ALIAS is an unique contemporary artistic project designed around what it’s considered one of the most fascinating Baroque instruments: the Viola d’Amore.
ALIAS is music by composer Elvira Muratore, conveyed to the hands of Valerio Losito, tailored to suit the warm sound of the 1775 Ferdinando Gagliano’s viola d’amore, property of the Elsa Peretti Foundation.
ALIAS is image pictured in artistic photography by Federica Cocciro.
Music and image together play, because ALIAS is what we choose to keep untold to protect it from misunderstanding and strumentalization, even when it’s presence is obvious and irrefutable.
ALIAS is exploration and versatility; a collaboration in pursuit of the ultimate beauty; it is a cd recording, a recital, a theatrical piece, a series of concerts for solo viola and ensemble, a vernissage. ALIAS has an unlimited amount of possibilities.
That which must be kept untold, has already been suggested within the name of the starring instrument. Viola d’Amore suggest the love that will be displayed in 5 chapters, and 5 different nuances. Alias is a bridge that connects the earthly with the divine, and the past with our present, or rather, contemporary!
Federica Cocciro artistic photographs for ALIAS album
Thanks to the Nando and Elsa Peretti Foundation support the “Alias” musical project became a Cd recording featuring a completely new musical language for the Viola d’Amore. This instrument is the absolute protagonist of this recording and the music itself was created by the composer in order to show all technical and musical possibilities of a magnificent Ferdinando Gagliano instrument.
Elvira Muratore created a deep and complex sound “structure” asking to the performer to find a new way to play his instrument, in order to join the musical world of the composer. Alias project allowed the performer to bring out even in this case the outstanding sound qualities of the Elsa Peretti Foundation Viola d’Amore made by Ferdinando Gagliano, that has proven to be an instrument of a very high profile for contemporary music too. Moreover, musical performance exalts at the most the sound possibilities of the viola d’amore, succeeding in finding a proper way to play this unusual repertoire. The recoding phase has been completed in four days, from 10th to 13th of September 2018 (six hours per day). Around 20 hours of music were recorded and stored on computers. Recording venue was in Rome, in the Theatre of the magnificent “Villa” belonged to the famous Italian actor Alberto Sordi near Caracalla’s Thermae, in the heart of the ancient roman city center. The theatre was intended by its former possessor as a “private” stage for artists: many of the most famous theatre and movie italian actors of 60s and 70s performed there.
Our Cd recording was hosted in that venue due the kind support of the Fondazione Casa Museo Alberto Sordi. It’s support was a sort of “logistic” sponsor who permitted to record in this historical theatre and to create an artistic dialogue between the music and performing arts, in order to support and aid young artists. The “logistic” facilities from Fondazione Sordi added support to the precious patronage by the Nando and Elsa Peretti to our cultural project.
The recording has been published by Da Vinci Classics in spring 2020.
