longer seeks, simply "finds"... So art is no longer even "search"—think of centuries spent tirelessly working immensely to achieve ever more—how to say?— "noble," "appreciable," "supreme" results? No! Art is something different. Someone said, in the so-called "post-modernity". It's enough to have an idea, and there you go, the material execution of the work is no longer important. I hope I don't bore you. But let's move on to music.
Today, music is made by cutting and pasting so-called "Loops." These are nothing more than pieces of pre-recorded instrument tracks. Then they are pasted— with some experience of course—no doubt!, and a piece is made, another, and so on. We can all play: garage band teaches us. Well, recently there has been much confusion over art, music, genius, and the ability to communicate because—certainly—art is communication, and at least this cannot be denied. Communicating emotions, or more complex feelings, communicating fabrics of experiences, of memories, of loves towards other artists who have constituted us as such with their great examples...communicate, communicate what one has to say. But now let's talk about the piano, pianists and composers. If they did like Duchamp, what kind of music would come out?! Maybe someone could defecate on the keys and call the work something like: "Entropy of musical smells." So, when playing the piano, I believe one cannot cheat too much. You can't do it like Fontana—now I'm talking about the painter, the one who cut canvases—and do that on the keys and say it's art. I am a piano enthusiast. I love everyone who loves it, who does not belittle it, who respects it. And so, I would hardly accept the pianist Warhol. And unfortunately, I see quite a few around. Not to name names, from Clayderman (I don't know how to spell it and I couldn't care less) to Allevi, of whom I happened to find a review on this site. Well, a perfect occasion to talk about it. I don't agree with all this fuss about this little guy who goes on Costanzo to play the grandson of Jarrett. "Est modus in rebus" Horace Flacco, a great poet, used to say. So, to cut it short, we do not celebrate an Enrico Pieranunzi—not as much as he deserves, we do not celebrate a Danilo Rea—as much as he deserves—we do not celebrate a Salvatore Maresca Serra—as much as he deserves (they are my favorites in Italy) and yet we elevate commercial products to the altars of the mass media?!... So I say: "There is a lot of confusion in art"! And it’s a pity. Music must be made by those who possess depth, thought, conflict, humility, skill, genius, eternity. I rebel against the idea that yet another attempt to pass off flat brainwaves as art risks reaching the general public and polluting them.
Conversely, I propose this concert by pianist Salvatore Maresca Serra (very little known in Italy because he lives in Los Angeles where he will also receive the Los Angeles Music Award on November 29) as a counteraction to the pianistic banality of many who are passed off as geniuses, as artists, but who—in my modest opinion—only end up confusing even more a public that should be educated, cultured, not just informed. Here, mine is a counter-information. I hope someone is interested, and I promise—should anyone be...—to give other counter-information because I have many and all equally interesting.
The concert I recommend can be found on (not sure if HTML is included but never mind) at http://www.myspace.com/salvatoremarescaserra in demo version, or the complete version at http://www.salvatoremarescaserra.com, then perhaps we'll talk about it.
Cheers to friends and foes (more of them) Davide Padella
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