Floraleda Sacchi (harp & percussion)
© 2009 DECCA
I have selected the pieces included in “Minimal Harp” by reviewing the paths of musicians with different backgrounds of experiences, studies and culture who have sought to realize that essentiality and totality in their music. The result is a collection of compact, polished pieces, slightly serial in nature, which constantly combine Western, Eastern and African musical traditions. All these pieces seek to explore various fundamental modes and themes of humanity: the beginning of everything (Cowell, Ligeti, Nyman), metamorphosis (Glass, Machajdík), time (Harrison, Campogrande), the intrinsic vibration of things (Cage, Pärt).
For the listener, however, the conceptual and cerebral aspect inherent in the themes selected or the compositional modalities is transformed into simple, linear pieces with an atmosphere that seems constantly to recall and lead back to the natural harmony between humanity and the whole.
(Floraleda Sacchi)
Tracklist
Lou Harrison (1917-2003): Music for Harp: Jahla, Avalokiteshvara
John Cage (1912-1992): 2 Pieces for Harp: A room, In a landscape
Henry Cowell (1897-1965): The tides of Manaunaun
Philip Glass (1937): Metamorphosis (Moderate, Flowing, Moderately fast, Flowing, Moderate)
Nicola Campogrande (1969): Tilidadodin (2008)
Arvo Pärt (1935): Pari intervallo
György Ligeti (1923-2006): Musica ricercata (n. 1 Sostenuto, n. 2 Mesto, rigido e cerimoniale, n. 3 Tempo di valse)
Peter Machajdik (1960): Nell’autunno del suo abbraccio insonne
Michael Nyman (1944): The morrow, Jack
© 2009 DECCA
N. catlogue 476 3172
EAN: 028947631729
Downloads
Reviews & Articles
CD Classico (28-11-09)
Radio Classica in Ultimo Grido – novtà discografiche. Flora will be on air from 17 to 17.30. www.radioclassica.fm. Listen the interview >>>>
Radio inBlu – Sat 2000 Listen the interview >>>>
Sacchi has a convincing way with these varied works, giving each their due in terms of tonal color and rhythmic emphasis, while suggesting implicit similarities. This is a seductive, rather than flamboyant, recital that offers surprising, albeit subtle, rewards to the open-minded listener.
Art Lange, Fanfare
I think Sacchi is a fine performer who is justly celebrated for her accomplishments, and I hope she will record more original harp music.
American Record Guide
Floraleda Sacchi fa del suono una continua ricerca, una trasmissione di concetti ed emozioni capaci di creare dimensioni sonore tali da trasformare la sua arpa in una splendida macchina ipnotizzante, ne quale pulsa un cuore che infonde calore e epassione.
Andrea Bedetti, Linea
Among the original pieces, some in the world première recording or first recording in the version for harp, Mrs Sacchi invents a new fascinating chapter of harp history. […] The recital is not only pleasant to listen to – with a common thread that will also catch new age music fans -, but teaches how wide is the interpretation of adjective “minimal”.
Angelo Foletto, Suonare News, La Repubblica
Plucked path searching the authentic meaning of adjective “minimal”.
Angelo Foletto, La Repubblica
L’arte di Floraleda Sacchi, spigolatrice e virtuosa, in questo nuovo cd Decca trasforma anche il prolisso in magica ipnosi. L’omogeneità del tocco s’intreccia alla varieta’ degli stili, da Harrison e Cage a Nyman, Ligeti e Campogrande, toccando un astuto Glass e uno ieratico Pärt («Pari intervallo»). Complimenti anche per i testi: di rado si legge un libretto così chiaro e utile.
Gian Maria Benzing, ViviMilano – Corriere della Sera
“Minimal Harp” is absolutely wonderful!!
Marvin Rosen, Classical Discoveries
The search for essentiality pushed Floraleda Sacchi to record “Minimal Harp”: A collection of pieces to dream in a CD that will appeal all lovers of cross-over.
Giorgio Vitali, Famiglia Cristiana
“Minimal Harp” gives a physical pleasure before still the intellectual one (but… are the two aspects separate?), and it demonstrates how much is still immense and inexhaustible the space offered to originality and to the free and authentic research. You are a great artist.
Quirino Principe, journalist and Accademico di Santa Cecilia
The way Floraleda performs Philip Glass goes beyond the wonder. The piece that Nicola Campogrande has composed for her is brilliant. [In “Minimal Harp”] there are American, Slovak, Nordic and Italian composers, Oriental inspirations and Western experiments, pieces of 1912 and unknown ones recently composed. Nevertheless, at the end, the impression that the CD communicates is not the usual boring and chaotic multiethnical melting pot. The project is perfectly harmonized and far away from every known thing, nearly an encounter with Flora, a creature of another dimension who has stolen all the music of the world to play it in a new way and with her curiosity and ability.
Tommaso Labranca, Acid Jazz
“Minimal Harp” presents compositions which caress the ear and, at the same time, are technically demanding and with complex means that Floraleda succeeds perfectly to express and to transmit. Her great bravura is in making to seem easy what instead it is intensely complex.
C.P., Il Corriere della Sera
Some of “Minimal Harp” performances sound more representative than ever – I’m pretty sure fans of Glass, Cage and Pärt will be stunned by these renditions.
Tokafi Magazine
Floraleda Sacchi con Minimal Harp dimostra la versatilità di uno strumento che dal Barocco può indifferentemente passare al Novecento.
Classic Voice
It is one of the best known harpist in the world, thanks to her bravura. Recenty she realized “Minimal Harp”, distributed all over the world from Decca, a truly beautiful and fascinating CD.
Alessio Brunialti, La Provincia
The new CD of Italian harpist Floraleda Sacchi for Decca label is a fascinating program all dedicated to 20th century and contemporary repertoire.
Gabriele Formenti, CD Classico
Overall, the CD has its own effect, able to capture the attention of a rather large audience. This is for the composers’ collection, but also because of the quality, style and importance of the performances, which ensure an enjoyable listening from the beginning to the end.
Cesare Fertonani, Amadeus
“Minimal Harp” is a harp alone project, shining and clear and a collection of music which is a dream of minimalism.
Gloria Chiappani Rodichevski, Morfoedro
The harp and contemporary music, a tight relationship, as it demonstrates the new CD, “Minimal Harp”, of harpist Floraleda Sacchi.
Luca Pavanel, Il Giornale
“A wonderful recording of these important cotemporary works. Truly an outstanding recording and contribution.”
Susann McDonald, Artistic director of WHC, American Harp Competition and Professor at Indiana University.
“Floraleda Sacchi è un’arpista di fama internazionale. Artista di punta della Decca, ha già al suo attivo diversi cd che spaziano dalla musica Barocca al Novecento. In questo cd significativamente intitolato ‘Minimal Harp’, Floraleda affronta un repertorio contemporaneo contrassegnato, come dice il titolo stesso, dalla ricerca dell’essenzialità e della concentrazione su pochi mezzi espressivi. Si passa così dalla circolarità insistente e lievemente malinconica delle celebriMetamorfosi del minimalista Philip Glass alle suggestioni orientali di quegli autori americani che possiamo a tutti gli effetti considerare come gli antesignani del Minimalismo, vale a dire Lou Harrison, Henry Cowell e John Cage; dalle meditazioni interiori dell’estone Arvo Part e del suo allievo Peter Machajdik alla cantabilità delle brevi pagine di Nicola Campogrande e Michael Nyman; passando per la scrittura un po’ più complessa, ma anch’essa strettamente legata alla ripetizione di brevi cellule tematiche, di Gyorgy Ligeti. L’arpa di Floraleda è perfettamente a suo agio con tutti i brani del cd; in particolare, straordinaria è la resa dell’estatico lirismo di cui sono intrisi i due brani del Maestro californiano Lou Harrison e del rapimento ipnotico che il brano ‘ambientale’ di Cage è capace di procurarci. E, sotto le avvolgenti mani di Floraleda, perfino la sinistra musica di Ligeti ci appare meno straniata e più umana.
Voto: 10/10″
Filippo Focosi per Kathodik
Acid Jazz, Late Night Cappuccino by Tommaso Labranca
Morfoedro Poems inspired by Minimal Harp CD