Ana R. Colmenarejo
Pianist Claudio Constantini's album América is a mature and thoughtful work that perfectly shows the result of a job well done. It is the effort of a lifetime dedicated to music and a dream fulfilled.
Constantini assures that in this album a very important part of his life, of his experiences and of his restless personality is captured. These experiences have led him to discover sounds, cultures, and to travel through time and space. On the piano keys, he carefully studies each sound to seek to optimize the result without letting the smallest detail escape.
The pianist surprises us with a work full of sound amalgams. This is a musicological study that links two great artists: Gershwin, who considered jazz as the popular American music; and Astor Piazzola, who created a different language in tango, taking it away from the hustle and bustle of the streets and adapting it to chamber music.
From Gershwin the album highlights Rhapsody in Blue, the first work in which jazz turns into the pentagram with classic forms. It is a composition that managed to have in itself the aroma of the American jazz style and the magnitude of the European symphonic tradition. It is a piece composed for orchestra, although its most solid foundations start from the piano, so it can be perfectly adapted to be played on the keyboard.
Of Piazzola, the Four Seasons of Buenos Aires stand out. Nuances of Baroque and tango are perceived. We can notice the changes that the composer made in tonality and modality and the rhythmic variations that made it a true work of art.
From Constantini himself, we find Summertime Variations, a delight inspired by the theme with the same name of George Gershwin.
In short, América is an album with which we travel the American continent from north to south listening to the best sounds from each place. They are played by a great piano and composition teacher, Claudio Constantini, who shows us that you can love different styles and that by combining them harmonic jewels like those found in this recording are obtained, with sublime interpretations.