Solo CD Mani: 3 solos from Pierluigi Billone
Mani. De Leonardis
Mani. Mono
Mani. Matta
The CD can be purchased on the internet through:
Einklang Records | percussion-brandt.de | Steve Weiss Music
I have already given master classes on the pieces at conservatories in Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Atlanta.
A long time ago I was considering recording a CD of solo percussion. Even before I got very far considering, the thought came to me that I don't listen to solo percussion on the stereo at home. I remember hearing Sylvio Gualda's solo record at a friend's appartment and being happy to hear his interpretation of Zyklus and Psappha. However, on a normal stereo (this excludes top of the line expensive ones), the Psappha bass drum strokes are loud, but they have no vibrational impact. The music had no meaning for me. Zyklus fared somewhat better. I thought then that I would only record something that I actually wanted to listen to on a stereo.
It took me almost twenty years to find the pieces which fit this criteria. Of course, there are quite a lot of pieces that I have performed and I which I like, but I just wouldn't listen to them from a CD.
Billone's music is often full of subtle nuancen and original sounds, like low tones and resonances, which one can't always hear well in a concert. Georg Morawietz, the sound engineer, and I tried to bring these out during recording and mixing.
For Pierluigi Billone, Stefanie Wolff (who did lots of organizing for us) and I, the CD was finished and in our hands by the end of May 2010, but not yet publicly released. It was a nice surprise to be notified that The CD was chosen as the best CD of new music in the Quarterly Critic’s Choice for the first quarter of 2011 by the German Record Critic’s Award Association. I did listen to the CD again after the news. It still sounds the same as it did at the end of November 2009 when Georg and I finished the final mix.