released July 23, 2023

A well composed piece of music seems improvised, a well improvised piece of music seems composed - by Lucio GARAU

On August 5, 1988 I listened to a wonderful concert by Fernando Grillo at the Ferienkursen in Darmstadt, three days later we met and started talking for several hours. That night together, after a concert, we received the news of the death of Giacinto Scelsi; for Fernando, who had had a very strong relationship with Scelsi, and who had a mysterious relationship with everyday life, this was a sign of destiny. A mutual interest was born, a deep friendship and for some years an artistic collaboration. Together we did, among other things, 3 concert tours in the main capitals of South America and in those concerts Fernando always played some of his compositions including Paperoles and Soror mystica. I have been able to listen to these two compositions many times in different situations: from behind the scenes of the theater in duo concerts in South America, sitting in the stalls several times and sometimes even privately for friends. Fernando often played them in a very different spirit, as if they were improvised each time, ca va sans dire that Fernando played them by heart. When, after 2000, Fernando abandoned the concert activity he wanted to set up graphically his Suite, I was one of his collaborator for the continuous revisions of the score and on that occasion I often heard, in extremely positive terms, the name of Enrico Francioni.

In addition to an incredible stage presence and stupendous instrumental talents, Fernando Grillo possessed a rare musical intelligence, which with "sprezzatura" he kept hidden behind a facade of extravagant detachment. From his ability to understand music derive the compositions, "original" and full of meaning, present in this album.
His musical writing is always precise and effective because in the first place he is a "learned" and the scores are deliberately synthetic, rich in meaning and "esoteric". His scores are a message, in the best tradition of interpreting texts, sent to a future interpreter who, if he knows how to read them, will make the work "come to life". If a musician can find valuable musical reasoning, it is above all the interpreter who will find the motivation to exist in these particular compositions.
Given that for those who seek to make sense of things, one apparently plays an instrument but in reality by playing one knows oneself (and this thing, as Fernando said, is an often overlooked prodigy), Grillo's music offers the willing musician some of the most splendid opportunities for spiritual knowledge.
If we seek an analytical detachment and want/must simplify, the language of Fernando Grillo's scores, also in this album, seems to me to be crossed by four fundamental themes:
a) The sound, and not the pitches, is the center of the discourse
b) Attention to the problems of contemporary notation and to the apparently illogical fragmentations of discourse typical of the so-called avant-gardes.
c) Synthetic and supervised writing capable of working even for itself.
d) Desire to arrive at a spiritual communication, which escapes the limits of strict temporal contingency, from which derives the choice to reconnect with a past recognized as wonderful and full of meaning.

Writing combines esoteric elements that require adherence to an almost ascetic practice, which passes through the learning of a rich and often apparently excessive symbology, with elements of extreme rationality. From the 1980s onwards Grillo felt profoundly extraneous to the Italian and European avant-garde that was all the rage, his main reference was the past and in the twentieth century only the figure of Scelsi was particularly important and intimately recognized for him; however several composers were "respected" those in some way linked to Scelsi, i.e. to the importance of "sound". However, he was separated from Scelsi and those other composers by the fact that he had a practical dimension of the highest level, which allowed him to leap beyond dreams, fashions and intellectualisms to aim for a highly spiritual terrain.

Ambre (1977) (c, d) is a strongly conceptual composition, dealing with disappearing and having to understand despite the subtraction of the elements. A musical line is played three times, the first time it is complete in the following two repetitions some sounds are omitted. An extremely synthetic way but Grillo does not close himself in esotericism, he marks the precise result in an additional pentagram.

Paperoles (1973) (b, d).
The Paperoles, from the French papier roulé were reliquaries, for domestic or convent use, decorated and embellished with paper, gilded threads, embroidery and other more or less precious materials, made between the 17th and 20th centuries; they were made up of endless combinations of tiny, neat details. The richness of the decoration corresponds to a strong symbolic value, here too we are faced with a strong conceptuality, but the discourse is as disconnected as ever. If there weren't the title, which implies the “absence", we would be faced with a typical "abstract" composition of the 70s, detached and with little meaning, nothing further from the world of Grillo who always wanted to be full of meaning. It is probably his most cryptic composition, the one that lends itself to total misunderstanding.

Soror mystica (1978/79) (a, d).
The end of the avant-garde can already be seen in the late 70s. Fernando decides to grasp the nettle and composes an inner journey in the sound of plainchant. The melody arrives at the “sound” and starts again from there. The title once again recalls the mysticism and spirituality so important to him.

Preludio from Suite I (1983/2005) (d).
Grillo decides to take a difficult and unconventional path, when the avant-garde is still in vogue he sees a future outside those constraints and finds the courage to address his themes in an ancient language, this time complex, which he masters in an excellent way. The fusion of ancient and contemporary in this composition is at such a high level that it forces us to rethink the terms of the problem.

Klingen (1992) (c).
Grillo does not abandon the world of the avant-garde with the Suite, parallel to the drafting of his most innovative composition from an "aesthetic" point of view, Grillo continues to compose in a previous style. The composition is extremely concise and leaves an enormous possibility to the interpreter who can insert pre-recorded instrumental sounds.

Enrico Francioni was able first of all to put together, in this publication, a credible and interesting journey starting from such an original and stimulating composition as Ambre, and then he always reads the text with great attention, highlighting the details of the score. Born 14 years after the maestro, he moves with ease not only in instrumental practice but also in the world of computer science and electronic music. He is an "ideal" pupil of Fernando and he is not only a great double bass player but also a composer which is essential to enter the spiritual vision of Grillo, who was much more sensitive than what is known to the position of Guido D'Arezzo. In Klingen Francioni assumes, as required by the score: "with the widest freedom", the risks of overlapping not only pre-recorded material introducing extreme treatments from "prepared double bass”. The inclusion of pre-recorded materials deliberately refers to the styles in use in the 90s, to the astonishment at the first "easy" repetitions of the materials, all however always managed with elegance and a fine sense of sound. The acquaintance with the Maestro allows him to overcome the difficulties of Paperoles unscathed, allows him to sing with ease in Soror mystica and it has evidently provided him with the very solid technical foundations necessary to be able to face the great spiritual and emotional journey that is required by the Prelude of the Suite.