Play Further! Video Series
An Online Contemporary Music Showcase
Duo Dillon-Torquati
Francesco Dillon | Cello
Emanuele Torquati | Piano
Daniele Ghisi: Chansons (2012)
Maurizio Azzan: Time Changes the Memory of Things (2021)
Francesco Filidei: Lied (2020)
Marco Momi: Unstill (2016)
Can you share with us the ideas behind the selection of the four pieces in the series?
Emanuele Torquati: We decided to play these pieces, because with each composer selected we have connection and worked with each one of them closely. For example, with Francesco Filidei, we worked with him separately as soloists, we also performed his violin, cello and piano trio Corde Vuote. The relationship with Filidei started in our 20s, especially the two Francescos, they are really close. Then I got to know Filidei as well, and we became friends.
Francesco Dillon: We agreed to select an Italian programme and are happy about it. We have a lot of friends and composers that we grew up together with. The composers featured in the programme are our friends for a long time. For example, Francesco Filidei and I studied together at the Conservatorio Firenze in the 1990s. Emanuele and I are rather strict on what we play, we consider one of the important qualities of musicians, especially musicians who play contemporary music, is to believe in what s/he does. A great interpreter concerns not only about how s/he plays, but what s/he plays. The selections of repertoire that one plays reflect something about one’s taste. Emanuele and I completely share this belief. Daniele Ghisi's Chansons and Marco Momi's Unstill both are written for us in different period. Filidei’s Lied is a gift during the lockdown. I learnt it as soon as I received the score and I am happy to include it in this series.
Emanuele Torquati: We worked and commissioned Chansons for cello, piano and lo-fi electronic devices by Daniele Ghisi, for our Festival “music@villaromana”. We played and premiered the work in Florence in 2012. It was really interesting to work with a composer about the possibility of having electronics controlled by me, a pianist.
So the electronic sound in the work was operated by you?
Emanuele Torquati: Yes, I control the pedal and the device is inside the piano. I think in a way it’s a more practical way to work with electronics, because you can just transport these small devices, with the pedals which are similar to those we use with iPads. 10 years ago, these were something quite new. We made an experiment together with Daniele, and then he started to use this method in his other works, including his latest piano works.
Emanuele Torquati: Newer pieces in this series include a work by Maurizio Azzan. He is a colleague of mine at Conservatorio “G.F. Ghedini”, Cuneo in Italy. I know some of his ensemble works but never had a chance to listen to his solo pieces before. At one time he sent me this piano solo work of his, Time Changes the Memory of Things, and I was really impressed by the sounds he created. There were only a few elements, not a very complicated work but the world of sound is very captivating. Also, when I played the piece live I could feel that the audience was captivated by the sounds as well. This is one of the reasons I chose to include this work in the series, because I think the structure of the work is clear and there is a line sustaining through from the beginning to the end, persuading the listeners to follow through till the end.
Emanuele Torquati: There is also Marco Momi's Unstill and it is a work dedicated to Duo Dillon-Torquati in 2016. The work means a lot to us. We premiered the work at Salle de la Bourse in Strasbourg, France, in 2018. So the work was only performed two years after it was finished. In the same year we performed the work in Paris, New York and in Italy. We are really happy to work on this piece again after 4 years. I remember I was quite worried in the very first stage of learning to play the piece, because it is a very complex and demanding work for both the cello and piano. It was demanding for me because in the piece I have to play harmonica and some found objects. But I am really happy to work with this piece again. After 4 years I realised I actually learned the materials in the work very well.
In my opinion, the programme of this series is really interesting, as there are works with sounds of prepared piano and with electronics; only one cello solo piece is acoustic music, and then in Momi’s Unstill we have different objects. Sometimes the work gives you the feeling that it is with electronics but it is not. We produced the sounds with the objects and they are acoustic sounds.
The composers featured in the series are your life-time friends and colleagues. The works came in a rather personal way, either as a gift or a commission. We would also like to hear more about your experience working with composers. Are there any interesting stories that you can share? How did you work with the composers of these pieces?
Emanuele Torquati: We worked with all of them closely and the composers were there when we premiered the works by Daniele Ghisi and Marco Momi. We performed Ghisi’s Chansons several times in Europe. It was part of the project called “Distant Voices, Still Lives”. In Chansons, Ghisi used some French folk tunes and then we worked with the tunes with electronics. Marco Momi went to Strasbourg for the premiere together with us in 2018. It was an inspiring work. When you perform challenging pieces, you care very much about the quality of your playing and want to make sure they are presented in the best possible way. When you get to know the composer and work with him/her, then you realise the creative process is much more human than you think. Also when they compose, the composers take our ways of playing into account, as they already knew us and our work. So there is a friendship between the composers and us, that enhances the value and the quality of the collaboration.
Francesco Dillon: These four pieces come from different period of time but we have played them a few times in the past, except the most recent work, Lied. I played it right after the lockdown when we were able to perform in concert halls. The duo work by Daniele Ghisi came from a project that we had about human voice. The Duo has a cello and piano programme that we adapt according to the occasions and we have been performing the programme for many years. Throughout the years we have commissioned a lot of new works but we always play Romantic works alongside new works. For Ghisi’s work, we started with the cliche idea that cello is the closest instrument to the human voice. In this project, we only had pieces inspired by songs, voice or spoken voice. Ghisi’s Chansons came from this project.
Every good composer has a different approach when rehearsing and working with musicians. In this case, I can say, it is very stimulating, interesting and also challenging to work with composers featured in this video series. Ghisi, Filidei and Momi they have very different attitudes. Momi is strict and particular on what he composes. As a result, his music is incredibly crafted and well-controlled. As musicians playing his works, we feel almost uncomfortable but in a good way. It was a tense situation at work, as we have an incredibly perfect piece of writing to work on. You can hear in the work that it is full of details and strict techniques, that musicians have to be in full control of their playing. On the contrary, Filidei has a more open attitude in his music. I would say his attitude is quasi-romantic! Filidei has a fond love for Italian opera and Puccini is his “idol” composer. In his work for me, Lied, he does not hide his taste for the almost natural vocal phrasing of the cello at all. I think we have presented quite some different sonorities of cello and piano in this programme.
What is your vision in forming the duo? How do you maintain to work as a duo while both of you are prominent soloists?
Francesco Dillon: The duo with Emanuele is a flexible project. We like playing together because we are friends, and we share a lot of tastes for music. We both strongly believe that music has no barriers. Our ideal programme is a dialogue between classical and contemporary music, that we can offer new life to both the new and the old. One of the last projects we did is the complete cycle of Beethoven Cello Sonatas. Alongside the Sonatas we commissioned Helena Winkelman to write new pieces in reflection to these master works by Beethoven. We love the idea of dialogue and we are keen to provide a platform for music from different eras. I think together we have developed pretty much since we knew each other very well. In the very first year when we played together, of course we had to spend a lot of time in fixing the details of the works. But today it’s more about listening in the same way as a group. So, we do not speak much in rehearsals. We try to listen to each other, and shape the music and listen to the harmony and gestures together. The process takes time. The duo is a result of many years of friendship, knowledge and playing.
Emanuele Torquati: A duo is not a chamber music group. I remember when we first started, we did the first concert not as a duo but a quartet 20 years ago. We performed publicly as a duo 15 years ago, since then we occasionally play together. We both have a consensus that the duo is not like a marriage or a very closed ensemble. But the reality is we have always been performing together since then. There are more and more collaborations with composers over the years. I seldom play with other cellists now, maybe just on one or two occasions. It happens that I always play only with Francesco Dillon.
It sounds like the duo was formed naturally without really making a decision!
Emanuele Torquati: Yes, exactly. Francesco has a string quartet (Quartetto Prometeo) that is almost 30-years old. So for him, as he already belongs to a group, he doesn’t really want to be involved in another group. But then the duo came just like that, naturally forming as a group and we actively make a lot of recordings and work with composers. The recording we made, including a 3 Cd-box set with Schumann’s transcriptions, Liszt’s complete works for cello and piano and a rare selection of Brahms’ works, and with the new commissioned works we played, shows we are keen to perform both classical and contemporary repertoire. In my opinion it is a matter of passion we possess as musicians, and we have a strong link with the music we play.
It is a beautiful story. Not many musicians embrace both classical and contemporary repertoire like the way you do!
Emanuele Torquati: We think there is no border between classical and new music. When you perform new music after you play Beethoven or Brahms, I notice that the performance changes. New music should play in a musical way, not like a machine. Even in the more complex pieces, such as Marco Momi’s work, we should maintain the idea of breathing and togetherness. Of course not in a strict way, as we also have to respect the text of the score, but as musicians we should create our own world of sounds. When I teach, I would make my students understand that virtuosity is also in the sounds we make, not only in techniques. As a duo we always keep in mind that we are producing sounds, and these sounds should be effective and eloquent, as if a persuasive speech. The other thing I have in common with Francesco is that we both believe a musical work is like a story. When you play a piece, you should make it clear to the audience that there is a structure and a narrative. The story does not necessarily have to be a descriptive one. Some pieces are rather abstract and not related to any extra-musical references such as an image or a story. But maybe these pieces were composed when the composers were experiencing something special in their lives. You can feel it when you hear the works. For me it is important to make the music clear to the listeners, and to make it effective in a sense that people can feel something in the music. Some people argue that new music is separated from the classical tradition, that feeling and emotions are not given consideration. But when you think of new music as a musical work in a generic sense, there are also moods and feelings that could inspire the listeners.
The pandemic situation in the past 2-3 years has been a huge impact to the cultural scene globally, and one of the impacts includes this project of ours that has to be changed from a recital of the duo in Hong Kong to now a video series online. Some people see it a difficult time to get through and wait for things to resume normal. Some others see it as a changing point that opens up some new opportunities and will never go back. Can you share with us your experience and thoughts? Has this pandemic changed anything in you as a musician and an artist, and how? And what’s your thoughts on more and more artistic activities moving to online platform nowadays?
Francesco Dillon: The pandemic of course is a big challenge to us. Personally, I don’t think virtual and recorded concerts can replace live performance. I strongly believe that experience is something impossible to replace. After the pandemic I feel more precious now to be able to play for audiences in front of me. This project in Hong Kong we plan and execute with all our efforts, with a hope that we could play in the concert halls in the another side of the world one day live. To share the music is very important to us.
Because of the demands in filmed music during the pandemic, I think the quality of videos featuring music is getting higher, not only in sound but the way of presenting it visually. In my opinion, this is something we can explore more - the intersection of music and video or visual art.
Emanuele Torquati: I am persuaded that the pandemic has not really changed the way we listen to music. But it changed our lives, that is something much deeper. I think live performance is the most beautiful thing we can have. I remember in the beginning of the pandemic, I listened and watched quite a lot of performances online, for example the recordings of the Berlin Philharmonic. From the technical point of view, the orchestral recording is well crafted and produced. But I got uninterested after 20 minutes because I was not there in the hall. We are used to very short duration of viewing time online, one to two minutes or so. The pandemic has not changed the fact that we love attending live events, and my way to see what music is. However, it definitely changed and affected our lives a lot. I think every single person in the world has a story about him/herself about the pandemic. Even if you survived the pandemic without too much loss or damages, emotionally or psychologically there are some damages I believe. It has been more than 2 years now. I think the impact and damage is more on a personal level rather than on a professional level. I don’t think in the future everything will be online and streaming. Last year in June, I had my first live concert after a 6-month lockdown in Europe. At that time I was afraid that maybe I wouldn’t be able to concentrate for more than one hour in a live concert. But then I feel alive to be able to play in a live performance again! I will remember this concert for the rest of life because it was like a rebirth!
Were there a lot of people in the concert?
Emanuele Torquati: Yes there were a lot of audiences. People were longing to be back to live concerts. I can feel there was a strong connection between the performers and the public, that was really beautiful.
Any other thoughts you wish to share with our audiences about this project?
Emanuele Torquati: In my opinion this project is very interesting because you invited interpreters of contemporary music from all over the world to contribute. I appreciate that there is no limit of choice to the performers. We had a free hand to choose the programmes. Sometimes this is an add-value to the performers, because in some occasions we are given directions of what to play and not play. From an aesthetic point of view, it is also an enrichment to the listeners, as they do not have a single-voiced direction to follow. This is also what we believe when we organise the festival “music@villaromana” in Florence for 10 years. We just give out hints to the listeners. Audiences are given options to choose programmes that are with different approaches so that they can keep their minds open.
Francesco Dillon: We are really grateful to your kind invitation. I also enjoyed the cello seminar on 19 July. It was very stimulating and I must say it was very warm to be in contact with young musicians and composers in the seminar. We played with audiences in mind in the recording sessions. I hope that even we are not able to present the works in the video series live, we could still send the viewers the feeling of warmth and energy through the videos.
