Flavio Nati Rome Video - Lilium SoundArt APS

A guitar in Rome

The magic of Rome, narrated by the guitar of Flavio Nati.
The two videos bring us in different areas of the Eternal City, from ancient Roman ruins to 20th Century architectures.
This project was kindly supported by Guitarlift.

Filmed in November 2020.

Mazurka Apasionata - Agustín Barrios Mangoré

The ‘Mazurka Apasionata’ is one of the most famous pieces by the guitarist-composer Agustin Barrios Mangoré. Born in 1885 in Paraguay, he was an acclaimed virtuoso recognised all over the world. His music can generally be ascribed to two main types: on the one hand, to late-romanticism and, on the other, to the folklore of his homeland.

This piece belongs to the first of these two groups. It demonstrates Barrios’ infatuation with the music of Chopin, a famous composer of mazurkas, and represents a beautiful tribute to the Polish master. Barrios uses the rhythm of the mazurka, a dance originating in Poland, on which he grafts his ingenious instrumental devices, his splendid melodies and his unmistakable virtuoso touches.

The form consists of two contrasting sections following each other, each one repeated, followed by a short but virtuosic modulating bridge, which then leads back to the opening section and from there to the finale. Because of these characteristics – a dramatic beginning, a sunny opening in the middle with a return to the melancholic atmosphere of the incipit – we thought that this piece could be the ideal soundtrack for a day-long journey to discover the beauty of Rome.

Terrazza del Pincio

One of the city’s most famous overlooks, located on the edge of Villa Borghese, just above Piazza del Popolo. It is a borderline place, where the vegetation, although very tame, falls into the ranks of the city: it has always given me the feeling of being a sort of non-place, suspended so mid-air over the buildings, halfway between nature and the city… Being there early in the morning, when the Terrazza – usually full of people – was only populated by a few solitary runners trying to escape the concrete below, was fascinating: the exhilaration of the fresh morning air gave me an unexpected energy. After filming, we walked down the avenue that took us, leaving the splendid buildings of the Galleria Borghese and Villa Medici on our left, to the steps of Trinità dei Monti and from there down to Piazza di Spagna.

Piazza Navona

Undoubtedly one of the most iconic squares in the city, second – perhaps – only to St. Peter’s Square. Famous for its fountains, especially Bernini’s, known as ‘dei quattro fiumi’ (of the four rivers) – a masterpiece placed in the centre of this architectural space, right in front of the Church of Sant’Agnese in Agone, is one of the many places in Rome designed in a scenic sense. The square is one of the most loved places by Romans and tourists alike. During Christmas time, it hosts a typical market, where lots of sweets are sold all over the place. Personally, I love to walk through the streets that surround it, so rich in history and charm, and stop in one of the many small bars around… However, I have another memory that binds me to this square: it was the scene of many demonstrations in which I participated – while attending high school – against the cuts that the then Minister of Education was applying to the school system, and since Palazzo Madama (where the Senate is located) overlooks an adjacent street, Piazza Navona had become the focal point where all the Roman students would meet to protest…

Campidoglio

One of the oldest places in Rome, this is the hill where the Rome City Council is now based. The splendid paving, designed by Michelangelo to harmonise the various buildings, was only completed in 1940. At the centre of the square stands the famous equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius (a copy, the original is kept in the Palazzo dei Conservatori opposite), while at the back of the square, on the side opposite the magnificent access staircase (also designed by Michelangelo), one can find a magnificent view of the Forum and the Colosseum and – on the right – the Rupe Tarpea, from which traitors condemned to death in ancient Rome were thrown.

Isola Tiberina

Giardino degli Aranci

A small park on the Aventine Hill, with a beautiful view of the city and the majestic dome of St Peter’s in the centre. It is an intimate place and undoubtedly full of charm, especially around sunset. It is best visited in spring and early summer, when the orange trees are in bloom, giving an unmistakable colour (and smell too!). To record the video, we had to make our way through the crowds that – despite the covid restrictions – had built up at dusk, just before closing time. It was a beautiful yet strange sensation to be able to play in front of a real audience, after so many months…

Homenaje – Manuel de Falla

Granada, 8 August 1920. Manuel de Falla completes his Homenaje, pour le tombeau de Debussy. He writes the piece at the invitation of Henry Prunieres, founder of La Revue Musicale, with whose first number wants to celebrate the figure of Achille-Claude Debussy, the French music giant who passed away two years earlier. He asks ten different composers, including Ravel, Roussel, Bartók, G. F. Malipiero, Satie, Stravinsky and Falla as well, to write a piece in memory of the famous colleague.

Manuel de Falla, for his Homenaje, chooses the guitar – an instrument evoked numerous times by Debussy himself in some of his Spanish-inspired scores (Iberia’s Quasi Guitarra is iconic in this sense) – and makes it sing a dance, a sensual habanera, built largely on a simple semitone interval, F – E. The choice of the habanera, unsettling in such a funeral context, is not accidental: the same rhythm had already been used by Debussy in the Soirée dans Grenade and in the prelude La Puerta del Vino, composed after receiving a postcard of Granada from Manuel de Falla himself.

The latter writes that Debussy’s music “is not made in the Spanish style, but in Spanish, or rather in Andalusian, since our cante jondo – in its most authentic form – inspired not only the works he intentionally wrote with Spanish characters, but also certain musical values that can be appreciated in his other works not composed with this intention. We allude to the frequent use of modes, cadences, concatenations of chords, rhythms and melodic turns that reveal the evident kinship with our natural music”. Again it is not a casualty that at the end of the Homenaje appears – to testify once again the union of intentions between the two artists – a fragment of the aforementioned Soirée dans Grenade, however abruptly interrupted to leave space again for the interval of the initial semitone, that trembles one last time and then finally returns pianissimo to the original note, thus bringing the piece to its conclusion, as if to represent with these few notes the last breath of the late colleague and friend.

EUR

When Flavio suggested us the idea of filming the Homenaje here he said: ‘EUR’ is a district of Rome that has always fascinated me: its rationalistic lines, albeit a vestige of a dark period in our history, possess that charm and power with which they are able to transcend any political ideal and transform themselves into something greater and eternal. The architectures conceived by Libera, Aschieri and many others – under the guidance of Piacentini – create metaphysical and timeless spaces, which immediately made me think of the combination with the music of Falla, that is – despite its sensuality – also out of time in its own way.’