(by Carlo Mandelli).
Italian pianist, composer and director Giovanni Allevi on Wednesday night will open his Europe-wide 'Equilibrium Tour' at the Theater Dal Verme.
The concert will be divided in two: the first part will be devoted to the 'Concert for piano and orchestra N. 1', a new composition in the artist's recently-released 'Equilibrium' album, performed by pianist Jeffrey Biegel and directed by Jeffrey Reed.
In the second part, Allevi will execute the other compositions from the same album with 60 musicians from the Italian Symphonic Orchestra.
Speaking ahead of the tour's debut, Allevi said he has been recently "reading what Robert Schumann wrote from the psychiatric hospital during the last two years of his life", previously unpublished letters written between 1854 and 1855 from the psychiatric hospital of Endenich to wife Clara, daughters Marie and Elise and his friends Johannes Brahms and Joseph Joachim.
"Those words help to get a better understanding of the power of music, which can truly drive you to the brink of madness.
"Sometimes I don't know whether it is better to find an equilibrium or remain muddled, perhaps the second hypothesis is the best one", continued Allevi.
The artist said he likes to see the light in musicians' eyes when they perform a new composition for the first time.
"Not being able to count on the certainty of something you have already experienced in the past makes the ground shake under your feet but also gives you the thrill of talking in the present tense to a public that can recognize itself in the notes playing on stage because they haven't been written centuries ago".
The trailer of a short film called 'Playing Together' will also be screened before and after the concert on Wednesday night.
The movie, filmed in 4K resolution with specialized audio, will focus on the interaction between musicians and Allevi during the preparation of the piece 'Together', showing rehearsals and the execution through virtual reality.
"I believe this is the future of concert recordings and if the contemporary musical world, at all levels, is so square and fair, I instead try to induce a loss of balance - the idea of ending up on one side or the other as the pendulum swings", said Allevi.
"It's distressing from a certain standpoint but it is exactly there that I see the creative fire".
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