REVIEWS:

REVIEWS – INTERVIEWS

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Rosa Antonelli from Lincoln Center in New York

Review and Interview in Mundo Clasico Web Magazine

For the Spanish version of this interview click the following link (para la version en espaniol de esta entrevista haga click aqui)

https://www.mundoclasico.com/articulo/34683/Rosa-Antonelli-desde-el-Lincoln-Center-de-Nueva-York/

By Juan Carlos Tellechea

Pianist Rosa Antonelli in concert at Lincoln Center in New York, Allen Room Auditorium at Frederick P. Rose Hall. Streaming of the video recording of the live concert presented on Wednesday May 7 2010.

Broadcast on YouTube, Friday March 12 and Wednesday March 31, 2021.

First part of the concert: Ángel Lasala (1914 - 2000), Romancero (Prelude). Carlos Guastavino, two preludes: El patio, El sauce. Alberto Ginastera, Dance of the old cowboy, Dance of the donosa girl. Astor Piazzolla, four tango: Río Sena, Sentido Único, Milonga del Ángel, Chau Paris.

Second part of the concert: Floro Ugarte (1884 - 1975), Prelude to the suite De mi tierra (animated). Isaac Albeniz, L'automne Valse opus 17 (Introduction, I - II - III - Coda. Enrique Granados, Epilogue (Romantic scenes), Allegro de concert opus 46, H. 6.

An avalanche of Latin American and Hispanic influences were presented by the famous and acclaimed pianist Rosa Antonelli during a concert at Lincoln Center in New York on May 7 2010, now broadcast in streaming format to pay heartfelt tribute to the victims of the pandemic around the world and to commemorate the centenary of the birth of the composer Ástor Piazzolla. The recital that took place in the Allen Room of the Frederick P. Rose auditorium of that cultural complex was broadcast in two parts on March 12 and 31, 2021, respectively.

Angel Lasala

The first part started with the presentation and performance of Romancero (Prelude) by the outstanding composer Ángel Eugenio Lasala (1914 - 2000), Antonelli's teacher at the Carlos López Buchardo National Conservatory of Music, in Buenos Aires.

The affinity that the artist feels with Lasala's work is undeniable and impressive. With loving dedication, she approached and connected to the keyboard with deep serenity and emotion, putting herself with a creative and inner stage, in direct and immediate spiritual communication with the listener. The pianist takes her time to develop the piece with soft tones in very clear, coherent and solid execution. The music of this composer is remarkably integrated into the Hispanic-American cultural milieu. Someday the complete history of Argentine music of the 20th century will be written and Lasala, with his profile as an authentic creator, will surely occupy a place of honor among the composers of that country.

Carlos Guastavino

Romancero was a good introduction to the concert, which continued with two of the three preludes to La siesta, by Carlos Guastavino, someone better known abroad than Lasala, thanks to the tireless work of dissemination by many Argentine artists, among them not a few exiles,, in Europe and the United States. El patio resounds, in the delicate fingering of Antonelli, with the endearing melancholy that levitates over the rural landscape of Santa Fe, the composer's native province, and El sauce provides another seductive, bucolic image next to a stream in that same setting or perhaps in some secluded backwater of the Paraná River. Like a gaucho of classical music, Guastavino knows how to connect this genre with folk music, which the pianist captures with a dazzling, enchanting charm.

Alberto Ginastera

With Alberto Ginastera, also much better known outside his homeland and also thanks to exiles, we finally entered the Pampa, guided by the skillful hands of Rosa Antonelli, with two of his three Argentine Dances opus 2 (1937): the Dance of the old cowherd boy, with his strong footwork, the anteroom of the malambo, and the Dance of the Moza, with Donosa entering, like the sweet spirit of a young country woman. Ginastera would remain faithful until his death (in Geneva / Switzerland) to the Argentine folk heritage (and even pre-Columbian), with its chacareras, carnavalitos and malambos wrapped in a modern musical language and firm stylistic continuity.

Astor Piazzolla

The centenary of Ástor Piazzolla, Ginastera's student, is celebrated by Antonelli with four of his tangos. In two of them, Sena and Chau Paris, she expresses with stunning sensitivity and romanticism the nostalgia and sadness of the bandoneonist and composer after leaving the City of Light, where he loved to live. Those were the times when Piazzolla decisively expanded his training with the teacher of great masters, Nadia Boulanger.

Each of the pianist's fingers seems to have a brain of its own when she interprets the speed and fever of Sense Unique, wandering excitedly around the big city, like the people that circulated along Broadway behind the huge windows of the room where Antonelli offered this concert, before moving on to the sensual and loving Milonga del Ángel, with its copious sentimentality. There is no doubt that Piazzolla and his master Ginastera physically left this life too early, but their genuine legacies endure through time.

Floro ugarte

With the music of Floro Ugarte, Rosa Antonelli opens the second part of the concert from Lincoln Center. The Prelude (dedicated to the weeping willow), from the suite De mi tierra (1923/1934) by this composer who was close to Argentine nationalism and who studied in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century with Albert Lavignac, Émil Louis Fortuné Pessard and Félix Fourdrain, follows the directions of European modernity that attracted everyone back then. And that's how current it still sounds to our ears today with its universal character. Antonelli's punctiliousness as well as precise fingering on the keyboard thrills. Folklore very subtly sneaks into the piece that already denotes the awareness of Ugarte's creative individuality.

Isaac Albeniz

The inspiring L'automne - Valse (Introduction, I - II - III - Coda), by Isaac Albéniz is performed by Antonelli with prodigious concentration; almost without pauses between the different sections and taking great care with the contrasts, between pianísimos and fortes in the masterful flow of this haunting and memorable  music. It is a rich evocation of the time (1889/1890) in which the international prestige of this Spanish pianist and composer grew day by day in Paris and when he was about to move to England, where his work would achieve immediate success shortly after arriving.

Enrique Granados

Antonelli displays an extraordinary purely romantic virtuosity with a more intimate and dreamy Enrique Granados in Epilogue, from Escenas romanticas (1906), and in the glorious Allegro de concert opus 46, H. 6 (1904), full of rich harmonies and brilliant, virtuosic rhythms and passage, rarely touched for its technical difficulty.

The symbolism of the pieces is extremely surprising, especialy given that they are performed no less than a few meters from the current home of The Metropolitan Opera, where the Spanish composer was acclaimed for the last time, after the premiere of his opera Goyescas, on January 26, 1916. and for the Interlude he wrote there, his last composition, a few days before raising the curtain.

Encores: Alberto Williams and Frédéric Chopin

The Argentine pianist undertakes the works with great dedication and concludes the concert with effusive ovations before delivering two encores to the moved audience: the touching Children's Song opus 13 number 1 by Alberto Williams, and the evanescent, distant, romantic Nocturno number 20 in C sharp minor posthumous opus by Frédéric Chopin. An extraordinary evening. Congratulations Rosa Antonelli!

In the foyer

After the concert, we exchanged email with Rosa Antonelli, as if we had done it in the Lincoln Center lobby, as if we had met personally after the recital, and we asked her about putting together the program. These are her exclusive comments for www.mundoclasico.com:

Juan Carlos Tellechea: What feelings have inspired you, musically and spiritually speaking, the themes and pieces you have chosen, the order in which you have arranged them, the preparations you made, and the performance you presented at Lincoln Center?

Rosa Antonelli: I felt very excited preparing the program for this very special concert as I still had in my memories and in my heart the response of the public when I presented my CD “Esperanza Sounds of Hope”, SONIDOS DE ESPERANZA on the Albany Records label.

I deeply visualized that this would be the perfect repertoire for the concert planned at Lincoln Center, with the addition of three of my favorite works by Albeniz and Granados that I worked on when I received a grant from the government of Spain to specialize in the interpretation of Spanish music and for which I was given the Rosa Sabater Award.

The history

I would like to share the story of this CD so that you understand more of its music and message. The CD was at the request of Albany Records: to record an album with a repertoire and program different from the traditional European ones. So I decided to record Latin American classical composers, in this case classics from Argentina, including Astor Piazzolla. The CD launch was at Barnes & Noble in the Lincoln Triangle in New York, across from Lincoln Center.

Many of the works were world premieres or New York premieres, and I was very concerned as to whether the public would respond positively when they heard works that they had never had access to before; therefore, they did not know them and would not have any reference.

My great surprise that day was that of the CD sales, especially when people after buying them came to ask for my autograph. They said to me: please, the next time I play this program or these composers I want to be informed, because I am passionate about them.

Music that goes deep

My eyes filled with tears and excitement. The next day they called from Barnes and Noble to tell me that I should go autograph a lot more CDs, as people had ordered even more over the phone. I knew then that this music was very special, as it had reached and touched the audience very deeply.

The title of the CD is strongly connected with the common history of all the composers recorded on this album; all were descendants of immigrants. Through the years many people from all over the world, especially from Europe, traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, to establish his new home there, many escaping from the terrifying idea of ​​a third World War.

The emigration

They all had a common feeling of nostalgia and melancholy, because they left their relatives and loved ones in their homeland, far away. As it happened with my own family that emigrated from Italy. But at the same time they all also had another feeling in common that drove them: hope. Hope for a better life, hope in a new beginning, hope in a new home, a new light, and the dream of a reunion with loved ones.

In addition, all of them also traveled to follow their dreams in their professions and grow before returning to their countries of origin with a very important new language, European, which they linked to folklore, to the roots of their country, creating a new message. This is a language (the Classic Latino American) that needs to be known, since it is newer than the traditional European one. Hence, it has become my mission to promote these composers through concerts and recordings for the last 10 years, with the help of messages from heaven and my angels!

Some of the composers in this program were my teachers at the Carlos López Buchardo National Conservatory where I studied in my teens. When I won a scholarship from the Spanish government to participate in the International Seminar of Spanish Music, although I already loved playing Albéniz and Granados, my passion was to know much more about their music, so that I was constantly looking for pianos to practice longer, and to play this music as much as possible.

Piazzolla was not my teacher at the Conservatory, but he left a very important mark and message in my personal and artistic life. When I was little and then a teenager, despite the fact that at home they listened to tangos on the radio or on records, many by Carlos Gardel, I felt something stronger that I could not express. I loved classical music and that was what I could play on the piano.

Sometime later I met Piazzolla briefly in a talk he gave to relate the history of tango and its meaning for the people of Buenos Aires, including the nostalgia of the immigrant, who leaves his country in search of something new.

This is how immigrants, particularly Italians, met in cafes to share nostalgia, melancholy, but at the same time hope. The “cafe“ was the home they left behind and they spent hours sharing those nostalgic feelings, but also the hope of a new home. There, I believe, the passion and drama of tango was born, as well as other musical forms of expression.

There I realized that I, the daughter of Italian immigrants like Piazzolla, had that feeling of sadness and melancholy like a stamp printed on my soul, and I was not aware of it or did not want to see it that way. Here in the United States I am also an immigrant, just like my ancestors in Argentina.

When I realized this, I began to play and record tangos by Piazzolla and I was able to put in the notes those feelings, that passion for life, the hope for a better world that, paradoxically, is what we feel at this moment. HOPE FOR A BETTER WORLD, WITHOUT FEARS!

Keep hope

All these composers from their childhood breathed these emotions and feelings and transferred them to their music. At that moment, immediately after the recording, I shared with Albany Records that idea of ​​hope that always accompanied me permanently, that was holding my hand, and that I believed that the world needs more than ever to.

I expressed then, to the record Label that my wish, my dream with this CD was to inspire hope with sounds from my heart and to share it with the world. All these memories came to my mind and soul to prepare the program for my concert at Lincoln Center.

After a year of suffering the outbursts caused by the pandemic, I thought it would be wonderful to share this concert that already had hope impregnated in its sounds and in my heart and that has such an important validity and message in this moment in which we were all separated, separated with sadness, melancholy, with pain.

These reasons led me to dedicate the webcasts of both parts of this particular concert to lost lives, to the centenary of the birthdate of Piazzolla and, as a woman, to International Women's Day. I also dedicated this recital to all the women who fought for their ideals and dreams and managed to change the world; but I also consecrate it to all those women who fought and were not recognized. Now, in March 2021, one year after the start of the pandemic, we are hopeful that vaccines will be accessible to all to fight and eradicate the virus.

But I also deeply feel that we arrived here at this "now" accompanied by a feeling that never left us and should never abandon us, the strength of hope, for a new beginning, without fear, for a world united by love, security, prosperity, equity, justice and peace; because without justice there is no peace.

JCT: Thank you very much, Rosa Antonelli, for such emotional words.

Interview with “Pasion Argentina USA” Magazine - By Ruben Gonzalez

PASSIONATE CHARACTERS:  ROSA ANTONELLI

Rosa is a respected Argentine pianist with a long career, which has led her to travel the world with her music. A Steinway artist since 1988, she has performed more than a thousand concerts and performances throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and North America. She has given recitals as a soloist, and performed with orchestras and chamber ensembles in countless countries. She has lived in New York City since 2000, and in 2006, was granted American citizenship due to her status as an "Extraordinary Artist".

Many awards have honored her long and successful career. In 2013 she wrote the book “Piano: The Spirit of Technique and Interpretation for Teachers and Students”, published by Amazon. She has made numerous recordings since her arrival in New York, the latest of which is Bridges, From Chopin to Piazzolla (Albany Records, Troy 1783), which he is recreating these days in her recital presentations.

The most famous concert halls worldwide have hosted her performances, such as Palazzo Visconti, Milano, Augustinum Teatre, Bonn, Glinka Museum, Moscow, Bösendorfer Hall, Vienna, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York, among many others.

Rosa, beyond having a unique artistic talent, has the sweet humility of the really great, so she agrees to tell us a little about her personal life. Born in Castelar, Province of Buenos Aires, her memory keeps alive her neighbors, Elsita, Mario, Luis, Adriana and Norma, with whom, thanks to the internet, she maintains contact. These memories also include her school Tomas Espora, three blocks from her house, and her piano teacher Maria Luisa, who encouraged her dreams in the back room of her residence where she had an upright piano, which, thanks to her generosity, Rosa could use long hours of the day. The teacher called Rosa “the light of the backyard” since she was practicing till late hours at night!

Rosa's mother was named Angelina and her father Enrico, and they were Italian immigrants. Her grandparents Antonio and Delicia lived next door, and there she enjoyed the happiness of hearing Antonio playing the harmonica. Enrico had participated in the First World War, and had traveled alone to Argentina some years before, to begin to build a home there, far from the horror of war and to prepare for the subsequent arrival of his family. Angelina was an opera singer and actress in Italy with a bright future. She started from a young age, but the war came, frustrating all her dreams. She had a trunk where she kept the costumes from her performances in Italy. Rosa tried them on (they fit her very well) and she was happy because they explained the characters her mother played. She also remembers that some Sundays her mother would get together with a fellow Italian, to review the librettos that they had performed in the distant homeland. Rosa's husband is named Robert, who is a dentist, loves music and is her first admirer.

Rosa María Antonelli is her full name, but for her artistic profile she simplified it to Rosa Antonelli. Her artistic vocation was born in kindergarten, when she heard a music teacher perform popular songs for children. Her mother started looking for a piano teacher and found María Luisa Carfi, of the Grassi Conservatory, who told her mother that she was a prodigy, and told Rosa later on that she never saw a mother like hers who supported her so much. She bought her own upright piano at age 15, and worked hard to pay for it in installments, but she, her talent, and her discipline did the rest, making her the celebrity we are now fortunate to enjoy. Rosa's days are intense: while she has breakfast she listens to classical music, checks her mail, talks with her assistant and publicist, organizes and reviews her research, concerts, projects, reports, etc., then sits down to practice until 2 in the afternoon, after which she organizes her classes with her students via Zoom or Skype. Rosa loves to dance and is a folklore teacher, and loves all rhythms of dance.

The pandemic has affected her work rhythm, but it helped her to reconnect with the small but great wonders of life that sometimes we put aside due to the busyness of life itself: prepare a good dinner, clean the house, find works by great masters that have never been played. She also understood that she had to adapt to changes and on the internet she found the way to keep in touch with her audience, with her students, and to continue to spread her talent. Recently,she graced the Argentine Consulate with a web recital presentation, where she delighted us with her latest album Bridges, from Chopin to Piazzolla. It is certainly a concert not to be missed, and can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlE7cbJc-kk&t=180s

IN SPANISH (EN ESPAÑOL)

PERSONAJES PASIONALES:

ROSA ANTONELLI

Es una pianista argentina consagrada, con una amplia trayectoria, que la ha llevado a recorrer el mundo con su música. Artista Steinway desde 1988, ha realizado más de mil conciertos y presentaciones por  Europa, Asia, África, Latinoamérica y Norteamérica. Ha brindado recitales como solista, con orquesta y música de cámara en innumerables países, vive en la Ciudad de Nueva York, desde el año 2000, en el 2006 se le ha otorgado la ciudadanía americana, por su estatus de “Artista Extraordinaria”.

Incontables premios han galardonado su extensa y exitosa carrera, ha escrito en el 2013 el libro “Piano: The SPIRIT of Technique and Interpetracion for Teachers and Students”, publicado por Amazon. Numerosos álbumes discográficos ha realizado desde su llegada a Nueva York, el último es Bridges, From Chopin to Piazzola, que está recreando por estos días en sus presentaciones.

Las salas más famosas de conciertos a nivel mundial han albergado su música, como el Palazzo Visconti, Milano, Augustinum Teathre, Bonn, Glinka Museum, Moscú, Bösendorfer Hall, Viena, Lincoln Center y Carnegie Hall de Nueva York, entre muchos más.

Pero Rosa más allá de poseer un talento artístico único, tiene la dulce humildad de los realmente grandes, de tal forma accede a contarnos un poco de su vida personal. Nacida en Castelar, Provincia de Buenos Aires, su memoria mantiene vivo el recuerdo de sus vecinos, Elsita, Mario, Luis, Adriana y Norma, con algunos gracias al internet mantiene contactos, a su  añorada escuela Tomas Espora a tres cuadras de su casa, a su profesora de piano Maria Luisa, quién albergaba sus sueños, en el cuarto del fondo de su residencia donde tenía un piano vertical, que gracias a su generosidad podía usar largas horas del día.

Su mamá se llamaba Angelina y su papá Enrico, inmigrantes italianos, al lado de su casa vivían sus abuelos Antonio y Delicia, allí disfrutaba la felicidad de escucharlo tocar la armónica a Antonio, quién había participado en la primera guerra mundial, y había viajado solo a la Argentina algunos años antes, para empezar a construir un hogar allí, lejos del horror de las guerras y preparar la llegada posterior de la familia. Su mamá era cantante de ópera y actriz en Italia con un futuro brillante, empezó desde jovencita, pero la guerra llegó frustrando todos sus sueños, tenía un baúl donde guardaba los trajes de sus actuaciones en Italia, Rosa, se los probaba y aunque le quedaban grandísimos, ella era feliz porque le explicaba los personajes que interpretaba, recuerda también que algunos domingos su mamá se juntaba con una compañera también italiana, para repasar los libretos que habían representado en la lejana patria.   El esposo de Rosa se llama Robert, es dentista y ama la música y es su primer admirador.

Rosa María Antonelli es su nombre completo, pero para su perfil artístico los simplificó como Rosa Antonelli. Su vocación artística nace desde el jardín de infantes, cuando escuchó a una profesora de música interpretar canciones populares para niños. Su madre empezó a buscar una profesora de piano y encontró a María Luisa Carfi, perteneciente al Conservatorio Grassi, ella le dijo a su mamá que era un prodigio, y a ella que nunca vio una mamá como la mía, que la apoyaba tanto, ella le compró a los 15 años su propio piano vertical, y trabajó duro para poder pagarlo en cuotas, pero ella, su talento y su disciplina hicieron el resto, convirtiéndola en la celebridad que ahora tenemos la suerte de disfrutar. Los días de Rosa son intensos, mientras desayuna escucha música clásica, chequea su correo, habla con su asistente y publicista, organiza, revisa sus investigaciones, conciertos, proyectos, reportajes  etc., luego se sienta a practicar hasta las 2 de la tarde, luego organiza sus clases con sus alumnos por Zoom o Skype. Rosa ama bailar, es profesora de folklore, aunque ama todos los ritmos.

La pandemia también afecto su ritmo de trabajo, pero le sirvió para reencontrarse con las pequeñas grandes maravillas de la vida que a veces dejamos de lado por el vértigo de la vida misma, preparar una buena cena, limpiar con sus manos la casa donde habita, encontrar obras de grandes maestros que nunca habían sido tocadas, también entendió que debía adaptarse a los cambios y en la internet encontró el camino para mantener el contacto con su público, con sus alumnos, y seguir difundiendo su talento. En estos días engalanará el Consulado Argentino con una presentación vía web, donde nos deleitará con su último trabajo discográfico Bridges, from Chopin to Piazzolla. Sin duda será un concierto imperdible y se lo puede mirar en Youtube en este link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlE7cbJc-kk&t=180s

Newspaper  Germany - Spain

"B R I D G E S  between Paris and Buenos Aires"

Juan Carlos Tellechea
Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Passion burns deep and is always at an intimate boil in the intense performances of the Argentine pianist Rosa Antonelli. She has been based in New York for more than two decades and has been a celebrated Steinway & Sons Artist since 1998. Just seeing her in the concert she gave at (delete the) the Carnegie Hall, that (delete it) was recently broadcast via the internet, you are imbued with that firm, clear, precise, visionary, and rigorous touch that distinguishes her playing.

The compositions that Antonelli includes on her fourth compact disc for the Albany label, Bridges, enchant the listener with the sweetness of that evanescent, distant, (delete immaterial) and romantic sound of Frédéric Chopin. His music is (suggest different and outside of) everyday and earthly feelings and Ms. Antonelli captures this sentiment perfectly. She creates the same atmosphere of magic with the Romance Sans Paroles and the Caprice Waltz by Chopin’s disciple, the Frenchman Georges Mathias, who was almost totally unknown, ignored or forgotten in Europe. This is the first CD in a series that aims to promote and expand the works by Latin American classical composers and their connections with European creators.

The result of the extensive research carried out by Antonelli are seven compositions that have their World Premiere here (out of a total of 22 tracks), and have been recorded for the first time in the history of music. We are confident that the prestigious American label [Albany] and its director and inspiration, Susan Bush, are pleased and proud of this vital contribution to international musicology.

In addition to the compositions mentioned, there are World Premieres of Valse Opus 29, number 3, as well as the Novellette Opus 8 and the Huella Opus 46 number 1 by Argentina's Alberto Williams, a student of Mathias (and César Franck) in Paris. And it was in Williams’ Buenos Aires conservatory that Alberto Ginastera studied with him and formed his (add own) style. Ginastera, in turn, would later be the teacher of Astor Piazzolla, whose birth 100 years ago (in Mar del Plata) will be celebrated on March 11, 2021 with concerts and more recordings, surely throughout the world.

For the first time, two pieces composed by Piazzolla, in their piano versions and very little known, have been recorded by (delete the hand of) Antonelli: the Zamba Cancion, La Partida, and the Candombe Yo Soy el Negro, written and published in 1954 and 1956, respectively. Piazzolla was a revolutionary composer who transformed the original tango music of Buenos Aires, and who was frequently criticized in his own country by the staunch defenders of traditional tango. Shortly before this, Piazzolla had returned from Paris, where he had taken classes with the legendary Nadia Boulanger.

The summit of expressiveness is Estancia, Ginastera's famous ballet suite, in which Antonelli creates a superb model of reflection in the tone of the piece, with great feeling, transparency and intensity, concentration and unusual persuasiveness, with beautiful and lightning arpeggios in some of her passages. Absolutely brilliant! In all four of the 12 American Preludes she chose, Antonelli at times enhances the agitation and instability, and her performance becomes somewhat more vigorous and luxurious (Creole Dance). But the Milonga brings us back to those endearing cadences of the Rio de la Plata territory.

Antonelli alternates vehemence and calm in her interpretations, and after the tranquility, she can go back and add a visionary touch with formidable rigor in the high notes, trills, powerful chords, and sweeping symphonic sound. The Steinway Grand piano sounds perfect and the microphones in the Manhattan studio where this album was recorded in April 2019 were placed with great balance.

The bouquet, the elements of which this generous pianist presents with dexterous and agile hands, blossoms at the end with Piazzolla's enterprising and melancholic Zamba, an unusual foray into folklore, followed immediately afterward with her irresistible immersion in the Afro-Uruguayan Candombe.

Both songs are preceded by Balada Para un Loco. Though an instrumental version, you can almost hear through Ms. Antonelli’s interpretation the lyricist Horacio Ferrer reciting, and expressing pain through the AA bandoneon; and Oblivion, which does not need verses to reach the soul. There is nothing mechanical about Rosa Antonelli. You hear simply the true pleasure and love of making music. What beautiful interpretations! Pure fantasia, exquisiteness and refinement. This CD a true gem to listen to and meditate with endlessly.

MUNDOCLASICO.COM

INTERVIEW WITH ROSA ANTONELLI

"The only thing left for us is to pray"

By:  Juan Carlos Tellechea

INTRODUCTION WRITTEN BY JUAN CARLOS TELLECHEA:

Things are going from bad to worse in the United States, with or without the Chinese video platform. The Donald Trump administration is demagogically focused on continuing in power beyond the presidential elections on November 3 and seeks all kinds of actions to pretend that it assumes responsibilities in the midst of the multiple catastrophes caused by the pandemic. The poorest, the most vulnerable, and the most helpless suffer. American cities, in terms of misery, are not lagging behind that faced by many of the battered cities of the Third World.

Artists, powerless to change or at least contain this situation, enliven their ideas. In this new series of interviews with women dedicated to the arts that we begin here, we begin with the outstanding Argentine pianist Rosa Antonelli, based in New York for more than 20 years. Rosa Antonelli has just released a new compact disc, titled Bridges, in which she builds bridges between Latin American and European composers, and has offered a concert at Carnegie Hall, now broadcasted on the internet. These are her exclusive statements for www.mundoclasico.com:

INTERVIEW WITH ROSA ANTONELLI:

Juan Carlos Tellechea: What reflections does this stoppage of cultural activities in general and musical activities in particular inspire you with respect to the coronavirus?

Rosa Antonelli: Well, this is a profound question; my first reflections I contemplated and expanded on as soon as the pandemic began; as a human being and as an artist, some thoughts and feelings immediately come to mind.

Memories came to mind of my mother, Angelina, who when she was very little was in Italy during the Second World War. Just a week before she suddenly passed away in February of 1992, when no one expected it, she told me about the horrible situations that she had to live through at that young age and all that her parents had to do to protect her and her siblings and other little ones.

They had a house in Rome where my grandfather was a very important architect, but they lived permanently in Sant 'Agapito, Campobasso Province, in Abruzzo. [very close to there an hour?] Very significant events would unfold in the mid-1920 in what finally became the tragic story of fascism and Benito Mussolini in Italy. My mother, being so small, lived at the moment of the bloody battle of Monte Cassino and together with her parents had to hide in the mountains to protect herself. Of course, in addition to all the other devastations, they also lost everything!

I said to myself: well this, the virus situation, is better if I compare it with that situation of the brutal war. You have to work with your mind and handle the fear that paralyzes you, darkens you. You have to realize that you don't have to let it in; because fear is the worst enemy of the human being. Then I thought about the many times I heard the phrase, “what matters is today, not yesterday or tomorrow” and it made more sense to me.  Now I try to live it intensely in my most intimate fibers since I understood it better.  Instead of the pain, the fear, you see the love of life.   My other reflection was about what one leaves behind when one leaves this material world. I thought: what was given with love is most beautiful.  It was then I decided to give  happiness to other human beings.  I always loved what I do, I love my music and the piano, but beyond anything else I love giving.

My complete happiness is when I am on stage and I feel the audience and we vibrate and breathe together in a moment of completeness light, and love. That's why I thought that I have to continue and find a way to communicate. I can't lower my arms and stop. I prayed and I pray permanently and I am grateful for every second of life. And I also have my mission that I started 10 years ago, and that is to promote the music of Spanish and Latin American classical composers, I can't stop, the composers deserve my efforts. Of course, ... the fundamental thought arises from all this, how much we love life to make this effort; to think positive, don't get depressed. And there I arrived at the beginning of my reflections, the love of life, the hope and the happiness of giving. That is why the absence of cultural activities produces a huge emptiness and hole in the heart, mind and senses, since cultural activities enrich us in all these aspects. In music, a different and perhaps stronger phenomenon occurs since music occurs in time not in a given space and allows us to travel with our emotions through different channels of expression. The arts and culture not only enrich us as human beings, but through all the emotions that they awaken, they function as a form of therapy, to heal the soul and the heart.

JCT: What balance (positive and negative) do you extract from the situation?

RA: I always look at the positive first, it helps me to always go forward with fervor. The positive is that I learned a lot. Learning is very positive, it means that we continue to grow and therefore that we are alive. I learned to dream more… ..I learned the value of half of a second, the immense value of true love in all its expressions. How important it is to love what you do, your profession. The importance of things, theoretically not so important, like preparing a meal, washing clothes and cleaning our house with our hands and feeling that it is something beautiful is part of everyday life, of life itself. the simple and wonderful things in life.

I love discipline, it is part of my personality, when I was a child, my classmates from school remember that when they invited me to play I said: I don't have much time, only a few minutes because I want to be a good pianist and I have to go to practice.

They believed that it was my mother who forced me, until they met her and had the opportunity to speak with her and she told them in her not very good Spanish, but very sweet: “please. convince my daughter to go and play with you ... I'd like to see her do something trivial even once in a while!”

Of course, thanks to that discipline, keeping all the prevention rules in this virus situation was very easy for me. But it helped me to value much more the discipline that I have. I think that discipline and I, like the love for the piano, were born hand in hand, together.

I always thought in these times, how astronauts who go to the Moon survive, and spend months locked up. I have to learn! I had them as an example in my mind. I read a lot about them in these times to "learn".

I learned even more than before that I am so fortunate that God gave me my talent. I learned that we don't need that much to be happy. As the grandparents said, a roof, food and love in any expression.

I think that what I feel is shared by many people in the world and therefore something very good and positive will come as a consequence of these reflections. Adapt and "do, despite ...".

The negative of this pandemic is the isolation, since human beings are sociable by nature. Fear, since it paralyzes people and it is difficult to get rid of it, and as they say, after such a long process , although better in some countries, is still there. The economic crisis that leaves many families without food and unprotected. The insecurity of starting again with freedom, without thinking so much, is something that I also consider negative. The uncertainty of it all…

CT: What projects did you have underway and how have you had to modify them, and which ones can you still resume?

RA: As you know, at the end of last year my new CD Bridges from Chopin to Piazzolla was released, from the Albany Records label. It was a huge success, with fantastic reviews, in addition to the shows that luckily I was able to performed until March 2 (my last live concert was at the Lamb's Foundation in New York).

I had many recitals planned, including Carnegie Hall, and presentations on television.

When I realized that this situation would last a long time, I felt that I had to modify my plans in order to continue. I decided that I had to adapt and although the public would not be there with me, in front of me, adopting the internet as a means of communication for my concerts was the best. I have never appreciated the internet so much in my life as I do now.

On June 25, after many days of technological preparation with the sound system, lights, etc., I had to work with my mental and emotional preparation to imagine, but more to feel, that the audience was behind the camera, feeling the emotions of my words and especially my music.

I presented the Bridges CD with great emotion, I was moved by every word I said, but most of all it moved me to know that we were all together, unified from Argentina, my country, Europe, Asia, Africa, at the same time and with a single objective, share light, love and solidarity through music.

Bridges' original idea was when I discovered the connection of five composers through five generations in teacher-student relationship, was the unification and elevation of Latin American countries and the connection with Europe through Frédéric Chopin and Georges Mathias.

When the pandemic started, I was thinking: did I have a premonition?  I remember when I was recording it my friends told me: why do you want to finish it so soon? What's your rush? And I told them: I don't know, I have to hurry, I follow my intuitions ...

I feel that now Bridges, with its musical bridges, has an immense meaning. Its message of building bridges that unite us throughout the world, is the solution for solidarity and unity. We are all the same and we all have an important part in the universe

JCT: Do you think it is possible to solve the problem of the distances that must be maintained between musicians and other artists, as well as with the public to avoid contagion?

RA: Honestly, it hurts me a lot to say it, but I don't think it will be short term. It is very difficult to control the distances between people in small or large places. There is always someone who is not responsible, and is a danger. But, I think that if they manage to have a lot of staff who control very carefully, they could continue with concerts in small rooms, where the number of people could be counted and they could be seen to be separated and with masks. This I think is possible.

CT: What is said over there about the possibility of resuming activities in theaters and concert halls in the United States and specifically in New York?

RA: Well, here in New York we are very careful. This city registered at the beginning of the pandemic the largest number of deaths and sick people in the entire country.

I can tell you it was like a horror movie. People got sick and then to the hospital, and you never knew if you would see them again since no one was allowed to go in with them for obvious reasons. Every day there were 1,000 people dying. State of total panic. Praying was the only thing that could save us ...

Here, nobody wants to go back to that even in our dreams. That is why I find it difficult to resume activities in theaters and concert halls. We are super cautious. The reopening phases are open, but with restrictions, and I understand that. I think until the vaccine is out, sadly, it won't happen.

But I keep praying ...

I always follow the news of what is happening in the United States, now very few states are doing well. I have seen and read this information about the Los Angeles Philharmonic, I admire Gustavo Dudamel very much and we have shared several important events here in New York. He is a musician of great talent and honesty. His decision to cancel all concerts until 2021 does not surprise me. Now in California the situation is becoming more and more serious. We will have to wait and as I told you before ... pray ... pray ... pray ...

JCT: What do people think about how to handle the pandemic, with the comings and goings, as well as marches and counter-marches of President Donald Trump, and the steadfastness of New York State Governor (Democrat) Andrew Cuomo?

RA: Actually the opinion of the people is different according to their beliefs and also in which US state they live. The country maintains great internal differences and with it comes division. In general, you could say that the country is polarized between people who defend Trump and those who do not.

For example, in New York is where Trump has the least support, they admire the work of Andrew Cuomo and thank him deeply, since if it were not for him, for his firmness and care, New York would be in chaos. We already spend too much and we don't want more This virus does not respect which part of the country you are from or whether you believe in it or not. There it is, anyway, present, current. People here no longer want more relapse, they don’t want more comings and goings, that the seriousness of this pandemic is the same in all states.

If there were no ups and downs, this circle of insecurity and fear would be closed. It would be for the good of all and of the entire country.

JCT: If Rosa Antonelli were an actress (of theater or film) instead of a pianist, what role would you like to play and why?

RA: You know, I studied theater at the Alejandra Boero School, in Argentina, since my mother, being very young, had started acting as an actress in Italy; they say she was extraordinarily talented. I felt the need to do it. I remember when I was a child she showed me the costumes she had brought from Italy, from her performances and I tried them on with great enthusiasm, fascinated and of course ... they were huge, but it didn't matter! This is how I imagined the different characters. I began to study in her tribute, but it also fascinated me. They wanted me to dedicate myself professionally, but I always knew and never doubted my vocation for the piano. I would love to play a very romantic role. Like that of the nurse in The English Patient or Gone with the Wind or War and Peace, etc. I am an extremely romantic, passionate, idealistic person and therefore I love to fight for the causes in which I deeply believe. In Argentina we have a phrase: keeping your flags high and not bending them. I still believe deeply in keeping your word.

JCT: When did you arrive in New York? You came from Argentina, why did you leave? How did you feel then in New York, did you adapt immediately? Where is your homeland? Can you say that music is your life?

RA: I arrived in New York in 1998. I have been here for more than 20 years now. I actually made the decision for many personal and professional reasons. I returned to Argentina from a very long and important tour of many countries ... twenty in total with several presentations in each of them. I had some wonderful projects because of the triumph of this tour. But reality hit me really hard. From then on, I was saddened by many personal losses, including the irreparable loss for me of my dear mother. The love for my mother is still very profound, although she is no longer with me. When I later traveled to Italy, I gave a concert at the Municipal Theater of Isernia, in honor of my mother, and all family and friends came. It was wonderful, very emotional. I felt that she was there present with all of us…. At the same time, Argentina was in a state of almost total chaos,specially in the cultural and educational areas. There were no concert possibilities or, if there were, with extreme limitations. At the National University and the Conservatory, we couldn't tune the pianos or organize events. It was all very sad and very difficult. Things did not look like they would be better for the short or medium term; and maybe not for a very long time. You could not advance culturally.

During the tour I had had contact with Steinway and they mentioned the possibility of being a Steinway Artist. Before all of the above, personally and professionally, I needed a change. It seemed to me a message from angels, specially from my mother at that critical moment, I had to change, be strong and try, knowing that this would result in distance from my great friends who fully supported me in that decision. I decided to come here to try how I would feel. I came completely alone. I felt very alone in New York, it was very difficult for me to adapt to the language, the customs. New York is a wonderful city, with a very fast pace, very exciting and at the same time it is tremendously competitive. As soon as I arrived I already obtained a series of concerts, recordings and also a position to work as a professor at the University. The most difficult thing was when the attack on the Twin Towers occurred. It was terrifying, I was very anguished and I wanted to return to Argentina, but all my friends there and from other countries in the world helped me to remain firm and not doubt. In addition, I already had my citizenship in process, the procedures were underway, and all the agreed professional commitments were in place; I knew I had to be strong. I did so and in 2006, I was granted American citizenship as an 'Artist of Extraordinary Ability'. My homeland is Argentina but I also feel that I belong here since they opened their arms for me to stay, as well as to Italy, for my parents, my blood and my origins. Sometimes I feel that artists belong to many places. Yes. Definitely, music is my life !!

JCT: How do you develop your performances?

RA: Well ... thank you, your question is very interesting. First of all I find out all the details, the composer’s complete biography, the composer's own style, his previous and after works to the one I am analyzing. To research his detailed history, the year in which he wrote the work, what happened in his personal life in particular at that time. Then I study and analyze the work from the morphological and harmonic point of view. In this way I discover more accurately the development of the interpretation and more adequately what the composer wanted to express or what message he wanted to deliver through his music. Also after this, not before, I listen to recordings by other pianists, if the work is not a world premiere, of course. In case it is, I try to contact the relatives and find out more details that can enlighten me for a closer interpretation of what the musician wanted. I have a very deep respect for the composers and their works.

JCT: Do you extract information about the environment of a work to interpret it?

RA: Yes. It is very important to investigate the environment. Studying and observing the historical, social and political situations and the changes that occurred in the life of the composer at the particular moment of his work are fundamental in the process of understanding it. As well as the kind of environment and family and personal life the composer was going thru so he could have left as a guide of what was his inspiration at that time, at the time of creation.

CT: Do you work intuitively? You are curious?

RA: Many times when there is not much information, I  follow my intuition. She is my friend, I am generally a very intuitive person and many times I find the right decision, the right one, in that very deep voice that speaks to me and guides me. You have to know how to listen to it ... I can say that in the most important decisions of my life I followed my intuition. I am very curious, I love to learn more and more, I feel that this is how I continue to grow, and that I feel alive.

CT: Are there pieces that you don't play, because you feel like you don't have access to them?

RA: Yes. It happens that I would love to be able to access more works by Latin American classical composers that have never been performed and elevate the composer in all the scope he deserves. It is a very long research process and, of course, in many cases it could work and in others it would be very difficult to access them.

CT: What are you working on right now and why?

RA: I'm working on the idea of ​​recording and performing European composers with connections to Latin American composers like I did with Bridges. The reason is that in this moment in which we live, and we are physically apart, isolated in some ways, the world needs channels of union.

Music is a natural channel, of connection, that does not need to travel physically and that can transmit the emotions and feelings we share. Just as we would also feel in that way the union between the countries that they represent with a message of hope, peace, faith and the possibility of once again feeling the magic of dreaming about ourselves and at the same time of a better world.

JCT: Thank you very much for your statements, dear Rosa Antonelli.

RA: Many thanks to you for your questions so sensitive, profound, that helped me open myself as a person and an artist. For your time, your professionalism and above all, because I felt the love for what you do. Thank you!

Pianist Rosa Antonelli will host Concert at Carnegie Hall, an online watch party on Monday, August 10 @ 7:30 PM New York time, celebrating her triumphant October 2011 performance in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, including selections from her critically acclaimed Albany Records CDs Remembranza and Esperanza. The concert was a benefit for Action Against Hunger.

Presented with the sponsorship of the Consulate General of Argentina in New York, the August 10 event can be seen at   https://youtu.be/SejDjithIWM

Ms. Antonelli will perform L’Automne  Waltz and Granada from Suite Española by Albeniz, the World Premieres of two works by Piazzolla, El Mundo de los dos and Imperial, Ginastera’s Tres Danzas Argentinas and a special encore.

Her latest CD Bridges, From Chopin to Piazzolla has received international acclaim. Read reviews and see video interviews with Ms. Antonelli about it at https://www.rosaantonelli.com/reviews/.

Argentinian pianist Rosa Antonelli, a Steinway Artist since 1998, is one of today’s leading performers and a champion of classical Latin-American and Spanish music.

She has toured extensively, with more than 1,000 concerts in Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America, and is dedicated to performing and recording the works of that include Argentinian composers Piazzolla, Ugarte, Gianneo and Guastavino, as well as Albeniz, Granados, Villa -Lobos, Ponce and many others from Spain and Latin America, and bringing them to audiences all over the world.

For more information about Ms. Antonelli, including a bio, photos, discography and much more, please visit https://www.rosaantonelli.com/

Rosa Antonelli: "Ginastera and Piazzolla: a Transcendental Historical-Musical Link

By Sergio Levinsky    June 17, 2020

The famous Argentine pianist, who has lived in New York for more than 20 years, spoke with Infobae Cultura about her journey from a child prodigy to Carnegie Hall, her incredible anecdotes from around the world and the latest news about her new album, Bridges, which she  presented  a streaming live online on June 25, and many other topics.

Rosa Antonelli is a world renowned Argentine pianist.  She moved to New York City more than two decades ago, where she has resided ever since.  Thanks to the talent of her graceful fingers, Ms. Antonelli has traveled the world uninterrupted to such an extent that it’s very difficult to the country she loves to perform in front of an audience she misses.

At the age of 3, she learned that her true calling was the piano.  At 13 Rosa entered the Conservatorio Superior Nacional de Música, where she received a degree as Professor, with honors, in only 3 years instead of the 9 years that is usually required.  After this, she was given many honors with scholarships that led her to Brazil, Spain, and finally, the United States.

In this dialogue with Infobae Cultura, she discusses the long, eventful journey that took her from being considered a child prodigy to her performances at the legendary Carnegie Hall, with some vivid stories that seem to come from a work of fiction: the time when she  was kidnapped  for being considered a spy, a train trip through Eastern Europe as the Berlin Wall fell or even the emotional concert she gave in Tel Aviv while besieged by bombings.

Also, she describes what Bridges, her new CD, is about as she musically connects Chopin with Piazzolla. Rosa will present the music of this album at a live concert on YouTube on June 25, which she hopes will be a way to reconnect with the public in her home country of Argentina.

About her latest album

- What is Bridges? How could you synthesize which one was the idea of ​​this CD, and why did you think about it in this way?

- We thought a lot about the title of the CD. We needed a word or a sentence that could represent and describe the historical link between these composers.  Bridges, as we know, whether physical or metaphorical, mean a connection. The bridges invoked on this disc represent a series of personal and musical connections between five composers through five generations, beginning with the romantic composer, Chopin, in the 19th century, and ending with the revolutionary master of the new tango Astor Piazzolla in the 20th century. They have a link and direct relation of teachers to students: Chopin, Mathías, Williams, Ginastera, and Piazzolla. The origin of the concept for this CD started at the end of one of my concerts at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, where I played a Chopin Nocturne as an encore after I performed a complete program of Spanish and Latin American classical music. Many people in the audience, including the president of Albany Records, said afterward that they felt a certain musical similarity between the music of Chopin and Piazzolla. I confess that I felt the same. This made me return enthusiastically to musical history. Lastly, I would like to add that the five composers on this CD were, literally and musically, immigrants who traveled following their dreams of enriching themselves and achieving their dreams and goals. The repertoire shows the free exchange of ideas that comes from travel and immigration.

 - If you had to summarize the evolution or of the CD, what would you say? –

The program on this CD begins in 19^th- century France with romantic works by Chopin and his student Georges Mathías and concludes with works by the great Argentine composer of the 20th century, Alberto Ginastera, and his student Piazzolla. The center of this arch is Alberto Williams, one of the founders of Argentine classical music who traveled to Paris to study with Mathías. The first piece on Bridges is the same Nocturno in C # Minor, No.20, Op. Posth. by Chopin that I performed that night at Carnegie Hall and which at the same time represents my own musical, historical, and emotional bridge. When I was very young, my mother gave me a record called Rarezas de Chopin, by Arnold Pomerantz, and I fell in love with this particular work. I listened to it many times. Back then, it took years to get the score. I finally got it in Poland, where I later played it at the Ostrogski Palace-Warsaw Chopin Society and at the best centers and theaters dedicated to honoring his music. Every time I play this piece, I dedicate it to my mother, who was my first bridge of inspiration and the inspiration for this CD.

- Why Chopin and why Piazzolla? What is the bridge that connects them? –

As you may have already noticed, Chopin was my favorite composer from my earliest years. I have deeply studied everything about him, his life, his customs, of course, his music, social history, etc. He is considered one of the most influential composers in history and one of the greatest representatives of musical romanticism through his stylistic, lyrical, subtle, poetic refinement and his harmonious elaboration of ideas. His influence, through five generations of teachers to students, reaches Piazzolla, one of the most important composers of the 20th century. After Piazzolla, there is no other significant student. The bridge that unites them is the evolution of romanticism clearly manifested in a profound sense, of completing the circle: Piazzolla's works on this CD, such as Oblivion and Zamba-Canción are as romantic in concept as Chopin's nocturnes.

About Ginastera, Piazzolla and Latin American music.

- You play Ginastera a lot. Why? Is there a revival of folk roots on your CD? Or perhaps because Ginastera lived in New York, like you in these years?

-My musical history with Ginastera began many years ago. He was the first Argentine composer who I learned when I was a child, and I was very impressed with his compositions. I deeply admire the architecture that he created in his music, honoring the folklore of our country, but also of all Latin America.  Definitely, I can say yes, there is a very deep revival of the folk roots of our country. Ginastera lived and won many awards in New York, and also it was here, where he began his international career. I can say that we have the same musical curiosity, since I also came to live in New York! The story continues as I personally  met the composer's daughter Georgina here. She listened to me at several concerts and after one of them at Carnegie Hall in late 2014, we decided to celebrate with a tribute concert for the centenary of her father’s birth at the Auditorium of the Argentine Consulate in New York in May 2016.

That night we had great and famous personalities in the audience from the music world, media, and culture. I can say that it was a deeply meaningful and unforgettable night and a great honor for me.

- There is also a link between Ginastera and Piazzolla, right?

- Yes, certainly. Ginastera and Piazzolla build the last bridge on this CD. Ginastera was the teacher of Piazzolla for many years when they were very young, and Piazzolla wanted to compose symphonies and other forms of the classical genre. As we know, he won many awards for his classical compositions. He always came to Ginastera’s house for his lessons with his bandoneon in its case and left it near the work table. Ginastera was the first teacher who observed and felt what Piazzolla really dreamed of composing and said to him: "If you like the tango, write a new tango.!" I can say that their relationship establishes a transcendental and historical-musical link.

- Why is Piazzolla's classical music not known as much as his tangos?

- It is a very interesting question. Tango was born in Buenos Aires, and as we know, it originated with the immigrants who gathered in the cafes to share their feelings of nostalgia and melancholy and also feelings of hope for a new beginning. Piazzolla's parents were also immigrants from Italy, like mine. Therefore, the tango has strong and profound historical and emotional roots in Buenos Aires. Piazzolla loved the tango, and that's why he wrote a new tango style using classical harmonies. He also changed the structure of the sound and incorporated jazz counterpoint and harmonies.

I have read a lot about him, as well as learned a lot when I saw the film Historia del Tango. Because of this for the first time I began to understand and admire him and to play his music, which  was rejected  at the beginning in Buenos Aires, but idolized in the United States and Europe. I remember very vividly what he wrote in his Memoirs, and that answers your question, he said: "In the world, they come to listen to me for the music I compose which relates to the tango ... and they also know that I am going to play music which is from Argentina and I am very proud of it. I have been a very controversial artist in my country and, on the contrary, highly acclaimed abroad, where nobody thought of whether my music was a tango or not."

His dream was to transfer the tango from the dance stages and take it to the great concert halls of the world, and he conquered it since many famous musicians like Yo-Yo Ma or Martha Argerich perform his music in the most prestigious theatres.

- In other CDs of yours, like Esperanza, Remembranza and Abrazando, there are more Latin American composers than in Bridges. Why?

- It happened that in 2009, Albany Records asked me to record a CD with different classical music from the traditional repertoire, and that is how Esperanza was launched, with Spanish and Latin American classical composers. It was so successful that later Albany released Remembranza and then Abrazando.

I performed the music of these 3 CDS at Carnegie Hall in a sold out concert.

The composers in these CDs represent the unification and elevation of the image of music from Latin American countries. Bridges is an evolution of this concept, since across bridges Europe is joining Latin America with Chopin and Mathias. Therefore, the message in the album Bridges is an idea of ​​unification of the world. I would like to continue contributing, even minimally, with my music, to this ideal of love, integration, and communication in the world.

Your moment as an artist

- At what point in your artistic career is this CD? Are you thinking about the next one, or do you already have it?

- This CD finds me at a very special moment in my career. I feel that I am in a special stage of my maturity, where I have a great and deep communication with the audience. When I'm onstage, I feel like we're breathing together. I don’t feel so nervous before the concerts anymore. I look forward to it as the feeling of giving completes me, and at the same time, I receive so much from the audience! It is a moment of great happiness for me.

With the record label I work with, we had several musical projects planned after Bridges. But the Pandemic in the world, the pain, and the inherent losses have touched me deeply as a person and as an artist. Because of this, I am leaning towards recording works of the same genre, but more emphasis on the connection of all the continents in the world. We cannot travel, but music has taught us through history that we can unite, if there are no borders or limits, through its inspiration.

- What are your next steps as an artist?

- Definitely shocked by the current situation. All my concerts were canceled, but I will continue with virtual concerts from my home. I have planned a streaming concert on YouTube next June 25 at 8:30 pm, performing the music of Bridges. I thank the technology like never before for allowing everyone to be in contact, united from "our home." For this, I will have the collaboration of the Argentine Consulate in New York. I am thinking of some form of charity to help the neediest countries, and that is why I am already in contact with various organizations around the world. When everything returns to normal, all my concerts will be rescheduled, and I will continue with my recordings.

As a child prodigy To Carnegie Hall

- You are a very recognized artist in the United States. You are a Steinway artist; you played at Carnegie Hall, you have many high level awards. I imagine it was a long way. How long have you lived in New York, and how was this journey?

- Yes, definitely, it was a very long and uninterrupted path. I work constantly, and this is one of the reasons that I haven't been able to go to Buenos Aires for a long time. I came to the U.S. in 1998 when I became a Steinway Artist. It was very hard to adapt to the customs and the language and also because I came completely alone. New York has a very fast, exciting, and at the same time, very competitive rhythm. Many people from all over the world come here to try and succeed. When the attack on the Twin Towers occurred, it was very distressing. I had tremendous anxiety and wanted to return to Argentina, but I already had my position here at Adelphi University and my schedule for concerts and recordings. I knew I had to push myself to try hard and wait. In 2006 I was granted U.S. citizenship as an "Extraordinary Artist".

- Why did you leave Argentina? Did you think you had reached the ceiling of your possibilities?

- Actually, it was a combination of personal situations, with many emotional losses, especially the death of my dear mother, and of course, professionals reasons as well. And yes, artistically, I thought that I reached the ceiling of my possibilities, added to the fact that the country was stagnant and with no aim of progressing culturally in the short term. There was extreme limitations and stagnation of all kinds in the cultural and educational fields. It was very depressing and sad. There was no way out.

- If you had to define yourself as a pianist, how would you do it?

- First of all, I am a classical pianist, with a romantic inclination, and with a great passion for rescuing the “lost” or underperformed works of Latin American classical composers.

- When you played at St. John's University, something extraordinary happened, please tell us.

- Yes, it was something unforgettable and inspiring. The New York City government gave me a proclamation, in person, and they began reading it. The first thing they said was: "Today, in New York City, on April 23, 2014, we proclaimed Rosa Antonelli Day for ..." and they read the details point by point. I remember very well that they expressed admiration and gratitude for inspiring them for my international work in the promotion of Spanish and Latin American classical music, my numerous benefit concerts, my teaching work, my book, etc. Tears were falling on my face. And I was very embarrassed because I could not hide it, I did not expect such high recognition. It touched my heart very deeply. This happened at the end of my concert at the St. Johns University theater. The Spanish Honor Society was celebrating its 50th anniversary and for this reason, I was invited to give a concert there and I performed some of the works that I would repeat six months later at Carnegie Hall to raise funds for scholarships for Latin American students. In addition, I received the title of Honorary Member of the Honorable Spanish Society. And the title Order of the Discoverers.

- Do you miss Argentina? What customs do you miss the most?

- Yes, I miss my dear Buenos Aires very much. I especially miss my affections, my friends, my students, “the mate” shared with a friend, the coffee, the time for friendship, the theaters, and most of all the people and the fervent and warm Argentine audience.

- Would you like to perform in Argentina, if you have a chance to do so?

- I would definitely love to meet again with the Argentine audience. The opportunity has not been presented yet. Since I arrived here since it has been a path full of uninterrupted projects. Here I work a lot researching, preparing my concerts and teaching. Surely, this virtual concert with Bridges will allow me to reconnect with my warm and unforgettable audience from my beloved Argentina.

- Did you have guides, mentors in your career? Who did you admire?

- I want to express first of all that my first guide was my mother. She always supported my vocation for the piano with love and encouragement, despite having many financial difficulties that she had to face when she arrived in Argentina. Her parents had lost all their property in Italy due to the devastation of World War II when she was very young. Then, my first piano teacher, María Luisa Carfi, who, knowing our financial limitations and knowing that I did not have an instrument to practice on, provided me with a room with a piano in the back, separate from the house, to which I had access and in which I could practice uninterruptedly. That situation lasted almost ten years. She called me "the little light in the background," since I practiced hours, until late at night. For me, it is an example of generosity and honesty.

How was your training in Argentina before going to the United States?

- My training started very early. At the age of three and a half in kindergarten, I listened to the piano for the first time and thus began my passion for it. From the age of 4, I studied with private teachers, mostly from the Scaramuzza school until I was 13 when they recommended that I enter the National Conservatory of Music. So, I did, preparing for a placement exam and audition that was equivalent to the first six years of the Conservatory. I passed it, and in three years, being the youngest, I got my degree with honors.

As I had already started to give concerts, I decided to complete the Superior Course of the Conservatory a few years later since I liked teaching a lot.

Two years later, I obtained a scholarship to study for a semester at the Pro Arte University in Rio de Janeiro with Daisy De Luca, a disciple of Magda Tagliaferro. At the end of the seminar, I won the first prize in the competition for the best piano performance. The following year I won that scholarship and award for the second time. After that I was awarded a scholarship by the Government of Spain to study at the University of Santiago de Compostela, with teachers Manuel Carra and Alicia de Larrocha. There I won the Rosa Sabater price for the best interpretation of Spanish music. A few years later, I won another scholarship to participate in the Aspen Colorado Music Festival in the U.S.A. Later I took different seminars with other remarkable teachers. And later, for two consecutive years, I won a scholarship in Argentina to study with the teacher Alfonso Montesinos, a disciple of Claudio Arrau.

At the same time, I had private lessons with the teacher Roberto Caamano in Buenos Aires. Also, in Europe with Rafael Puyana, Rosalyn Tureck, Franco Medori, Edith Fisher, and other notable teachers. I performed on numerous and extensive tours in Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, Central, and South America. I also gave seminars on technique and interpretation. I studied philosophy and art history at the National University of Buenos Aires because I wanted to understand what happened in the minds of genius composers in order to create such great compositions.

Amazing stories around the world

- You’ve traveled the world, so you will have a thousand anecdotes to tell.

- So many. In 1990, I had a five-month tour scheduled, starting in Russia and ending in Switzerland in January, I performed in twenty countries, forty-three concerts! When I got to Moscow, I was assigned an assistant, obviously because of the language and so on. 

I arrived at the airport in the afternoon, and then later I went to have dinner at the hotel, one of the best hotels in Moscow. It struck me that the food portions were very small. I was hungry!

The next day the same thing happened with breakfast. The assistant came looking for me to take me to the theater to try the piano; the concert was that night. When we arrived, after practicing, I said with some embarrassment, "I am hungry, and I feel weak. Can you take me out to eat somewhere?" "There is not!” she told me, “all trucks with food are stopped   before reaching Moscow, and they throw it away. I have food in my house - we are going to look for it". When we arrived, she opened the refrigerator, and to my great surprise, she took out the only visible thing: a sandwich, she broke it into three portions and gave me one part. The rest was for dinner, for her and her sister, she told me.

That night, for the concert, I ordered a tea, to relieve the sounds of my hungry stomach. When I went out on stage and saw the entire room, everything was forgotten. It was one of the most unforgettable concerts of my life. And among the public, a journalist from one of the most important newspapers, Clarin in Argentina, called Buenos Aires to tell about my success.

Another anecdote occurred in November 1989, after my presentations in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany When I was  on the train on my way to Poland, I saw from the window people carrying mattresses on their shoulders and throwing stones and running. I knew right away, when I arrived in Warsaw, that the fall of the Berlin Wall had occurred. But I also had very rough moments. 

- What happened to you?

- On another of my long tours, after passing security at the airport, knowing that my plane to Italy was leaving in 20 minutes, they asked me: "Why were you in so many countries? Why so many cities?" I explained to them that I am a pianist. I opened my suitcase and showed the programs, the posters. I saw my plane leaving while my passport was taken and with a woman carrying a rifle, they took me to another plane without knowing where I was going. When it landed, I with handcuffs, and without knowing where I was, was taken to a building, where they put me in a room with a woman from France. The two of us were crying.  After 28 hours, the woman with the rifle says: "Mrs. Antonelli, sorry for the mistake. We found out during these 28 hours and confirmed that you are not a spy and yes, you are a pianist". I no longer understood this horror story, crying for 28 hours and thinking that I was going to disappear as it happened with other people in the past. They put me on a plane to Italy, the one I was supposed to take originally. When I got there, I knew that all the audience had been waiting in the theater and I never appeared! Gently, the theater authorities, in shock with what happened, organized a private concert a few days later to make us all feel better. As artists, we often have to think that we are ambassadors of music, of composers, transcending the barriers of fear with courage. And it wasn't the only time something like this happened to me.

- What else happened to you?

- In 1990, on another of my extensive tours, my manager warned me that the Gulf War would probably start. I should be especially careful because I had to play at the Cairo Opera Theater, being the first pianist who would perform there after its reconstruction. That concert was going to be broadcast to all over the world. Continuing the tour, the war was already starting, and after Cairo, I had to play in Tel Aviv. At that point, they asked me to cancel that concert and other concerts because the bombs were falling. I thought, at this point, that I had to choose, and I said to myself: "If I have to die, I prefer that it happens on stage, giving something good from me, even if it is to one person, rather than dying at the hotel, in the street, or on the plane." I took the plane, and when I arrived in Tel Aviv, I was greeted at the airport with a box containing all the elements to defend myself against attacks. When I was already at the hotel, they called from the Argentine Embassy ​​to advise me to cancel the concert scheduled for the next day. I deeply thanked them and expressed my feelings to them. The next day, the day of the concert, I went to have breakfast, and there was nobody in the restaurant. I asked the concierge why and he said, "You are the only person in the hotel. Everyone canceled, including all the artists." That night when I was in the room, getting ready to get dressed and go to the concert hall, I heard the noise of the bombs, and I thought "it's better I am dressed as I am, no long dress this time!" The car picked me up and we had to stop several times because of the bombs. Finally, we arrived to the hall, and the Argentine ambassador and his wife were there. What a happiness and honor! I went on stage, and to my great surprise, the room was half full. When the concert ended, we all cried. Of course, instead of going to the room behind the stage, I went out to meet the audience where we all hugged each other emotionally, in tears. There, I found out that they were all artists from different disciplines, thanking me deeply for my concert. When I returned to Argentina two months later, I started receiving letters, and they were from the people of the Tel Aviv audience, thanking me again for the courage and for the beautiful moment that made them forget about death and fear. I cried ……, and I also thanked God for the opportunity to give.

- You never thought about writing a book telling your life, with so many things you lived?

- Many times they offered it to me, but it is so much work that I still haven't accepted it, but I think I'm ready now.

CD “B R I D G E S” Interview with Pianist Rosa Antonelli By Ken Meltzer – Fanfare Magazine

BRIDGES FROM CHOPIN TO PIAZZOLLA
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ALBANY
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In Bridges, a new CD on the Albany label, pianist Rosa Antonelli traces a direct lineage from the great 19th-century pianist and composer, Frédéric Chopin, to the 20th century bandoneón virtuoso and father of the Nuevo Tango, Astor Piazzolla. I spoke with Rosa Antonelli about the recording, and the many kinds of bridges it contemplates.

The title of your new recital on the Albany label is Bridges. In the introductory comments to the recording, you note that several types of bridges are represented, both by the composers and repertoire you chose, and by your own life and career.

Yes—there are so many “bridges” in this recording—musical, historical, geographical, and even deeply personal!

The idea began at my most recent Carnegie Hall recital, when, after a program of Spanish and Latin American piano music, I played the Chopin C♯-Minor Nocturne, op. posth., as an encore. Afterward, the President of Albany Records came backstage and said: “When you played Chopin, I heard Piazzolla—it is all Romantic!” And then I realized—Piazzolla was a student of Ginastera, who was a student of Alberto Williams, who was in turn a student of Georges Mathias, who was himself a student and friend of Chopin—that there was a bridge of influence running unbroken from Chopin himself all the way to Piazzolla! And not just a paper influence, but a real one that can be heard in the music itself.

And look at the lives of these composers: Chopin, the young Polish pianist and composer whose heart led him to Paris; Mathias, born in Paris to parents who had immigrated from Germany and Poland; Williams, Argentine to the core, but whose defining musical studies were in Paris; Ginastera, whose parents were from Catalonia and Italy and who spent two years studying in the United States, especially with Aaron Copland; and Piazzolla—born in Argentina to Italian immigrants, he spent his childhood from age four to 15 in New York, and it was in New York that he learned to play the music of Argentina and the bandoneón—all of these composers, in their own lives, were bridges between countries and cultures.

And this is something that I feel deeply, because it is my own story as well. My own parents came to Argentina from Italy. I was born in Argentina and today I live in New York, where, in New York and around the world, I try with my playing to make a sort of bridge to the rich treasury of Latin American classical piano music.

Also, one very personal story, about another bridge: At the age of four, when all my friends were playing with dolls, I was playing the piano. The grownups made a great fuss over this, but to me it was nothing special—I was just doing what I loved. And of all the music I played, the composer I loved the most was Chopin. I covered the walls of my room with pictures of Chopin, everywhere but the light switch, the way other children might have pictures of a favorite movie or sports star.

And one day, returning from a visit to her family in Italy, my Mom brought back a record by the wonderful Italian pianist Alberto Pomeranz, called Rarities of Chopin. And on that recording, there was one track in particular that I fell totally in love with—Chopin’s Nocturne No. 20 in C♯ Minor. So you see—even that piece is itself a bridge from myself as a small child to the myself of today! Because my mom gave me this particular disc when I was a child, knowing my love for Chopin, I feel that she was my own bridge of inspiration and the inspiration for this CD; I dedicate to her this Nocturne every time I played it.

But there was more—I wanted to play the piece, but I couldn’t get the sheet music in Argentina! So I had to wait and wait. Finally, when I was old enough to start to tour around the world, I finally found it—but there was still a problem! I found edition after edition and each of them was different! I had to know what it was that Chopin actually wrote. So at last I went to the library of the Chopin Society of Warsaw in Poland—and there it was, Chopin’s original manuscript. At last! So I learned it from that copy, and performed it at the Chopin Society of Warsaw and also the famous Palace in Katowice, and, in the years that followed, all around the world.

And finally, one more type of bridge—a pair of bridges in fact, between me and the composers on this recording: After my first concert in Carnegie Hall, I had the pleasure of meeting Georgina Ginastera, the daughter of composer Alberto Ginastera, and, after my 2014 Carnegie Hall concert she asked me to give a concert in 2016 honoring the 100th anniversary of Ginastera’s birth—that concert was both an honor and a great joy for me! And yet another bridge: I began to exchange emails with Pablo Williams, the grandson of Alberto Williams, asking for copies of Alberto Williams’s music. And when I gave a concert of Alberto Williams’s music, Pablo Williams was in the audience, which was a great thrill for me. Knowing these two descendants of the composers whose music I play makes me feel connected to them in a special way.

Yes—So many bridges, all built of love and music! 

Your Bridges recital traces a lineage that connects the great 19th-century Polish pianist and composer Frédéric Chopin to the 20th-century Argentine father of the Nuevo Tango and bandonéon master, Astor Piazzolla. If you would, describe that lineage, and the five composers who occupy this musical family tree.

The bond between a young musician and a long-time teacher is deep and powerful. Georges Mathias studied with Chopin for five years and passed Chopin’s teaching on to generations of younger pianists. And one only needs to listen to Mathias’s music to hear how deeply he loved and revered Chopin.

When the young Alberto Williams won a scholarship to study in Paris, George Mathias became Williams’s piano teacher, and when Williams published his Novellette, op. 8, he dedicated the piece to “my teacher Georges Mathias.” Williams, in his later works, took Chopin’s style and interest in popular dance forms and transformed them with a new and distinctively Argentine character—but under the surface, I think you will clearly find the Chopin heritage.

In the young Alberto Ginastera, Williams found a student of true genius. And for all his individuality, Ginastera’s brilliant compositions based on native Argentine materials are an extraordinary extension and creative reimagining of Williams’s earlier experiments.

And then there is Astor Piazzolla, for whom Alberto Ginastera was a major teacher and influence. In a piece like Ginastera’s Milonga, I hear the roots of Piazzolla’s future style. But beyond his debt to Ginastera, I hear in Piazzolla’s subtle, emotionally complex, and poetry-filled transformations of Argentine popular dances a deep connection with Chopin’s own similar transformation of the waltz, the mazurka, and the polonaise.

Link by link, a grand heritage connects Chopin, through Mathias, Williams, and Ginastera, all the way to Piazzolla.

Our readers are familiar with Chopin, Ginastera, and Piazzolla, but perhaps less so with Georges Mathias and Alberto Williams. Tell us about their careers and music.

Yes, you are right, and so let me tell you first about Mathias. His complete name was Georges Amedee Saint-Clair Mathias; besides being a prolific composer, he was a very active and successful concert pianist and teacher. Born in Paris to a family of German and Polish immigrants, Mathias trained at the Paris Conservatoire, but also took private lessons from Chopin for five years. Chopin’s music would remain the strongest influence on his compositions. Something funny I read was that decades later, in a memoir published after his death, he said that Chopin was “so sensitively organized that, like the X-rays, he saw a thousand things where others see only one.” His broadest influence was as a teacher—he spent over 30 years as a piano teacher at the Conservatoire, where he attracted an international group of students from Europe and the Americas, including two notable South American musicians: the Venezuelan phe­nomenon Teresa Carreño and Argentine pianist-composer Alberto Williams. 

He wrote overtures, including to Hamlet and Mazeppa, five morceaux symphoniques for piano and strings, two piano concertos, six piano trios, a symphony, Oeuvres choisies pour le piano, Études de genre, Études de style et de mécanisme, a collection of two- and four-hand piano pieces, and transcriptions, including the one of some scenes from Mozart’s The Magic Flute. What I can tell you is that his music is absolutely Romantic and, as I said, you can hear Chopin’s spirit and inspiration in his music.

I recorded two pieces of Mathias for this CD. In the 1850s Mathias published a set of Romances sans paroles (Songs Without Words), op. 18. Like the nocturne, this genre seems to have its roots in the music of Irishman John Field. The first one, the Romance, op. 18/4, clearly bears the imprint of Chopin’s lyrical style: A main idea surrounds a slightly more melancholy middle section, before ending with a sentimental postlude. The other piece, the Caprice-Valse, op. 38/1, was one of three Morceaux de concert Mathias published in about 1865. This is an extended series of musical sections that have a family resemblance to Chopin’s waltzes, though Mathias introduces rather gentle chromati­cism, and some adventuresome modulations in the middle of the piece, before return­ing to a few main ideas at the end.

Alberto Williams was one of the founders of Argentine classical music at the turn of the 20th century, and a keystone because he had a deep and lasting influence on Argentine classical music. He was a leading musical figure in Argentina for over 50 years as a composer and educator. As a teenager, he won a scholarship to the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied with Georges Mathias and César Franck. After returning from Paris in 1889, Williams began to travel widely in Argentina, studying the country’s folk music and incorporating those styles into his own compositions. He wrote nine symphonies, three orchestral poems, two concert overtures, three sonatas for violin and piano, and other works. 

Williams founded Argentina’s first European-style conservatory in 1893, a school which still bears his name today; it was a few blocks from my apartment in Buenos Aires. Williams published well over 100 works for solo piano! Many of them are inspired by Chopin’s music. As for the three pieces I recorded for the CD, I will explain a little bit later.

In one of my conversations with Pablo Williams he mentioned how much his grandfather admired Mathias. He sent me a copy of Alberto Williams’s book Alocuciones, Discursos y Conferencias (Buenos Aires, 1947) in which he expressed that on October 14, 1926, honoring Mathias on the 100th anniversary of his birth: “The Conservatory of Music and his 108 branches are honoring him in TRIBUTE OF ALBERTO WILLIAMS: ADMIRATION, GRATITUDE AND AFFECTION.” Absolutely beautiful! And I feel honored that I got this special information!

How did you go about choosing the specific repertoire you include on Bridges?

That’s a very important question. The first piece came to me, as I mentioned before, from my heart as a little girl, and also from the experience of connection I had when I performed it as an adult. You may remember what I said in the beginning that it has a very personal story with me.

Actually, in the last concerts at Carnegie Hall, in which I performed the repertoire of all classical Latin American composers, when the audience asked me for an encore, my natural feelings were to play the first piece on the CD, the Chopin Nocturne No. 20. This piece was so strong within me that it had to be first on this recording. The second Nocturne, No. 14 in F♯ Minor, op. 48, has always captivated me with the contrast and dialogue between the first part—so lyrical and sentimental—and the middle section with the agitated rhythmic chords. In the last selection I chose by Chopin, I wanted some contrast to the nostalgic melodies of the first two nocturnes. I love joyful waltzes in general and especially love Chopin’s waltzes. But there is also another connection, as this particular waltz has a middle section that is as melancholic as the nocturnes.

The next composer was a natural choice as I had discovered that Mathias, of German and Polish heritage, was a student of Chopin. The problem I had was that his compositions were very difficult to find. Fortunately I had my own connection through a student of Mathias, Alberto Williams. On my previous recording called Abrazando, I had contacted Pablo Williams, the grandson of Alberto Williams and the administrator of Williams’s music. Since Mathias was Williams’s teacher, I contacted Pablo and asked him if he had some music by Mathias in his archives. I also contacted Lucio Videla in Argentina. I was filled with hope when Pablo said he thought he had some of the pieces, but he was not sure and needed to confirm this with me. To my delight, he sent me by email the Waltz Caprice, op. 38/1, and I fell in love with it!

I love doing world premieres of these masters because I am giving exposure to magnificent but previously unheard gems. It is like honoring the composer. The obvious problem I had was that there is no reference for how the pieces should be played. Later, when I was recording this piece, and I will never forget this, the recording engineer, Max, said: “I’ve never heard this piece, but it sounds like Chopin.”

Then, I asked Pablo, “By any chance do you have another piece that is in a slow tempo?” And when he said, “I think I have the Romance Without Words,” I said, “This might be the other piece I need!” Of course, when I finally got the pieces, op. 18 (which I appreciate so much from Pablo, since he had to work hard trying to find it), I was so happy when I read it because I felt that I found, in No. 4, the perfect one! It really was like a nocturne by Chopin!

As for Williams, I had already performed several world premiere pieces, and I knew his musical connection with Chopin. I asked his grandson if he had some pieces that were never performed or recorded, and after he took the time to look, he sent me several. When I read the Novellette, op. 8, in 9/8 tempo, I felt like it was a ballad or waltz, or an impromptu form. After reading it and giving time to analyze and play several times, I knew it was the perfect one, with the middle section so lyrical, Romantic, and nostalgic, and the other sections so powerful and joyful, passionate, and Romantic! Then I asked him for a slower tempo piece, and he sent me several pieces of the op. 29. I felt like the Valse was the perfect one to create the melancholic and nostalgic feelings I wanted. Even better, it was a waltz. Next I felt that the CD needed a faster tempo piece, but also wanted to show how the European style evolved through the incorporation of the folk music of Argentina. And so I chose Huella, op. 46/1.

Regarding Ginastera, who was Williams’s student, and whose music I have performed for many years, I can tell you that I always felt in many of his pieces I played, such as Danza de la Moza Donosa, Milonga, and “Danza del trigo,” how his music kept the Romanticism and lyricism! I was talking about this with his daughter Georgina after my concert at Carnegie Hall at which I met her, and she said to me that her father did not only compose pieces in fast tempo and energetic rhythms and dynamics. She loved that the audience can hear both ways, as her father always expressed to her. But of course I chose the other pieces with great rhythms to show also the evolution which came from Williams to incorporate the influence of folk music in Argentina and Latin America.

Since I have already recorded Danza de la Moza Donosa, I decided that Milonga, and “Idilio crepuscular” and “Danza del trigo” from the ballet Estancia, would be the best to deliver the feelings of Romanticism! And to continue with the feelings of melancholy and nostalgia but with the evolution of his music with the incorporation of Argentinian folk music, I decided that from the 12 American Preludes, “Vidala,” “Triste,” and “Pastorale” were the perfect ones! And “Homenaje a Juan José Castro” was the best to show these feelings—and, it is in anticipation of Piazzolla, since it is played in tempo di tango! The other American Preludes: “Homenaje a Garcia Morillo” and “Danza Criolla,” and “Pequena danza” (or “Danza final”) from Estancia were perfect for the contrasting feelings, with the very fast tempos and furious shifting cross-rhythms.

Finally, Piazzolla!

Bridges includes several world premiere recordings of works of Mathias, Williams, and Piazzolla. Tell us about those works, and how you first became familiar with them?

It is my passion to discover and promote “gems” from the composers that do not get the exposure they deserve, and then to share them with my audience and the world.

In reference to Mathias, after reading his biography I was familiar with the names of two of the pieces that are now on my CD. Before the recording, when I researched them further, I was surprised that they would be world premieres!

The difficulty was actually finding the music. I reached out to Pablo Williams, the grandson of Williams, who was the student of Mathias, and was very excited when he mentioned that he thought he might have the music but needed some time to find it. I was thrilled that he found the Mathias pieces and sent them to me. Of course I became familiar with them shortly after I received them, but there was a challenge to this situation. Since no one ever recorded these pieces—in fact, no one had ever recorded any of his pieces—there was nothing to listen to for me to even have an idea of a starting point or reference. I had to create the music just by knowing his style, some history, notes from Chopin, his notes, etc.

May I humbly say that this is where my own knowledge of music history, style, and form served me well. In Argentina, I studied composition at the National Superior Conservatory of Music so I became very familiar with styles, forms, and musicology in general. I learned how much Chopin influenced Mathias’s music. I read the notes that Chopin sent to Mathias and the notes Mathias sent to Chopin, learning how much Mathias admired Chopin and his music. 

As for Alberto Williams: In further conversations with Pablo his grandson, we both agreed that it would be wonderful to record some of his grandfather’s pieces that were never done before. I suggested pieces with two different styles, one waltz-like and one more lyrical. Since all the waltzes by Williams had been recorded, he told me about this beautiful piece Novellette, op. 8, in 6/8. He sent it to me and I fell in love with it, even though it was very difficult and would take some time to prepare for recording. I also asked him for some soothing and melodious pieces and he sent me the Valse, op. 29/3, a slow and romantic waltz.

There is a very important concept of two different evolutions in the progression of the music through the five composers. The first is the evolution of the style from Chopin’s European Romanticism to Piazzolla’s tangos, as you hear in Oblivion and Balada para un loco. The second is the gradual adoption of Argentine idioms from Williams to Ginastera and Piazzolla. I had this desire to complete my idea of the evolution of style and Argentine idioms, which showed the European styles combined with Argentinean roots, especially folk. Because of this, I had a difficult request from Pablo: to find another piece by Williams never played before with these characteristics. He sent me several possibilities, all never recorded, and I chose Huella, op. 46/1, because it has these characteristics. (“Huella” means the imprints in the ground from the horse’s hooves when they are galloping.) It has a faster tempo, and also a middle section that is more warm and Romantic. As you can see, I am a “hopeless romantic”; it is something that is deeply a part of me.

The entire undertaking of Bridges was to me like solving a mystery or a puzzle. I started this project because I felt the connections, but I had to select just the right pieces and then connect them in a logical and musical way. The bridges were about teacher-student, musical evolution, and cross-cultural and -national connections, ultimately arriving at Piazzolla.

As for Piazzolla, though I love to find previously unrecorded gems, it was very difficult to find works that were never recorded for solo piano. I chose Balada para un loco (Ballad for a crazy man) and Oblivion, though both of them had been recorded previously. But I loved them! Also, Oblivion has a special meaning to me because the Cultural Attaché of the Argentinian Consulate, Eduardo Almirantearena, loves this piece and I admire him very much. This was an additional reason to record this work.

The construction of my CD has a continuing motif of having for each composer some selections that are slow and lyrical, and additional selections that are rhythmical, fast, and uplifting. Since both tangos are extremely lyrical and romantic, I needed something faster and rhythmic; the problem was that I also wanted them to be world premieres! I looked in my extensive album and sheet music collection of Piazzolla’s music, but I didn’t find anything I was deeply attracted to. Then I remembered I had some individual pieces, sheet music that I had bought in Buenos Aires from tiny, out-of-the-way stores on the street. There they sell very old used books and records. I found one piece, very uplifting, that I fell in love with: La partida. This is not fast and rhythmical, but it was unique for Piazzolla because it was a zamba, not a tango, but it was never previously recorded for piano solo, so it was another world premiere.

Next I needed to find a fast-tempo piece. In this same collection of music I bought on the streets of Buenos Aires there were several fast pieces, and I chose Yo soy el negro. It is a dramatic song in the candombe form, which has its roots in African drum ensemble music. I liked it because it was also so different from Piazzolla’s tangos.

Bridges includes a set of pieces by each of the five featured composers. The composers are sequenced chronologically, a reminder of the influence each had upon his successor. But it also seems to me you selected the recital repertoire to emphasize musical affinities between one composer/teacher and the next.

Yes, the construction of the CD is based on both the influences, sequentially, of one composer on the next, and also on affinities in style and form. As I previously mentioned, Bridges traces the evolution from Chopin’s European Romanticism to Piazzolla’s tangos, as well as the gradual adoption of Argentine idioms. Finally, there is the evolution of Latin American and Argentine styles from Williams to Piazzolla.

For the first evolution, I chose the pieces that show the affinities and influences through the form and Romantic style. That is why the first piece of a composer has a connection with the concluding piece of his predecessor. You can hear the progression from the two nocturnes by Chopin, to the Romance sans paroles, op. 18, by Mathias, to the Valse, op. 29/3, by Williams, to the “Danza del trigo,” “Idilio crepuscular,” and Milonga by Ginastera, to, finally, Oblivion and Balada para un loco by Piazzolla. You can hear how the circle is complete if you listen to the Chopin nocturnes and right afterward to Piazzolla’s two tangos! A second affinity and influence is between the Chopin waltz, the Caprice-Valse by Mathias, and the Novellette by Williams in 9/8 time signature, which is actually a waltz. These last three pieces also follow that same form and order on the CD. For the evolution of the Latin American and Argentinian styles, we have Huella by Williams, “Pequena danza o Danza final” and the American Preludes by Ginastera, and ending with the tangos, zamba, and candombe, with their Uruguayan and African roots.

Is there repertoire by the composers included on Bridges that you have not yet performed, but would like to?

Yes! I have not yet performed yet the Waltz in G♭ Major, op. posth., by Chopin, and Romance sans paroles, op. 18/4 and the Caprice-Valse, op. 38/1, by Mathias. Also I look forward to performing the Valse, op. 29, the Novellette, op. 8, and Huella, op. 46/1, by Williams. And lastly, I am excited about also soon performing the four pieces by Piazzolla: Balada para un loco, Oblivion, La partida, and Yo soy el negro.

Please tell us about upcoming concert and recording projects.

Of course I plan on playing all, or most, of the above pieces in the coming months in different halls to introduce the CD. One of them will be at the auditorium in the Argentinian Consulate of New York. Some of the others planned are at the Lambs Foundation, Harvardwood Foundation, and many more for which I need to confirm the dates. Of course, I am planning to perform again in Carnegie Hall and other halls. These concerts will be soon posted on my website, rosaantonelli.com. About recordings, I am planning for my next CD to do a compilation of tangos from all over the world. Another one will be about undiscovered classical Latin American composers who deserve to heard.

We’ve talked a lot about the kinds of bridges that connected these various composers to each other, and bridges that connect musical styles. But the repertoire on your Bridges CD, and indeed your own life and career, evoke another kind of bridge.

As you may remember, at the beginning of the interview, and also in the CD booklet, I proposed (revealed) the idea that all the composers on this CD traveled to different countries and different cultures to enrich and improve themselves. Chopin traveled to Paris, and the others from South America to Europe, searching for the progress in the evolution of their art. All of them were immigrants, both literally and/or musically. So, underlying the repertoire of this disc is the free exchange of ideas that come from travel and immigration. There is no place that is good or bad. This of course includes my own journey, from Italy to Argentina, to Spain and many parts of Europe, and finally to the United States.

In researching and then recording these composers, some very strong feelings came to me—maybe an inspiration from their spirit, or maybe just the message through their beautiful music. I think that as human beings in the process of creation of art, in all its expressions, we are all working together, building bridges across borders, of all kinds, to create a unified and better world. There is only one universe, and all of us have an important place in it. As has been said, “Build bridges, not walls.”

The music, the humanity, the art and love, are all part of the same universal spirit. Sincerely, from the deepest part of my heart, I wish that this CD will contribute, even in a small way to sharing, advancing, and promoting this ideal.

A FEW BRIEFS OF PAST and CURRENT REVIEWS – ROSA ANTONELLI

Sounds of Migration and Liberty: Rosa Antonelli, the Italian-Argentinean Musician

Interview with the talented pianist, whose family is from Molise, based in NYC, that will celebrate April 25th with us performing "Libertango" by Piazzolla

Round Tripby Liliana Rosano

Apr 24 2019
Leggi in italiano
"The Italian blood still flows through my veins, even though I grew up in Argentina. My family was among the many immigrants who flocked to Argentina to try and escape the devastation of the Second World War and from fear of a possible World War Three. They had the dream of starting a new life in a new country. My mother was pregnant with me when she left Italy; I usually say that I was practically born on the ship itself", she tells us...

Grown-up listening to classical music and Italian opera, Rosa Antonelli feels the Italian blood flowing in her veins. From her origins in Molise, from where her family moved to Argentina, to the Italian musical tradition that has accompanied her since she started playing the piano at the age of four. The Italian-Argentinean musician, born and raised in Buenos Aires, and living in New York since 1998, has been keeping the relationship with the Italian culture alive that she promotes in her concerts along with the repertoire of Argentinean and South American musicians, who nourished themselves on that Italian and European culture.

On April 25th, she will celebrate this important anniversary with La Voce di New York’s readers and friends–thanks to our partnership with United Voices 4 Peace–playing the well-known piece Libertango by Astor Piazzolla.

This piece represents for me the feeling of freedom I perceived when I was a child and heard from my family about their life in Italy before moving to Argentina. The freedom of expression, freedom of happiness and encouragement and new beginnings.

Your roots are Italian but you grew up in Argentina in an Italian family. Tell us more about your Italian roots and your relation with Italy and Italian culture.

“The Italian blood still flows through my veins, even though I grew up in Argentina. My family was among the many immigrants who flocked to Argentina to try and escape the devastation of the Second World War and from fear of a possible World War Three.  They had the dream of starting a new life in a new country. My mother was pregnant with me when she left Italy; I usually say that I was practically born on the ship itself. I was given Argentinian nationality when we arrived in Buenos Aires, which gave me the status of being the only one in my family to be born outside Italy.

My mother and my mother’s parents, as well as my father’s, were originally from Molise, in the mountains.  The town is Sant’Agapito, with almost all the houses on a mountain. My grandfather from my mom’s side was a famous Italian architect. Unfortunately, practically all of my family’s properties were destroyed in the war. I have a house there–my mom’s house on the side of a large hill– which overlooks the valley and river. It was rebuilt by the government many years after war.  I still have relatives there from both sides and I am permanently in contact with them.

My mother was a famous opera singer and actress; that’s why at home I was raised listening to Italian operas and classical music. The language we spoke at home was Italian, so at the beginning it was hard for me to learn the new Spanish language. Our everyday life in Buenos Aires was that of a typical Italian family: the food, the customs and the growing of our own produce in the backyard made me so connected and identified with the Italian culture.

Later on in my professional career, when I started touring all over the word performing as a pianist, I immersed myself in my Italian heritage by giving concerts and performing more than 50 times in Italy in different  cities, including honoring my mom after she died, with a concert at the Municipal Theater in her native province of Campobasso. I was also lecturing at different conservatories and Universities in Italy and some had incorporated the music of several composers from Argentina who had Italian roots.

Here in New York, I continued this relationship with the Italian culture.  On many occasions I performed at Italian events and galas and atvarious times I was interviewed by Italian newspapers and magazines. I also received several outstanding Reviews by them after they attended my concerts at different times and places in New York City”. 

Why did you decide to celebrate this important anniversary, which also marks the liberation of Italy, with La Voce di New York?

“I was introduced to La Voce di New York newspaper by the president and founder of United Voices 4 Piece, Veronica Sabbag. I admired the newspaper, La Voce di New York and its founder and director Stefano Vaccara, who is promoting Italian culture and informing the world not only about the culture, but the news related to it.

I feel honored to participate in this particular occasion because of the importance of the newspaper in New York. Personally, the liberation of Italy is very moving to me because, as I mentioned before, of how much my whole family suffered in different ways for the oppression in Italy”.

You will play “Libertango” on April 25th.  How important is this piece to you and what does it represent for you?

“This piece is very important in many ways, and I will explain it to you. I believe that the Italian heritage shared by this composer permeates his music in an instinctive, even spiritual fashion. Piazzolla was a classical music composer who incorporated these harmonies in what he called the Nuevo Tango.  He was encouraged to pursue his inspiration by his teachers, Nadia Boulanger in Paris and Alberto Ginastera in Argentina.  He had more than a hint of Italian in him. He was the only child of Italian immigrant parents.  His grandfather was a sailor from Trani, in Apulia, in Italy. In the 1930’s the family lived in Little Italy in lower Manhattan.  When he formed a chamber music octet, almost all of the musicians were of Italian descent. 

His teacher, Alberto Ginastera, was also of Italian heritage.  Piazzolla had strong Italian roots that valued his whole life, as demonstrated in 1959 when his father died. The Tango that he wrote dedicated to his father, was called “Adios Nonino”.  There is a presence beyond analysis, more suggested than explicit. And all of these composers didn’t only have to rely on their ancestral memories: each of them benefited from scholarships to study in Europe, so that the influence was not merely anecdotal or “mystical.” He had a very difficult life in many ways, because in the beginning people resisted his idea of the new classical tango. He didn’t have enough money, since many times he had to give up his rights to his music, and he had to support his family, wife and children.

After many struggles, including a heart attack, he was living in Milan, Italy when he met the famous publisher and music director, Aldo Pagani, who became a devoted follower of Piazzolla’s work; and he wanted to help him and promote his music all over the world. Right after that, in 1972, he offered him an apartment, a salary and all the rights to his music.

Piazzolla finally felt for the first time in his life, the freedom to continue his mission of composing and introducing this new Tango to the world. The first tango he composed after this new life was LIBERTANGO (published and recorded in Rome 1972, signed by A. Pagani Edizioni Musicali) which means freedom and liberty, and I found this composer and his music to be the perfect combination to perform in this particular special celebration.  For me it represents the feeling of freedom I perceived when I was a child and heard from my family about their life in Italy before moving to Argentina. The freedom of expression, freedom of happiness and encouragement and new beginnings. When Piazzolla passed away in 2014, he was honored jointly by the Italian government and the Argentinian Embassy in Italy, with a monument erected in the city of Lucca, his mother’s city of origin. This was a representation of the strong connections between Argentina and Italy”.

As a world-renowned pianist, performer and professor, you promote the Latin-American as well as your Argentinian heritage. What is the message that you want to share with your audience?

“My message is that the music of the classical composers from Latin America is younger compared with the traditional classical music from Europe. But most of these composers got scholarships from their countries, to study in Europe and then when they came back, they had a mix of influences– European as well as the folklore of their countries—producing as a result, a very special classical message. I’d like to suggest to all the people to open their hearts to this particular music. When I performed at Carnegie Hall, a complete concert with all Spanish and classical Latin American composers, to my great surprise, there were almost 3,000 people in the audience and the concert was sold out. After I performed, I received notes from people asking me to inform them about my upcoming concerts with this particular music.

Starting in 2009 I decided to perform and promote classical Latin-American composers exclusively, even though prior to that year I had performed more than 1,500 concerts with a traditional repertoire. I recorded my first CD, “Esperanza Sounds of Hope”, for Albany Records, celebrating the success and special meaning of this music. All the composers were immigrants who had moved to Argentina with the hope of a new life and new beginnings.” 

LAMBS BENEFIT CONCERT: Rosa Antonelli – 2017 JAN FEB REVIEW LAMBS FANFARE MAGAZINE – by Colin Clarke & Huntley Dent

(Youtube video links below reviews, scroll down)

REVIEW  FANFARE MAGAZINE by Huntley Dent - Colin Clarke  (R)

The first Piazzolla piece, El mundo de los dos, is given an unhurried performance that begins with chords of Chopinesque clouds that carry with them a tension that continuously threatens to explode out. This is a remarkable performance, sustained perfectly. That splendid sense of line is heard in the melodies in the tenor register

REVIEW  FANFARE MAGAZINE by Huntley Dent - Colin Clarke  R

in "IMPERIAL TANGO" before its proud, chordal climax, crowned by a splendid upward glissando. Antonelli manages to convey a near-improvized aura..."

REVIEW  FANFARE MAGAZINE by Huntley Dent - Colin Clarke    R

"ADIOS NONINO" fully convinces in Antonelli’s hands because of her uncompromising belief in the music coupled with her ability to use music to tell a story. There is never any doubt of the narrational aspect of this music..."

REVIEW  FANFARE MAGAZINE by Huntley Dent - Colin Clarke     R

ANTONELLI In "GRANADA,” by Albeniz, itself in a powerful performance with an astonishing singing, almost Chopinesque treble melody..."

REVIEW  FANFARE MAGAZINE by Huntley Dent - Colin Clarke (ESPERANZA CD)

"Antonelli manages to convey a near-improvized aura to "MILONGA DEL ANGEL", a trait that simply underlines the power of the small silences and breaks in the musical surface..."

REVIEW  FANFARE MAGAZINE by Huntley Dent - Colin Clarke     E

In "CHAU PARIS" she displays a gift for immediate communication, drawing the audience into a musical world whose air she breathes intimately, as De Larrocha breathed the air of Spain..."

REVIEW  FANFARE MAGAZINE by Huntley Dent - Colin Clarke

In GINASTERA, "DANZA DEL GAUCHO MATRERO" Antonelli meets the technical challenges with confidence and navigates bold rhythmic shifts with the ease of someone who has deeply absorbed Ginastera’s idiom

REVIEW  FANFARE MAGAZINE by Huntley Dent - Colin Clarke   RF

"In Chopin’s Op. posth Nocturnes, No. 20 in C-sharp Minor - ANTONELLI delivered with real finesse and an instinct for the genre..."

Both this review and that of the recital from Carnegie Hall act as combined testament to the talents of Rosa Antonelli. While in the Carnegie Hall recital she carefully underlines points of correspondence between the Chopin Nocturne and pieces by Piazzolla (perhaps even extending the analogy in her performance of Piazzolla’s Sentido único, where the musical language seemed to point at times towards Skryabin’s “Black Mass” sonata), here at Steinway Hall we are immersed in the music of Latin America.

The first Piazzolla piece, El mundo de los dos, is given an unhurried performance that begins with chords of Chopinesque clouds that carry with them a tension that continuously threatens to explode out. This is a remarkable performance, sustained perfectly. That splendid sense of line is heard in the melodies in the tenor register in Imperial Tango before its proud, chordal climax, crowned by a splendid upward glissando. Antonelli manages to convey a near-improvized aura to Milonga del ángel, a trait that simply underlines the power of the small silences and breaks in the musical surface.

The familiar Libertango smoulders brilliantly; so much so, one might not notice the clarity of texture even in the darkness of the work’s lower register opening. Even in this familiar piece, Antonelli manages to convey a sense of freshness alongside the underlying impression of unshakable, granitic power. Hearing the saturated regret of Adios Nonino fully convinces in Antonelli’s hands because of her uncompromising belief in the music coupled with her ability to use music to tell a story. There is never any doubt of the narrational aspect of this music.

The perhaps lesser-known composer Ángel Lasala contributes an intriguing “Romancero,” almost mystical in its secrets. I see Lasala’s Piano Trio No. 1, “De las serranias” appears on a Piscitelli disc entitled Argentina Su Musica, Volume 2; how fascinating that might be. Certainly Antonelli titillates in the “Romancero,” relishing every scrumptious dissonance. It holds its own, anyway, against Albéniz’ far more famous “Granada,” itself in a powerful performance with an astonishing singing, almost Chopinesque treble melody.

The Ginastera items reveal the more interior side of this composer’s expressive palette, from the expressive Idilio Crepuscular(a piece near-orchestral in its writing) to the tender “Danza del trigo” (Wheat Dance) from Estancia.

A terrific set of streaming videos to enjoy, then, from a pianist who deserves to be a major name. The recordings are well managed, and the video facet enables us to revel in Antonelli’s concentration as well as to admire the solid technique that underpins her mission to bring this music to the world. Colin Clarke

As the foremost champion of Latin American piano music in this country, if not the world, the accomplished Argentinian pianist Rosa Antonelli has developed her own personal style. This is a natural outcome, especially when it comes to the tango, where half the mystery derives from unspoken passion, sexual tension, and implied violence. But as Antonelli displays in these live videos, those well-known qualities, which are tied to the tango’s erotic appeal, shouldn’t mask the poetry that is so often brought out by the master of nuevo tango, Astor Piazzolla. Listening to her inward and emotionally intense performances, I began to feel increased respect for Piazzolla’s genius—he did nothing less for the tango than Chopin did for the mazurka and polonaise.

At bottom, Chopin heard rhythmic subtleties in the mazurka, which had many local variants in traditional Polish culture, and each nuance implied emotional shades he expressed with almost microscopic finesse. Piazzolla took the familiar tango rhythm and turned it a hundred different ways, shading the feeling of the dance almost beyond measure. To a performer as imaginative as Antonelli, the hidden potential even of Piazzolla tangos that are among his greatest hits—Libertango, Adiós Nonino, Milonga del ángel—is freshly unfolded.

In general her style is to be more soulful and often slower than other interpreters. In El mundo de los dos, she takes over 3 min. to evoke the deep feeling in a languorous melody that other pianists skip through in 2 min. or less, generally emphasizing the continuous rhythm in the left hand over the melody. The specialness of Antonelli’s reading of the improvisational, jazz-inflected Adiós Nonino is brought out by comparison with Daniel Barenboim’s rendition (on a Teldec/Warner CD with a title that brought a smile, Zeit Für Tangos). Barenboim’s light touch and air of suave sophistication contrasts vividly with Antonelli’s more emotional, even wrenching interpretation—she makes this farewell to a beloved father much more memorable.

Piazzolla’s self-communing side is emphasized here, but there is also a grander aim in a work like Imperial Tango, which looks to the Lisztian platform tradition, infused with Latin rhythms Liszt never experienced, presumably. Antonelli captures the display of the piece perfectly, making it a rival to a Chopin Ballade. We’re being reminded that South American composers almost always had dual personalities, looking one way to their native cultures and another way to Paris (where Piazzolla studied with Nadia Boulanger). Albéniz reached his height as a composer after he moved to Paris; here, however, we get Granada, a serenade from Suite Española, written in Madrid in 1886 by a 26-year-old with a royal grant in hand. A lovely romantic melody in the left hand is accompanied by rather mechanical guitar strumming in the right. Antonelli does full justice to the ardor and expressive freedom of the piano writing.

I tend to associate Ginastera with the rowdier, rougher side of Argentine music, but the Danza del trigo (Wheat Dance) from his ballet Estancia sounds like a Latin variant on a Tchaikovsky Adagio pas de deux, building in intensity as it unfolds. Similar in feeling but with gestures closer to early Debussy is the languidly attractive Romancero by Ángel Lasala (1914 – 2000), an Argentinian composer unknown to me; it is part of Antonelli’s cultural mission to performe more obscure South Americans. Here the basis is a dance, as with everything on the program, but the intention to write a European-style character piece is also evident.

This 2016 recital was given to benefit The Lambs, a professional theater organization with a long tradition, going back to 1874 in New York. The original social club was founded in London in 1868 and named after poet Charles Lamb and his sister Mary. The video and sound quality of these performances is good, although there is evidence of their amateur origins at the concert. Certainly the piano sound is full and lifelike. I had been impressed by Antonelli’s 2015 CD for Albany (reviewed in Fanfare 39:2 by me and in 39:3 by Colin Clarke), which features very little overlap with the present program and is equally impressive. As both a notably accomplished pianists and a cultural ambassador, Antonelli makes a very favorable impression. But it’s her deep personal immersion in this music that magnetizes and holds your attention.

As an adjunct to the main review of a complete recital to benefit The Lambs in New York City, here are four mementos of Rosa Antonelli’s Carnegie Hall recital in 2011.  The highly accomplished Argentine pianist plays to strength in dances by Ginastera and Piazzolla, but it’s good to be reminded that a champion of South American composers also has wider musical interests. We get one of Chopin’s opus posthumous Nocturnes, No. 20 in C-sharp Minor, and its melting melody is delivered with real finesse and an instinct for the genre. Actually, since Antonelli approaches the slow tangos of Piazzolla with empathy for their melancholy, she’s naturally attuned to Chopin. The A-B-A form of this Nocturne features syncopation in the middle section that Antonelli hearkens back to Buenos Aires in hints of rhythm and accent.

In the three Argentine works she displays a gift for immediate communication, drawing the audience into a musical world whose air she breathes intimately, as De Larrocha breathed the air of Spain. Chau, París, composed around 1960, is Piazzolla’s farewell to the city where he had lived and studied; it is extracted from Four Tangos. Sentido único comes from the same series, but the two pieces are a study in contrasts. Piazzolla’s goodbye to Paris strongly, purely asserts its roots in Argentina, while Sentido único adds a layer of virtuoso improvisation more reminiscent of an outpouring from Chopin or a jazz pianist—we are reminded of how creatively Piazzolla incorporated diverse musical elements into his style of nuevo tango.

Even more virtuosic is the selection from Ginastera’s Danzas Argentinas. Composed in 1937, the three dances depict aspects of gaucho life on the Pampas. Here we get the “Dance of the Arrogant Gaucho,” a rough ride that features expression markings like furiosamente (furiously), violente (violent), mordento (biting), and salvaggio (wild). These justify a powerful ostinato drive, flirtations with 12-tone, dissonant, and chromatic passages, ending on ffff and a furious glissando. Antonelli meets the technical challenges with confidence and navigates bold rhythmic shifts with the ease of someone who has deeply absorbed Ginastera’s idiom.

Carnegie Hall’s publishing policies permitted only these four video excerpts from a 2011 recital that brought Antonelli to the stage of Stern Auditorium. Even for a pianist with more than a thousand concerts to her credit, this was a rare opportunity, and I’d imagine also the most prominent showcase that South American piano music has had in New York. The audio and video quality are excellent. I’ve heard the complete recital and wish that somehow it can get released in the future. The live setting adds extra scintillation to Antonelli’s playing.  Huntley Dent

PIAZZOLLA El mundo de los dos    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNqpIL6rAUU&t=2s

Imperial Tango    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBM1IJVtNZ8

Milonga del ángel    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7K49djqHvc

Libertango    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVOoRUNtbtE

Adiós Nonino    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zU7A7PmZ6AE

LASALA Preludios Nacionales: No. 4, Romancero    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1wUtTnLqUI&t=8s

ALBÉNIZ Suite Española: Granada    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CMwHi7lVY4

GINASTERA Estancia: Danza del trigo    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p70VeGHAJLo

Idilio Crepuscular    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBZlw_Xuw0s&t=1s

FANFARE MAGAZINE REVIEW – Rosa Antonelli at CARNEGIE HALL, Chopin, Nocturne Nº 20 in C sharp minor, Op. Posth,

..."The star of Rosa Antonelli seems to be in the ascendant. This set of performances, caught live in the Stern Auditorium of Carnegie Hall, New York in October 2011, confirms impressions left by her Albany disc Abrazando, reviewed by myself in Fanfare 39:3, of a pianist of utmost sensitivity, one clearly hyper-attuned to the music of South America.

First, though, comes a splendid Chopin nocturne (the posthumously published C♯-Minor). Now, with the advantage of video, one can see how much of her attention is channeled into her fingers. There is no superfluous display here; we delight, instead, in the sheer variety of tone she coaxes from her Steinway. Any hint of a dance rhythm finds her basking in the sudden elevation of mood before it is subsumed back into the primary material. The spell cast by Antonelli’s performance of the Nocturne would hover longer if it were not for the heinous immediate applause; what a shame we listeners are not allowed to luxuriate in Chopin’s miraculous afterglow.

It feels like home turf for Antonelli with Ginastera’s Danza del gaucho matrero, the third of the three Danzas argentinas of that composer’s op. 2. If the camera-work is not always completely rock-steady, the performance itself is shot through with furious energy. Antonelli’s performance is little short of magnificent, its natural momentum building to an impression less of virtuosity per se but of real majesty. Antonelli has recorded all three Argentine Dances on her Albany disc Esperanza (see Fanfare 35:1); of course Martha Argerich’s astonishing recording live from the Concertgebouw, now on Warner, takes some beating, but Antonelli has an almost equivalent fire.

The smokiness of Piazzolla’s Chau, Paris is shot through with regret and yet speaks strongly of Argentina in its harmonies and rhythms; the highly dissonant Sentido único has a relentless side that flowers under Antonelli’s fingers, with any contrasts Piazzolla offers gratefully received by the listener. Antonelli’s tone is perfect for this music—dark and strong—and certainly, she never breaks the sound of her instrument. Intense, but not harsh, would sum up her sound perfectly.

This is a superb reminder of the talent of Rosa Antonelli. One hopes the entire recital will become available at some stage. Colin Clarke"

FANFARE MAGAZINE ” REVIEW” – Rosa Antonelli at CARNEGIE HALL , Chopin,Nocturne Nº 20 in C sharp minor,Op. Posth,

..." As an adjunct to the main review of a complete recital to benefit The Lambs in New York City, here are four mementos of Rosa Antonelli’s Carnegie Hall recital in 2011. The highly accomplished Argentine pianist plays to strength in dances by Ginastera and Piazzolla, but it’s good to be reminded that a champion of South American composers also has wider musical interests. We get one of Chopin’s op. post. Nocturnes, No. 20 in C♯ Minor, and its melting melody is delivered with real finesse and an instinct for the genre. Actually, since Antonelli approaches the slow tangos of Piazzolla with empathy for their melancholy, she’s naturally attuned to Chopin. The A-B-A form of this nocturne features syncopation in the middle section that Antonelli hearkens back to Buenos Aires in hints of rhythm and accent.

In the three Argentine works she displays a gift for immediate communication, drawing the audience into a musical world whose air she breathes intimately, as De Larrocha breathed the air of Spain. Chau, París, composed around 1960, is Piazzolla’s farewell to the city where he had lived and studied; it is extracted from Four Tangos. Sentido único comes from the same series, but the two pieces are a study in contrasts. Piazzolla’s goodbye to Paris strongly, purely asserts its roots in Argentina, while Sentido único adds a layer of virtuoso improvisation more reminiscent of an outpouring from Chopin or a jazz pianist—we are reminded of how creatively Piazzolla incorporated diverse musical elements into his style of nuevo tango.

Even more virtuosic is the selection from Ginastera’s Danzas Argentinas. Composed in 1937, the three dances depict aspects of gaucho life on the Pampas. Here we get the “Dance of the Arrogant Gaucho,” a rough ride that features expression markings like furiosamente (furiously), violente (violent), mordento (biting), and salvaggio (wild). These justify a powerful ostinato drive, flirtations with 12-tone, dissonant, and chromatic passages, ending on ffff and a furious glissando. Antonelli meets the technical challenges with confidence and navigates bold rhythmic shifts with the ease of someone who has deeply absorbed Ginastera’s idiom.

Carnegie Hall’s publishing policies permitted only these four video excerpts from a 2011 recital that brought Antonelli to the stage of Stern Auditorium. Even for a pianist with more than 1,000 concerts to her credit, this was a rare opportunity, and I’d imagine also the most prominent showcase that South American piano music has had in New York. The audio and video quality are excellent. I’ve heard the complete recital and wish that somehow it can get released in the future. The live setting adds extra scintillation to Antonelli’s playing. Huntley Dent "

FANFARE MAGAZINE – Mystical and Philosophical and Romantic: An Interview with Pianist Rosa Antonelli

Rosa Antonelli has been playing the piano since she was three-and-a-half years old. The child of Italian immigrants who left their homeland after World War II, Antonelli grew up in Argentina, where she heard the music of popular tangos, the opera music her mother sang, and the sounds of Buenos Aires, a town steeped in the melancholy and nostalgia of its large Italian immigrant population. She was first inspired when she heard her teacher playing the piano in the classroom and learned the instrument by using the piano her teacher kept in a small shed in the backyard. But in Argentina she first learned the work of European classical composers—Lizst, Chopin, Beethoven—before she could approach the work of the Latin American composers she would later champion and admire. She had been working and performing widely across Europe, Africa, Asia, North America, and Latin America before she was ready, as she explains, for the tango. The loss of homeland, the disconnection from her cultural heritage and her Italian family, as well as the poverty and struggle of her life in Argentina, were each tied to the music of the tango. And Piazzolla’s tangos, which include influences from the composer’s time studying abroad in Europe and the United States, spoke to her of the nostalgia and melancholy she had long tried to ignore. When she was ready, she learned everything she could about Piazzolla—his life, his work, his influences—and absorbed his history so that her performance could, as closely as possible, be a true interpretation of his intentions. Although she loves to perform, and has toured in many countries since her first tour of Europe in 1987, Antonelli is hesitant to become comfortable in the spotlight. She is a meticulous and dedicated student of music, but she is also extremely critical of herself and still has difficulty watching recordings of her past performances. During performance, she makes every effort to focus on the piano, even playing with her eyes closed to better listen to the sound she wants to produce with the instrument.

For this interview, I asked Antonelli about her performances at Carnegie Hall and for the Lambs Foundation, but we did not watch her clips together. Had we done so, I think it would have been as difficult as attempting to pass into the world of a mirror, or trying to discover a place that only exists on the other side of the glass. That mystery, the ineffable connection between a musician and her instrument, is very tangible for Antonelli. We attempted to get at the center of her motivation as an artist, her work as an advocate for the work of classical Latin American composers, and her relationship with the nostalgia and melancholy that always seems to follow her.

After reading your three previous interviews with Robert Schulslaper for Fanfare (33:5, 35:1, and 36:4), I was struck by how visceral musical history seems to you—especially when you heard that a certain venue had been a favorite place for Mozart or Rubenstein to play. That connection was so immediate and compelling for you, even though you live now (in the future). I’m wondering about your connection to classical music history and how the connection informs your playing, if you see yourself as an extension of the past, in a way.

It’s an interesting question, and I have an honest answer to that. I read the articles you wrote, which I love, and I feel that it will be important for me to tell you this. The reason I started with classical music is because my mother was an opera singer and actress in Italy. And then after World War II when she moved with my father to Argentina, she couldn’t pursue her career because they lost everything in the war. When she left her career, she was very young and very successful. I remember being a child and seeing and wearing all her clothes. The costume clothes were very big for me. I remember that with so much affection and love. And then one day when I went to the kindergarten things changed for me. In Argentina we have music at school from the beginning, it’s almost mandatory. The way we learn music is that the teacher plays some songs, she teaches us the lyrics, and we sing with her. Every time the teacher was playing I felt very emotional with the music and then I told my mom: “Mom, I want to do what she’s doing to me.” And my mom asked, “What’s she doing to you?” And I said, you know she touches the piano with the fingers and I feel a need to cry. I said that I want to do that same thing with people; I want people to feel emotions when I’m playing piano.

This is how the story started. She said that often I was in the backyard looking at and studying my hands the whole time—fascinated with them, dreaming what I could do with my hands. And still today, for me it’s a mystery how a human being can touch an object like the piano and evoke feelings. It is not a living being and yet some people, some musicians, make you feel so much, but with others you don’t feel anything. I feel the difference. That was my dream, and so my mother put me in piano lessons right away. I was three-and-a-half. We didn’t even have money to pay for the lessons, but the teacher was so nice to me, she charged me less and then she gave me one of her pianos to practice on every day. Sometimes I escaped from school, left in the middle of the school day, and went to this room in the backyard of her home to practice for hours. At times my mom was desperately looking for me and finally called my teacher, who said, “Your daughter is safe and happy in my backyard practicing.” She was so relieved and after that she always knew where I was. I often practiced there until late at night with just a small light. My teacher called me “La lucecita del fondo,” the little light of the backyard. And that’s the way it started. I created an imaginary audience that I was playing for and creating deep emotions for. That led me to believe that there is something there beyond the things you really see with your eyes and something that we cannot explain. I’m still fascinated by that.

Did you ever talk to your mother about her connection with singing? I’m wondering if she had a similar emotional understanding or connection.

Yes, we could talk about that when I got older. I always was very shy. Absolutely shy! I didn’t talk to anyone because of my situation of being so poor. It was not always like that; in fact we were from royalty in Italy, but in Argentina we didn’t have anything. My mother always said to me, “Don’t feel insecure about yourself. You have something special that when you play, people feel a lot of emotions. And then she said, “That also happened to me when I was performing.” I remember she told me the story that she had to perform in a play when she was 15 years old; she had to play the role of an old woman who lost her husband, because the real actress got sick. When she finished, the audience was all crying and gave her a standing ovation; they could not believe a teenager could embody the emotions of an old woman in this situation. Obviously we had the same talent for evoking strong feelings.

That’s interesting. It reminds me of something else you said in other interviews—that you leave a rose on a chair for your mom whenever you give performances.

Yes; unfortunately my father couldn’t support me. He was so traumatized by fighting in the Second World War. He was only 16 and he didn’t want to kill anybody. He couldn’t understand me and my passion for the music. And my mom was the only one who supported me with no conditions. That’s why she has always a place wherever I am.

That’s really beautiful, I think. Speaking of overcoming that shyness, and becoming a performer, one of the things that struck me about reading your previous interviews was how many times you asked yourself “How can I do this?” and then you went ahead and did it. I don’t know if that’s something you can explain, but what sort of happens in that moment to push you from being so overwhelmed to just saying, “All right, I’m here, I’m doing this”?

What happens is that first, I feel how much I love to give. Then, I don’t take the performance as an act of being at the center of a big hall with people clapping. I don’t see myself as the center of attention. They say I am an actress, I am a concert pianist, but I don’t have that kind of ego. What I feel in the moment on the stage is that this is an act of connecting with my heart to the audience, a kind of spiritual communication with the audience. Of course to get to that point you have to have great preparation; the responsibility of being a good artist, practicing as much as you can, understanding the history, style, and feelings of the composer, everything that is related to a good interpretation. Then, when you get to that point, you can translate and convey those feelings to another person—in a sense “channeling” the composer.

I always feel that in life you have a choice. You can say, “Oh, I will not be able to do this,” or “I am prepared and in touch with the composer’s message, and I can do it.” Because I believe in all of that. I believe in God, in angels, and more than anything in the spiritual connection that is in the heart of human beings. Then, when I am on the stage, just seeing the people is just like a click, like saying, “Oh, we are together, we are going to share these beautiful feelings,” and all that nervousness is shattered like magic. Until the moment I am on stage at the concert, I’m a nervous wreck. What if I forget this note? Etc. And then I say, no, everything is inside, it’s time to jump to the different level, the level of the spirit, the level of communication. I have so much respect for that, that I am certain this will happen. I ask my angels to guide my hands. The rest is turning the electric light switch on; instead of electricity it is the spiritual power. It’s something magical.

It’s just inexplicable. And that feeling or that ability to convey something is only attainable in performance. You could practice for years and never perform, but you would never have that experience.

Yes, it is a beautiful experience, it is one of the happiest moments of my life and I enjoy it tremendously. I have felt this way since I was a little girl and I consider myself very fortunate that this has never changed. I wish I could perform more because it’s such a beautiful feeling. After a performance people say to me, “Oh, you moved my heart, because you play with your heart; thank you so much.” When people tell me this, that’s the best gift, the best feeling in the world for me. The audience is giving me so much, and I’m so thankful for that.

What message do you hope to give to your audience? Is that message ever altered or connected to the program or the music you’ve chosen to perform, or is it something more organic and arises from within the performance?

I hope they get the message that the composer wanted to deliver from each of the pieces when he created them—for example if I play a piece by Piazzolla such as his tango Chau Paris, which is about the nostalgia he felt when he had to go back to Argentina after living in Paris for so many years. This is what he felt when he wrote the tango. I try to convey, to be just like a medium, what he felt, and to transmit that to the audience members, so that they understand the composer’s message.

Of all the clips, Piazzolla’s pieces are the most represented. You mentioned in previous interviews that you weren’t ready for the tango. And then you seemed to have launched—at least with these concerts—fully into Piazzolla’s mindset of the tango. How did you move from not being ready and then being like, “Ok, now I can perform these pieces”?

The thing that gave me the most movement of being ready is to realize and feel what Piazzolla felt. Let me go back a bit in my own life to a turning point in my understanding of myself and Piazzolla. It came when I saw the movie The History of the Tango. Even though we listened to tangos at home growing up, I realized I never fully understood the meaning. In that movie. I saw on the screen what I had always felt in my life, as an Italian immigrant, but had not allowed myself face those feelings. The Italians were afraid of another world war and many escaped to Argentina. In most cases they left Europe very quickly and left behind many loved ones and personal belongings. In some cases, like me, I did not know my relatives. I didn’t meet my aunts and uncles until I was 16, and my grandmother when I was 20.

What I learned from this movie was that all the Italian immigrants—over 60 per cent of Argentinians today are fully or partially of Italian descent—gathered in the cafes in Argentina in Buenos Aires, and shared those feelings of nostalgia and melancholy. But they also shared feelings of hope and strong passions for a beginning, a new life. This is how the tango was born. Also, I then realized I had absorbed all this melancholy, passion, and hope from my family, without fully being conscious of it. This realization brought out my submerged, deep feelings and made me cry. But also it somehow finally freed me up to be able to start performing the tango and allowed me to truly show my own feelings.

The original tangos were performed in the small cabarets and only for singing and dancing, with popular instruments. It was considered lower-class expression and entertainment. It was Piazzolla, a son of Italian immigrants, who elevated the tango from the dance floor and brought it to the concert stage. He transformed the original tango, incorporating harmonies and rhythms of classical and jazz music. We should not forget that he was a classical composer. He created the “new tango” or classical tango. This is why I really love to perform his music, and why I understand Piazzolla and his tangos.

Do you think that now that you’ve confronted that nostalgia, that melancholy, that the message of the immigrant is what you are conveying to the audience?

Yes. I feel that way. And I feel gratified and fulfilled that I am conveying that feeling message and they understand it. I have a funny story relating to this. After my first concert at Carnegie Hall with a complete program of only classical Latin American composers, I was expecting the reviews. I knew that Harris Goldsmith, who was a very well respected and demanding critic, was in the audience. It was a couple of days later at 7:00 am and I was reading his review. My husband got up and saw me crying at the table. He said, “What is the matter, sweetheart?” And I said, “Look what he wrote about me, about Piazzolla.” Being very nervous and not trusting my English so well, I misread—I thought he didn’t like it and was devastated. And my husband read it and he said, “You know, he’s saying that he never really understood Piazzolla until he listened to you at Carnegie Hall that night.” That was the most beautiful thing I could have heard. I was so anxious that I read the opposite! He gave me the encouragement, of someone so well respected, to keep on playing and introducing Piazzolla to the world.

You mentioned in another interview that you met Piazzolla. Is that true?

Yes, in Argentina. I was taken by the mother of one of my friend’s to a performance of his. One little-known fact about Piazzolla was that he also played the bandoneón, an accordion-like instrument, in a small group that he led. I saw him one of the times he was performing in the salons in Buenos Aires; but I was a teenager and very much into Chopin at the time. So at that moment I did not pay much attention to him or his music and, as I mentioned before, I rejected the tango as an art form at that time. But I was impressed with his passion when he played the bandoneón and later in life I learned the bandoneón myself. I do regret that I didn’t give him the attention that he deserved.

But how could you know at that time, you know?

[Laughs] Yes! Impossible! But a lot of people loved the tango. My mom used to listen to the famous Carlos Gardel all the time at home; he was singing popular tangos and later he was in movies. But as with Piazzolla, I never paid very much attention. At the time Piazzolla had not yet taken the tango from the dance floor to the concert stage. But as you know, his classical tangos many years later became popular all over the world. For example, Yo-Yo Ma is playing and recording Piazzolla tangos in all the major venues.

I always think of the tango as a dance. Even with the European and jazz influences, the tango always has an inherent tension, a push and pull. I’m wondering if, as performer, if you rely on that tension while playing. How do you sort of approach that dynamic of the tension?

This is a very good question and I think we could discuss this for hours. First we have to look at the sources of the tension—socially, historically, and emotionally within the dance itself. The tango dance is paradoxical. Two people are intimately and even erotically connected (pull towards), yet they are fiercely independent and at times rejecting (push away). It is a mixture of many emotions. To add to the complexity, the music itself is a mixture of many different styles and influences of cultures—African, Italian, etc. The bandoneón instrument itself was developed in Germany. The push and pull was also evident in the historical, political, and societal aspects. The tango went from being a dance of the slums and bordellos, hidden from high society and prohibited by “decent” families, to being the most famous style and dance of the upper classes.

Since the only tangos I am playing are the Piazzolla tangos (which I consider a classical tango), I understand and studied the push and pulls that Piazzolla created in his nuevo tango. In his own music history, he was a prolific classical composer, famous in Europe and the United States. He created this tango, which keeps the essential spirit of the tango of the “golden age,” but he added dissonance, chromatic harmony, and a wider range of rhythm. It’s ironic that tango dancers rejected him because he would not allow them to dance when he was playing, even when his small group played in the salons.

In his personal life, being a son of immigrants born in Buenos Aires and moving to New York at a very early age, he had much instability emotionally, physically, and musically (in the music he was exposed to); but in all this “push and pull,” since he made the decision to dedicate his life to the new tango, he had a constant thread that made him strong. He understood what he was doing and accepted that he, as a musical innovator, prisoner, and leader, would not benefit much in his lifetime. He even said in his book that his wish was that his music would live on after him, all over the world.

As a performer, I rely completely on all this tension, since I deeply understand him in all his different aspects. As I am devoted to promote his work (as well as all the classical Latin American music), I approach and enjoy this dynamic of tension which he created with so much passion. On the stage I try to connect with his spirit and I consider myself at that moment a simple messenger of his revolutionary, romantic, and passionate music, which I profoundly admire. To perform many of Piazzolla’s tangos at Carnegie Hall was first a big challenge and then also a dream. It was not until the end of this concert, with the tremendous positive response from the audience, almost 3,000 people, that I truly realized that my mission and dream had come true.

I think it’s really admirable that you’re an advocate for classical Latin American music, but do you think that you’ll go back to performing more traditional, classical music?

Thank you! It was not an easy decision at the beginning, but now I am proud of it. Since this wonderful music is younger than European classical music it has so much in it to be discovered, to be explored and promoted. I found magnificent music which was never played before and the audience loved it. I would love to perform more traditional classical music, and this is why very often I play Chopin or Liszt as encores. It’s funny because at the last concert at Carnegie Hall in 2014, the president of Albany Records was there in the audience, and he said to me afterwards, “Rosa, the way you play these composers”—I was playing Albéniz, Granados, Ginastera, Piazzolla, Ponce, etc.—“and all this music is so Romantic that our next project should be Chopin and Piazzolla.” I’ve loved Chopin! All my life!

I loved the Chopin nocturne you included with the clips.

That was my first encore, at Carnegie Hall! You see! This particular nocturne was my mom’s favorite piece by Chopin. In one of her trips back to Italy to see her family she got me the music of this piece and a record called Rarezas by Chopin performed by Pomerantz. Unforgettable!

Do you have a different approach to Chopin than you do to Latin American composers?

When I studied Chopin I tred to search out information all about him—his personal life, his background, his music, the social and historic events at that time, all I could to understand how his compositions should be played the best. What helped me a lot was the book that his students wrote. In this book I have learned how much he loved to teach and how he explained directly to his students the way that the phrase, pedal, rubato, etc. has to be played.

Then, when I performed in Poland, I think that I got his essence. I performed a lot in Poland. I performed in his hometown, for the Chopin Society, and also toured every day to a different city in Poland. I went to his home at Żelazowa Wola; I breathed the air in that home, and walked around all these acres where he was with his teacher. I pictured him talking about music and about philosophy….It was something so mystical, philosophical, and Romantic. I saw his kitchen, his bedroom, where he was cooking. I think I absorbed already all his life, the way he was living, the way he was suffering with the revolution and how he reacted with his Romanticism to the history he had to live. When I perform Chopin, all of this comes together through his music. When I am really deep into the composer, the piece, it becomes part of me, and I feel free and ready to deliver it to the audience.

To come back to your question, I have to say that I approach the classical Latin American music with the same respect and dedication and love.

That’s incredible. To see what Chopin saw every day.

Yes, I was crying. I saw it all. I felt how weak he was and how the illness he had didn’t stop him from creating this exquisite, refined Romantic music. And when he didn’t feel strong enough to show how passionate, energetic, and fast his music should be played, he asked his friend Liszt, who was strong and technically brilliant, to perform his compositions the way he created them. I felt like I was transported in a time machine and was there next to him

How did you get involved with the Lambs Foundation concert?

I became a member of the club after a member listened to me playing in a concert and proposed to sponsor me and join the club. She was a famous actress. After that I performed at the club many times, and because of the condition of the pianos, Steinway sent me the pianos for my performances there. The club was founded in the 1800s, in London. Many great actors, actresses, directors, and writers of famous movies and plays joined this foundation, and the most well-known branch has continued in New York.

The president, who is very responsible and really loves all the arts, and most of the members were dreaming of having their own beautiful Steinway piano for more and better performances. I am a romantic, which now you must know, and I said, “Marc! We can do a fundraiser for a new piano!” After that we started with the project. Steinway donated the hall for my fundraising concert, which was very successful. We got the new Steinway! A few months later, on August 8 of this year, I performed the first celebration concert on the new Steinway at the Club to a sold-out recital. Another dream that came true!

When you play in performance, do you listen for the audience listening? I mean, do you sort of listen for them listening and engaging with your performance or are you concentrating more on your performance?

It’s a very interesting question because it’s a combination. I feel how they hear and how they receive the music. I sense it through the silence, the complete silence. There is a wave of emotions that I send to them and then they give it back to me. I concentrate on the pieces, but this emotional communication is what moves me more and more during the performances. It’s beautiful. As I said before, they are giving me so much! In one of the articles with Robert, I mentioned that since that Carnegie Hall concert, I am experiencing special and mystical feelings during my performances.

We don’t often see your face in those clips, but we can tell that you are very focused on the piano. Your arms are so beautiful, too. We can see the power extending from the tips of your fingers all the way to the top of your shoulder. Aside from preparing and learning the music and your performance, I’m curious how you mentally and physically prepared to give this concert at Carnegie Hall.

The mental and physical training, besides learning the music before a big concert like Carnegie Hall, is extremely important. Mentally I try to feel like the piano is not hard, not a piece of wood or an object, or “outside of me.” Also, sometimes just the size of the Model D grand piano can be intimidating. I imagine it is part of my body, an extension. I like to connect with it imagining that I am touching the strings instead of striking the keys where I can feel it more as a percussion instrument.

The discipline and emotional strength to be positive and concentrate on a bigger goal, which is the “message of the composer,” helps me to stay away from the hesitation and nervousness which can create a distraction and work against myself. I found that to picture the real meaning of a performance helps me to avoid distraction (which will distort the real meaning of the music I will perform) and will help convey what the composer wished to express. To focus on what I will give sincerely to the audience members, who deserve the best, is a mental and emotional training that comes from my heart and makes me feel confident and calm. The piano is part of my body, a continuation of it and we become one to communicate.

The physical training it is very important. I train with several exercises for the body, strengthening as well as relaxing the muscles. The hand exercises are very important as well and I have a daily routine for each muscle of the hand, arm, and forearm. Actually I wrote a book in 2013, Piano: The Spirit of Technique and Interpretation, with all these training exercises which I developed through the years. I follow them religiously; it is not easy, but I love it. This book, on Amazon, of course has also my philosophy and my explanation of how I produce the sound that I do.

It’s so different from playing the violin, where the performer’s connection with the audience is so important. But with your performance, I didn’t need to see your eyes moving on the keys. I knew you were really focused. It’s like you said, you became an extension of the instrument or vice versa, the piano became an extension of you.

Exactly, that’s the way I feel. Because sometimes also I feel the need to cry. Many times I close my eyes, because I can hear my sound better. I feel that the more senses you use—for example the eyes, if you are looking about so much—you get distracted, because the light is not perfect, etc. If you start paying attention too much to those things, you will never get to the real meaning of the music. Sometimes I perform almost in the dark, and I always say that my fingers know where they have to go. And then sometimes I cry, and so I close my eyes when I feel a little shy or embarrassed so that the audience does not see me being so emotional. And sometimes I cannot hide it and at the end of some pieces I cannot even get up because I was crying. People feel it and see it, but they are emotionally with me and I realize then it’s not embarrassing at all. People tell me this is beautiful, but still I am shy. If I see the audience on the right side, I’m sure I couldn’t go to that space of inspiration. It would be too distracting; otherwise, I’d get too far away from the music. So I will keep my hair the way it is!

So, you’re still shy playing. Is that something you think you will ever overcome?

No, I will never overcome that. Because, for example, if I go to a party after a performance, and people are waiting for me, it is hard for me to enter the room with all those people, since I am still in the “performance zone.” I get nervous and hesitant and actually try to avoid large groups. I still feel like a little girl, and I wish I could be in a corner. I’ve gotten better through the years since my childhood, when I was studying in Argentina. At that time I didn’t talk to anyone; almost no one knew what my voice sounded like. Performing is the way I have communicated my best.

Is it difficult to watch recordings of your performance?

Yes, very hard, because I am very hard on myself. Before a big performance I record myself 100 times! I pretend I am on a stage and record it, and then afterward I sit and listen as if the person in the video is another pianist who I need to judge. Then I write myself notes—need more pianissimo here, louder in this phrase, breathe more here, etc.—and I make notes in my music. Then I try it again and again until I am satisfied. That’s why when I perform, I have that sensitivity. I love to give my best.

When finally I got the DVD of my Carnegie Hall concert of 2011, I couldn’t watch it for two weeks. When I finally did watch it, I was crying. When I saw the response of the audience, I was so proud that I did it the way I dreamed it.

I think to perform at that stage, that level of perfection is key.

Yes, and then you don’t want to disappoint anybody; you don’t want to disappoint yourself. It’s a very big commitment, a very big responsibility, but it’s worth every bit of sacrifice and effort in your life when you achieve it!

Will you be back at Carnegie Hall?

Yes, I think actually we are planning maybe for next year, but in two years for sure. I’m actually working on that, at this particular moment.

What else is next?

Next, I have a new album; I am currently trying to decide on the pieces. You are very intuitive to mention Chopin because I am thinking about recording Piazzolla and Chopin, both on the new album. And I started planning several concerts; performing in Argentina, and several projects in Europe and Latin America. Now I’m just trying to settle the dates.

FANFARE MAGAZINE – REVIEW CD ABRAZANDO

Excerpts from the review by Colin Clarke at FANFARE MAGAZINE "Not to be missed".

"Antonelli is clearly preternaturally attuned to the music of these territories, finding the smoldering heart ."
" ...music to altogether different pastures, more stern, more rarified. Here, Antonelli is superb, finding an organ-like sonority from her piano."
" The famous Libertango is notable for its heady, swirling turbulence. Antonelli plays it beautifully—almost intoxicatingly, in fact."
"... thanks to Antonelli’s ability to caress a phrase and to utilize just the right amount of rubato."
" Antonelli plays them as if raising an eyebrow at the same time."
" The concluding movement is based upon a folk dance, the “Chacarera.” Antonelli plays with great flair (she clearly knows the music well, as she gave the New York premiere of this piece in Carnegie Hall in October 2014). It is the perfect way to end a most rewarding recital."
Colin Clarke

BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE – REVIEW

AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE – REVIEW

ART BODEGA Magazine Interview with Rosa Antonelli

ART BODEGA Magazine Interview with Rosa Antonelli

Rosa Antonelli, the renowned pianist from Argentina

By Rebeca Herrero

She has an innocent smile, and delicate yet powerful hands which have created some of the most poetic and inspiring classical music at Carnegie Hall.  Rosa Antonelli, a descendant of Italian nobility, whose family moved at a young age to Argentina, reminisced about her youth.  “Since I was four years old I was fascinated with the piano.  My mother was an opera singer and actress, so she recognized my ability and early passion for the piano,” explains Antonelli from her Manhattan flat.  This is where she teaches piano to international students, as well as to talented children and adults from the New York area.   Her love of teaching dates back to both Buenos Aires and New York where she was a University piano professor.

Traveling constantly all over the world, Antonelli makes sure she stays at her best by practicing several hours each day.  “It can be a very strenuous routine if you do not know how to take care of your body.  The pianist must have intense awareness and control of the technique in order to stay in mastery of the instrument.  It is a very hard thing to do, especially preparing for Carnegie Hall.”  It is there that she has delighted many top music critics and fans of Astor Piazzolla, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Ernesto Nazareth, Enrique Granados and Isaac Albeniz amongst others.

“I want to let the world know that Latin music is not only salsa, bachata,  mambo ,merengue etc. Even though I personally love to dance these rhythms, my mission has been for the past seven years to  promote and expose music lovers everywhere to the incredible classical composers from Latin America through my performances and recordings.  I was the first pianist to perform a program consisting  exclusively and only  of   Latin  masterpieces in the United States.  It was such an honor for me, but having that feeling and responsibility can also be nerve wracking,” explains the iconic figure who is also one of the top artists at Steinway & Sons in Manhattan.

As we did our photo shoot with Rosa, wearing jewelry from Tiffany & Co., you get an idea of the great cultural contributions she has given us.  As she visits Steinway & Sons headquarters in Manhattan, she explains the attributes of being part of this illustrious brand.

“The new hall is a perfect realization of what cultural contribution these pianos provide to the world.   Steinway has been synonymous with the pinnacle of artistry.   Since I feel that the best classical music is  played in New York City, even after being a world renowned pianist that traveled to many continents it was still daring for me to come here.  Leaving everything behind, family, friends and home to come here in 1998 was risky, but it was my dream and it is now a reality,” said Antonelli.

Rosa Antonelli is revered by the Administration and staff at Steinway& Sons. It is like a family for her  “They come to all of my concerts in New York and encourage and support me. They expressed how much  they like the way I play, they think it is unforced and spontaneous, but perhaps, more like a technique that comes naturally and that is played with so much sensibility and heartfelt feelings  . That’s what they’ve told me, after my performance s and always meant so much to me ” admits Antonelli.  At Steinway & Sons she spends hours admiring the instrument that gives tremendous joy and meaning to her life.

The wood reflects the brilliance of what this magical instrument represents. " Even at Carnegie Hall concerts, when you play a Steinway & Sons piano, either the one from USA or  from Germany, audiences are listening to the best since they allowed me to connect my heart to the soul of the piano  and giving to the audience” she effused  emotionally.

Rosa has a style that is unique; her contagious enthusiasm is a reflection of her artistic capabilities.  Knowing that she has to prepare to the annual concerts when she performs at the Carnegie Hall, the pianist explains, it can be very stressful.  “I got very nervous before my first big concert there; I couldn’t believe it was sold out.  But I have this remarkable gift that when I walk onto the stage and especially when I start playing, I feel a strong spirit is protecting me and guiding me.   I feel only calm and beauty.   I performed two solo piano recitals at the Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hal  .  Now  I feel that I  have given the public a unique taste of what Latin America is about.  Doing a solo performance, can be very intimidating.  I remember my first concert at Carnegie in 2011, because of New York traffic and street closures; I did not arrive until a few minutes before the show.  The staff at Carnegie Hall very nicely  was calling me, and asking" are you coming Rosa"? She said:  ” oh sure, I just have to walk to blocks from my house to get there.  When I finally arrived, I was praying to God to do a beautiful and heartfelt performance  of the Latin American classical composers .  I was nervous thinking that not too many people would come to listen to this particular Repertoire and also because even though I had performed in the best halls all over the World, Carnegie Hall is Carnegie Hall! And marks your final  reputation  in the United States .  I did not ask how many seats we have sold.  When I finally entered the stage, the venue was packed, each of the 2,800 seats and as a  surprise for me they received me with a very warm applause and saying my name in loud voice!.  I was not nervous then, I was so  proud, and so happy,  and I felt at that moment that my heart was reaching out to the audience , and my mission and dream , a reality” admits the lovely Rosa.

At her home, a luxury apartment she shares with her husband Dr. Robert Veligdan, Antonelli has posters of some of her best performances from around the world.  She has performed  and toured extensively with more than 1000 concerts all over the globe in Europe, Asia, Africa  Latin America and North America and has introduced to them to many World Premiere pieces by Classical Latin  American composers .  Invited by many governments and cultural ministries, she has delighted audiences from these  dozens of countries offering her unique playing style and introducing this marvelous music.   In addition she has donated  her time and talents to  many worthy causes in the United States and abroad.

An Argentinian musical prodigy , Antonelli received American Citizenship from the government of the United States as an “Artist of Extraordinary Ability”.  “It was not easy; I had a lot of setbacks in life and lost many of my relatives in Argentina.

“ I was presenting lectures and seminars on piano technique and interpretation in various European and Latin countries. But in Buenos Aires I held the position of Professor of the Piano Department at the National University of La Plata, at the National Conservatory of Buenos Aires and a Chairwoman of the  Piano Department at the Provincial Conservatory Alberto Ginastera . As I was losing my loved ones including my mother, who was my heart and soul, I decided to not be a coward and move to New York, once Steinway had included  me as one of their roster of Steinway Artists in 1998.”

Antonelli said it was tough at the beginning, she had to learn English and did not know anyone.  Her struggles were hard, but she had perseverance and people loved her.  She got help to bring her piano from Argentina, the one she had owned since she was 14 years old ,a  special gift from her mom.  “My landlord thought it was too heavy to be carried upstairs, so I had to return it."   But Finally  Steinway helped her to find  a studio where she could practice--but it had to be from 4 am to 10 am before they started with Recording sessions .  “I did not get sleep at all,” but I was happy as time passed, she garnered the love of piano lovers and the rest is history.

Having delivered the Latin American and Spanish music to the classical world of New York has been my biggest mission and  accomplishment,” admits Antonelli. The producer of several classical recordings of the Latin American masters, her three CD’s  are something beyond words.  “Remembranza, Remembrance of Latin Sounds”, “Esperanza, Sounds of Hope” and “Abrazando, Latin Embrace” on the  ALBANY RECORDS  label have become big hits in the classical music industry .The New York Concert Review critic Frank Daykin has described Rosa's cds as full of surprises and melodious compositions.  In his own words:  “Two of Piazolla’s Four Seasons, Spring and Summer are played with great poetry and longing, amid the angular musical gestures of the tango underlying all:  the seduction, rejection, re-approach, and eventual union of two imaginary dancers in the brothel district.  Also Villa-Lobos is represented  by BachianasBrasileiras No. 4, its prelude movement showing the “Brazilian Bach” at his most neo-baroque with perfectly descending sequences that satisfy the ear to no end…..

Her book, " Piano: The Spirit of Technique and Interpretation" was published in the United States in 2013

Beautiful music, thanks to the innate talent of a wonderful pianist, Rosa Antonelli.

Harris Goldsmith Reviews Rosa Antonelli

Argentinian pianist Rosa Antonelli, a Steinway Artist since 1998 is one of today’s leading performers and a champion of classical Latin-American and Spanish music. She has toured extensively, with more than 1,000 concerts in Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America and North America, and she is dedicated to performing and recording the works of these composers for audiences all over the world. including Argentinian masters Piazzolla, Ugarte, Gianneo and Guastavino, among others, to audiences all over the world. “Antonelli’s inward poetry forced me to rehear, and revalue Piazzolla’s Tangos, which she infused with an eloquence and inner communication…” – Harris Goldsmith, New York Concert Review

GALA HONORING COMMENDATORE ALDO MANCUSI

Rosa Antonelli was introducing her New CD " ABRAZANDO : LATIN EMBRACE " to the GALA HONORING COMMENDATORE ALDO MANCUSI

" On Sunday, September 27th, at the New York Athletic Club located on Central Park South, a gala celebration was held honoring Commendatore Aldo Mancusi and the life and legacy of Mme. Licia Albanese..."

"... Rosa Antonelli, piano virtuoso played “Invierno Porteno” by Astor. Piazzolla with great elegance, grace and style…”

By Nino Pantano

BBC Music Magazine

Excerpts from the review  BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE (to read the complete review, click here)

"...the Mexican composer Manuel Ponce ... whose romanticism is gracefully persuasive, and threaded through the disc is a fine collection of tangos by the great Astor Piazzolla ..." Invierno Porteno and Verano Porteno are sinuous delights ..."

“...threaded through the disc is a fine collection of tangos by the great Astor Piazzolla…no matter how calm their surface, these pieces are still powered by that driving muscular rhythm.”.

BBC Music Magazine, October 2015

Fanfare Magazine. CD Abrazando Latin Embrace

Excerpts from the review by Huntley Dent at FANFARE MAGAZINE . Complete Review

" I was captivated by Antonelli’s ability to create and sustain every mood in the program from Baroque dignity to the rustic exuberance of the Tres Danzas Argentinas by Luis Gianneo..."

" ...the warmth of this album’s title is matched by piano music that has a beguiling allurre..."

"The noted Argentinian pianist Rosa Antonelli has distinguished herself as a cultural ambassador for a wide range of Latin American composers, giving US premieres at Carnegie Hall. Three world premiere recordings appear here: Piazzolla’s early Llanto Negro (Black Tears), a dance streaked through with Afro-Uruguayan drumming rhythms; Piazzolla’s melancholy tango song, Nunca, nunca te olvidé (I never forgot you); and Reverie by the long-lived Argentinian composer, conductor, and educator Alberto Williams (1862–1952)..."

" From the first tantalizing moment of Piazzolla’s “Winter” and “Summer” from his Four Seasons in much of this music, we are told, qualifies as standard repertoire in Latin culture, but every piece was new to me. Buenos Aires, the sultry mixture of romance, menace, and mystery is hard to resist. ..."

By Huntley Dent

Rosa Antonelli: a Pianist of Beautiful Emotion

She started playing when she was just four years old, gave her first concert at seven and at twelve started to teach. Still playing the piano she has had since she was fourteen (she had it shipped from Argentina), Rosa is the true embodiment of a child prodigy, now grown up. Like most geniuses, she is humble, warm, passionate, gracious, and a joy to talk to, let alone listen to. Rosa, is hailed by critics as the leading expert of Spanish and Latin American music. T2C had a chance to get to know this prolific musician who resides in our community on West 57th Street.

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Pianists From the Inside – July, 2012

‘I felt connected to music right away’

My initial motivation probably came from my mother, who was an opera singer: she was singing all the time during my childhood and so I felt connected to music right away. Also, most of my other family members were musical hobbyists who played different instruments.

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Reviews of Rosa’s Carnegie Hall performance – October 15th, 2011

On October 15th at Carnegie Hall a star was born. Her name is Rosa Antonelli and that name will soon be flashing in lights at all the great concert halls all over the world. I have seen many "greats" at Carnegie Hall including the incomparible Horowitz and Rosa Antonelli is the closest I've seen to that master.

Rosa's performance was riveting. The sound was rich and emotionally powerful. Ms. Antonelli's artistry on stage was absolutely stunning; the musical poetry mesmerizing. The standing ovations were second to none and truly deserved.

- Joe Franklin, Legendary TV talk show host and current Bloomberg talk show host

Rosa Antonelli, an excellent Argentinean pianist, presented a recital of mostly Argentine and Spanish composers at Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium), a concert benefiting Action Against Hunger. Ms. Antonelli, according to the bio in the printed program, "is enjoying an active and varied career." She has made extensive tours of Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin and North America. Hailed as a leading exponent of Latin American composers, performing works by such masters as Piazzolla, Ugarte, Gianneo, Guastavino–among others–to audiences all over the world.

The concert opened with Floro Ugarte (1884-1975): his Two Preludes from "Suite de Mi Terra" (Suite of My Land). …This suite consists of three parts: the first, in Animato tempo, captures the motion of weeping willow trees and their shadows, depicting a scene of melancholy contentment. The second part, in Lento Tempo, describes with dramatic intensity the approaching darkness as night begins to fall. …

Next came Four Tangos by Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992): Rio Sena; Sentido Unico; Milonga del Angel; Chau, Paris. Piazzolla's music has become increasingly ubiquitous and popular… (After intermission, two more Piazzolla Tangos, written in 1963, were heard. Ms. Antonelli's performance at this concert was the World Premiere of the original piano version.)

Another Argentinean, Carlos Guastavino (1912-2000), followed the first four Piazzolla Tangos with Two Preludes: "El Patio" and "El Sauce from La Siesta." … The description in "El Patio" evokes the memory of J. Aguirre and depicts the traditional Argentinean weeping trees with soft flowing leaves whispering in the wind. The first half of the program ended with two works by Enrique Granados (1867-1916): his Epilogo from "Escenas Romanticas" and Allegro de Concierto.
After intermission, we heard two early compositions by Isaac Albeniz (1860-1907): Granada from his "Suite Espanola", Op. domain list 47; and "L'Automne Waltz", Op. 170. Ms. Antonelli played all these compositions 'con amore'. She is a dyed-in-the-wool Romantic Lyricist. Her always aurally beautiful and caressing pianism uses a lot of color via the sustaining pedal; she molds phrases with enormous flexibility, and there was never a hint of harsh, ugly or astringent glint to her lush singing tone. … Ms. Antonelli's inward poetry forced me to rehear, and revalue, Piazzolla's Tangos, which she infused with an eloquence and inner communication that, in truth, has sometimes eluded me.

Postludes to a memorably well-played evening, Ms. Antonelli's flowing, songful rendition of the early Chopin Nocturne in C-sharp Minor, Op. Posth. was an ideally fitting encore.

-Harris Goldsmith for New York Concert Review; New York, NY
Regarded as a leading pianist of Spanish and Latin American music to audiences across the world, Argentinean Rosa Antonelli made her Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall debut on Saturday, October 15th. The program featured works by the Latin American and Argentinean masters Isaac Albeniz, Alberto Ginastera, Enrique Granados, Carlos Guastavino, Astor Piazzolla and Floro Ugarte, as well as the world premieres of Piazzolla's two tangos – Our World (El Mundo de los Dos) and Imperial – of the piano version. Looking stunning in red, Ms. Antonelli is an interpreter of uncommon sensitivity and has a flare for the music. The Four Tangos by Astor Piazzolla and the two after intermission proved to be the highlights. Ms. Antonelli's nimble fingers played the stark themes with emotional clarity, but she plays with such fluidity that the darker material was almost ominous. The slow movements, contrasted tonally, but were tinged with sadness. Ms. Antonelli vividly brings this imagery to mind even while skillfully negotiating some intricate passages.

Albeniz, Granada from his "Suite Espanola", Chopin Nocturne in C-sharp Minor, and Op. Posth brought out Ms. Antonelli's poetry as she caressed the keys like a lover whom we were peeking in on, voyeuristically. Her movements on the keys were only highlighted by her use of sustaining the pedal. Ms. Antonelli is a romantic ethereal creature and her choices in music left us wanting just a little bit of hell. Not speaking during the concert and playing few upbeat numbers made us wish for breaks in the soul searching music and more of the raw passion. Ms Antonelli's music is sure to cure any stress problems and cure the beast within.

This concert also benefitted Action Against Hunger. On second thought, why ask for hell when heaven was here at Carnegie Hall?

-Suzanna Bowling, Times Square Chronicles

Review of Rosa’s October 24, 2012 Performance

At a Harvardwood-sponsored recital at the Down Town Association, the Argentinian pianist Rosa Antonelli demonstrated why critics and audiences have held her in high regard throughout her career. The program consisted mostly of works by well-known Spanish composers (Isaac Albéniz and Enrique Granados) and tangos by Astor Piazzolla, the Argentinian powerhouse whose seemingly countless works incorporate jazz and classical harmonies into the popular tango form and lend themselves to a variety of arrangements including, as evidenced by this concert, solo piano.

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Fanfare Magazine Reviews on her CD REMEMBRANZA by Albany Records Label

…Antonelli is considered a leading exponent of Spanish and Latin American music. One can easily see why: her playing is temperamental, vital, confident, and it beams with a sense of purpose and physicality that perfectly suits the dance rhythms that characterize much of the future repertoire and most notably the Piazzolla, Villa-Lobos, and Nazareth works that open the program.

Read More website tech info .

Fanfare Magazine Interview with Rosa Antonelli – March/April 2013

Con Amore: A Conversation with Rosa Antonelli (By Robert Schulslaper)

Time flies. It seems that only yesterday I was speaking with pianist Rosa Antonelli about her forthcoming Carnegie Hall debut (Fanfare 35: 1). Today, that happy occasion is more than a year in the past, but Rosa's not one to let the grass grow under her feet: She's recorded a new CD, Remembranza: remembrance of Latin sounds, which I'm sure her many fans will enjoy.

Q: Hello Rosa, it's good to see you again. First of all, congratulations on your successful Carnegie Hall debut.

A: Thank you, Robert.

Q: As some, but not all, of your program is repeated on Remembranza, I was wondering how the two events might be related. Had you made plans to record the CD before the concert?

A: This is a very interesting question, because before you came, I was reminding myself to tell you about the connection with Carnegie Hall. I was going to record the CD anyway, but the two events are linked through the title, Remembranza, which has special significance for me. I wanted to remember both the Carnegie Hall experience and the fact that I performed a program consisting only of Latin music. Albany Records encouraged me to play anything I wanted, but Esperanza [Rosa's previous Albany release], which concentrated exclusively on Argentinean classical composers, was so successful that I said to myself, "Oh, I'm going to record many of the Latin flavored pieces I played at Carnegie Hall."

Q: Two of the Piazzolla tangos you played were New York premieres.

A: Yes, and they're on the CD, but there are two more, which were premieres for me: Adios Nonino and La ultima Grela.

Q: Granados's La maja e el ruisenor (The lady and the nightingale)] is another "non-Carnegie" selection.

A: I love that piece but the program was already so long, so I had to choose. However, I did play his Allegro de Concierto and Albeniz's Granada and L'Automne Waltz at Carnegie Hall, along with some Ginastera, which had already been recorded on Esperanza. A private reason why I chose to record some of the Carnegie Hall program is that I'm never happy with my performance. I'm usually 95 percent unhappy and only two or three happy, no? [laughing]

Q: That's a tendency that musicians have.

A: We are always hard on ourselves. But about this concert at Carnegie Hall, I have to tell you that I was, of course, completely, absolutely nervous before - the whole year before. I was nervous when I went to practice, with the rehearsal, and everything, selecting the piano... I had a choice between a Steinway from Germany and a Steinway from here and I eventually decided on the New York Steinway. It was harder to manage the sound, but in the end it was better.

Q: Was that because of the action?

A: The action. But I felt I could make my sound. I could work with my sound. Whereas, with the other...

Q: It sort of got away from you a bit?

A: Yes. Exactly. So even if I would be exhausted sooner, I felt that my strength as a pianist is my sound: The way I can connect my sound from my heart. Even if I could look more virtuosic playing the other one, because it was easier, I felt I'd be more warm, more musical playing the American Steinway. The last day before was a nervous breakdown, I spent the whole afternoon choosing, and when I saw the hall, standing alone on that stage looking out at the 2,800 seats, I said to myself, "how I'm going to do this?" Even if I've performed in big halls before, Carnegie Hall is Carnegie hall. If I don't do well, it's better if I move to another country [laughs]. All my reputation, all these things I've built in my life, would be... no? Then, the day of the concert... you know I live two blocks from Carnegie Hall? The concert was supposed to start at 7:30 p.m. and at 6:45 I was still home! I got the call from one of the people from the staff of Carnegie Hall: She was so nice, she said, "Rosa, are you coming?"" It's funny [laughs]. And I said, "Oh yes, I'm running now, I'm coming right now." And I said to myself, "Maybe she thought I got stage fright," I don't know. Then, when I arrived at the hall, when I was in the Maestro room, I always pray, no? And I've always said, "You have a choice," which is one of the biggest gifts that God gave us. Either you will make this concert one of the best of your life, or you'll ruin everything. A lot of this has to do with my disposition, with my happiness, with my feelings. How do I want it to be? What was my desire, my wish? But then, when I went downstairs and opened the stage door - it makes me cry to remember - I said, OK, the hall is going to be, I assumed, only 30 percent full.

Q: You didn't know how many tickets were sold?

A: No. They wanted to tell me, but I didn't want to hear, I didn't want to be sad in advance if there were very few people in the audience... sometimes I've gone to concerts and felt sorry for the artist when the attendance wasn't good. So I tried to picture to myself, if there are very few, I will do the same as if it's full. By the way, I forgot to tell you. Besides praying, one ritual I always follow is that I dedicate the concert to my Mommy and I put a rose on one of the seats as if she's there.

Q: That's very sweet.

A: I opened the door and they started clapping so much...

Q: Did that put you at ease?

A.: Yes, because even though I had determined to do my best, their welcome was so warm that it inspired me. And I said, "You know something, tonight I'm going to give you my heart."" And that's the way I walked to the piano. And I had an amazing experience which I've been having during the last two or three years, which I was embarrassed to talk about until recently. I've never spoken about it until two or three weeks after the concert, when I had lunch with Carroll Baker, the actress.

Q: I know that name.

A: Yes, she's very famous. She did Baby Doll. I met her at the National Arts Club. She's become one of my fans, now, so I felt it was all right to discuss what I'm about to tell you with her. Also, I was curious to know if she'd ever felt something similar, as she's a performer. What happened was that I felt I was watching myself at the same time as I was performing, and thinking, "Oh my God, this sounded so well, this music is so good... oh now you can breath more, you can wait more," like I was listening to another person.

Q: I wonder if that could have been partly related to the wonderful acoustics in Carnegie Hall, so that when you're playing on the stage the sound is simultaneously enveloping you. Does that make any sense?

A: Yes. But you know, I don't think it's only that because it happened so many times over the last two or three years in all sorts of locations.

Q: This reminds me of the so-called out of body experience.

A: Bueno. But, I didn't want to tell anybody because I thought they'd think I was crazy.

Q: Oh, that Rosa Antonelli, she's a little... [big laughs from both]

A: And then as the concert continued the experience intensified. Plus, when I saw the hall was full, I felt all this pride because of the pieces I was playing. Because one of the things I was concerned about... I mean, when I go to Carnegie Hall, I read the programs of previous performances. I'm always there, sometimes to rehearsals, and it's not often that you see a classical soloist playing an entire Latin program. But I needn't have worried, because when I played I could feel that all our hearts, mine and the audience's, were brought together by the music.

Q: I imagine you would have been less apprehensive if you were playing such a program in Latin America?

A: Yes, but it's rare in Carnegie Hall. And even in Argentina, they don't do it! But after Esperanza, when I saw the success it had, that most of the American people said, "When you play these pieces, I want to be there," I thought, "you know, maybe they need something else in Carnegie Hall." Still, I was conflicted, because even though people love this music, I didn't want to be pigeonholed: "She only plays this." However, I took courage from the knowledge that it was only in the last two years that I've concentrated on Latin music. My whole life up until then was devoted to the classical repertoire.

Q: When you think of it, why shouldn't Latin music be taken just as seriously, it's beautiful, it's well written? I suppose I'm thinking of the critics, because as you said, the general public is very receptive.

A: Yes, and I think they like to hear new things. They are very curious. Also, there's a big Latin population here, very big. For many people, Latin music is kind of exotic, kind of different, but at the same time familiar, because of the European element. All of these composers, which I will never be tired of saying, all of them studied in Europe as well as in Argentina. All of them. Piazzolla, for example, he studied here in New York, he studied in Europe, he studied in Argentina. Ginastera studied in America with Aaron Copland, and so on.

Q: Is there any Latin American classical music that doesn't have European influences? Perhaps some of Villa-Lobos's compositions, in which he incorporated or imitated native Indian themes, but even there he used European harmony.

A: And in popular music, the tango includes a mix of African, Italian, and Gypsy music. Even the bandoneon, which is so identified with tango, originated in Germany. But to go back to Carnegie Hall, what I was trying to say was that it was a whole experience. I will never forget it for the rest of my life. When we came back home the house was filled with flowers, hundreds of them. But before that, we had been to the party at Steinway. It was funny, because two of my friends, Norman Horowitz and Melvin Stecher [duo pianists], were there and when I arrived, Melvin walked over to the door and said, "Rosa, we were so nervous" - they've performed often at Carnegie Hall, so they knew what it was like - "we were in the first tier, we were freaking out and then when we saw you walking out onto the stage, you were so relaxed. You didn't have any nerves." It was such a happy time. It was so nice, because they were calling me for the last four or five months before and they would say, "How are you doing?" "Oh, fine, fine." "How are you doing?" So finally, what happened, I was so happy, I came back home and went to sleep. Suddenly I woke up in the middle of the night and looked at the watch, I didn't see the time, and I said to my husband, Robert, "Oh, my God, I have to get up to practice! [laughter] The concert is tomorrow." And then he said, "No. You already played it. It was yesterday."

Q: That's really funny.

A: But listen. And I said to him, "No, no, no. This was so beautiful, that was a dream." So he said, "A dream? Go to the living room and look at the flowers." You can't imagine for how many days this went on! Each time I saw the flowers I said, "Oh, this has really happened." I cried because I was so happy. Then the day after, "Oh my God, I have to get up to practice! The concert is tomorrow." "No, you really did it (Robert) Go to the living room."

Q: Was he worried about you? [laughter from both]

A: You know for how long this happened? At least 15 days. It shows that it was such happiness for me, such a strong, beautiful thing in my life, that I couldn't believe it was true. I couldn't believe I did so well. I didn't have mistakes, I didn't have nerves, because sometimes you don't have mistakes but you cannot connect with the performance. You say afterwards, "Oh, you know, I was so cautious I didn't have any mistakes..."

Q. But something is missing.

A: Yes. I prefer to make a mistake and have the other part.

Q: You don't want to be inhibited. You want to be free.

A: Yes. You can be perfect technically and people leave the hall without feeling anything. I always used to ask my teacher, "How do you know when a pianist was good?" I was curious to hear his opinion. He said, "If you go to a theater and after you leave you feel different than when you went in, it was a communication. If you leave in the same way you went, that means the active part wasn't there." So what I meant about happiness was that not only did I play well but I could show my feelings almost a 100 percent: I don't want to say a 100 percent, but almost. I was completely free...

Q: Will you play there again?

A: Oh, yes. I was very encouraged by the response from everybody at Carnegie Hall: The people from the box office, the ushers, everybody, when I went there after to other concerts, everybody was asking me, "When are you playing again, when are you playing again, when are you playing again?" which also was a beautiful thing for me. This is why it lasted 15 days, I kept thinking, "Oh no, that was a dream."

Q: It was too good. It was too beautiful.

A: Exactly. It was too beautiful it couldn't be true. Now I had to get up and practice. (laughs).

Q: Besides living the story you've just told me, did you listen to the performance right away? I know you had someone filming it.

A: Oh, bueno, they gave me the archive DVD.

Q: How soon after the concert was that?

A: I think one week after. But when I got the DVD - I sent my assistant to pick it up - I never could watch it, I would start crying. When I saw myself walking out to play the first part, I couldn't get past it. As soon as I heard the reception I had from the audience I started crying: I couldn't watch. You know when I watched it? October 20, 2012, one year after. And even then, I could only watch a few minutes, partly because, as I told you, I'm so hard on myself. I was once sitting on the beach in Brazil and heard a tape of someone playing the piano, very nicely, I thought. Then I found out it was me. I think that was the only time I had a completely satisfactory impression of my playing!

Q: Let's talk a bit about the CD. Would you like to start by saying something about the Piazzolla tangos?

A: All right. The first piece, La Ultima Grela, describes a woman from the cabarets in Argentina who had a very sad life, a very dark life...

Q: Like Edith Piaf.

A: Yes. The lyrics are the thoughts of someone who was in love with this woman, who saw her through this dark life, and in the end, she died. I was rehearsing a lot to see which pieces by Piazzolla I would add besides the two I played in Carnegie Hall, and these tangos [La Ultima Grela and Adios Nonino] touched me so much. Why? The music, compared with the other Piazzolla pieces, is not complicated. Piazzolla is usually very complicated for the fingering, the way the chords and the jumps have to be negotiated. It doesn't look hard but it is. But this is simple: It's so simple that it has the beauty of the simple. And I, when I was learning it, I pictured the dancers. I pictured only two dancers through the whole story and I felt I could make so many grades of touch and sound, because it starts with a repeated note - b,b,b,b,c,c,c,c - and I said, "Oh wow, are people going to like it? How can I make it interesting?" Then when I went to the studio recording, it was the first piece I played, because it's the easiest technically and I used it like a warm-up before the others. And the engineer and the people there, they loved the piece.

Q: As you know, there's much more to music than flashy technique.

A: Exactly. It's much more involved that that. And the other tango I chose, Adios Nonino: I have a special story about this tango, because I said "I want to hear how Piazzolla played it" because he played this song on a bandoneon. And then I heard it and I said, "What do I feel about this tango?" There was something I couldn't understand.

Q: You sensed something elusive.

A: Exactly. Because in Italian, Nono is grandfather. So Piazzolla called his father, Nonino, instead of Nono. He wrote this tango when he was on tour in Latin America. And they called him and they said, "Your father died." So he came back and he wrote this piece. But I sensed something that doesn't have to do with death.

Q: It's not necessarily sad, or at least not always.

A: Exactly. I said to myself - I didn't read it anyplace - I said to myself, "I know what it is, because I know how much he loved his father." Probably in these first 16 or 20 measures - I don't remember, it's like eight phrases - I think he's remembering when his father was alive, because the first part has plenty of life with a big rhythm... You see, going to record and interpret, I needed... for me to perform I need to understand the feelings completely. Now listen what happened after. I was sure that in these first measures he was saying, "Daddy, this is what we had when you were alive and now I'm talking about what it's like now that you are not here." Because the middle part is, ay, my God!

Q: More tragic?

A: It is really sad. I feel to cry when I'm playing it. But in the first part... I talked about this to a friend, saying, "You know, I hope I had the correct feeling because I don't feel the first part is sad. And yet he may be really sad." So I was investigating, investigating, and I asked a friend of mine in Argentina to help me in the research. She sent me an article she found, of course in Spanish, about Piazzolla. You know what I found? Many years ago, he wrote a tango called Nonino when the father was alive. The first part of the tango was the one he took for the final version. It means I was right! When I found that, it confirmed what I felt exactly... Robert, he took it, practically he copied it. In the original Nonino almost the whole tango is about those measures. Then I did something that also was a challenge for me, because at the end, the sad part is repeated four times, but I didn't want to make each time the same. Because when you are sad it's never the same and also in music I don't like to do the same measures the same way twice. I thought, "What would I really feel if I had this melody four times being really sad?" So I did it like when you are so sad that you are desperate and I ended, instead of soft, I ended with a great drama and a great feeling of saying, "This is what it is."

Q: How is it notated?

A: There are no dynamics indicated.

Q: So you felt free to play it the way you wanted. Would you ever ignore a composer's written dynamics?

A: Never.

Q: Because there are people who do, sometimes very effectively.

A: I never ignore them, especially after Beethoven... however, in the Piazzolla, the end is open, so he's giving the interpreter the freedom. When I played it at the Downtown Association two months ago I performed the same version that I did on the CD, ending as I told you, and people loved it. People loved it! The other two tangos are the two I played at Carnegie Hall, Our World and Imperial. I was initially given the opportunity to play Our World because Albino Gomez, who was the person who wrote the lyrics, heard me perform at Lincoln Center. He was a friend of Pizzolla's, and after he listened to me he told me that he had a piece that was never played on the piano and that he thought I was the one to do it. And it was this piece. Our World was based on a true story about Piazzolla, about how he fell in love with a person in the summertime: It was a summertime love. It was ending, it was very short, and the song describes all the happiness they had and all the sadness. Very, very sad piece. All the sadness they had when they had to separate, it was over, no?

Q: Had you met Albino Gomez before?

A: No. He came to my concert with Georgina Ginastera [the composer's daughter] and this is the way I met both of them: I didn't know them in Argentina, never.

Q: And now she travels around the world to hear you.

A: To hear me, yes. She wrote this beautiful poetry about my interpretation of her father's music. Imperial, the other Piazzolla tango dates from when he was in France. He was fascinated by all the castles, especially Versailles, and he tried to capture some of their magnificent architecture in his music. France was also important to him because it was there that he studied with Nadia Boulanger. She was the one who sensed that the tango was his metier. He wrote everything, symphonies, concertos, but she told him that she felt he had a special talent for the tango.

Q: Looking at photographs of her, her severe expression might lead you to think that she wouldn't appreciate "light music." That somebody so thoroughly steeped in classicism and counterpoint wouldn't appreciate his talent for the tango.

A: Yes. But as we all know, she was right.

Q: How many tangos do you think Piazzolla wrote in his lifetime?

A: I don't know, but there were many. Sometimes I feel sad because when he was alive nobody gave him the credit he deserved. But now it's growing and growing and growing. In my first interview, I said that at first I didn't want to play the tangos, I rejected them and I didn't know why. But after this friend in Argentina forced me to go to see the movie, The History of Tango, I realized that I didn't want to face my own melancholy. Because what the tango is, it's the music and dance of people from Europe who moved to Argentina and found they were alone, they didn't have family, they had to start everything all over, even if they had money before. They may have had wonderful professions when they were home. My grandfather was a railway engineer in Italy. When he went to Argentina, he went to work in ice factories and he lost all his molars because of the cold. Until he slowly, slowly, slowly built a life... he was one of the best engineers, and he finally found his way. And being that all my family were from Italy, when I finally faced what I felt, I could play the tangos with all my heart.

Q: How did you react to tango before you came to this realization? Would you leave the room?

A: Not leave the room, but I would feel, "It's not for me."

Q: Did you think it was low class?

A: Yes.

Q: I'm a serious musician! (laughing)

A: Yes, you are reading my feelings exactly. Now, I'm proud of playing it. I said, "How could I be denying myself all those years? No?" Now I love to do it, I feel a special connection with the tangos, and I feel proud that Harris Goldsmith wrote in New York Concert Review that he didn't appreciate Piazzolla until he came to my Carnegie hall concert.

Q: Do you feel a special identification with him?

A: Yes. With Piazzolla I understand right away what he tries. It's very important, for me, it's natural.

Q: Do you think it's because he was Argentinean?

A: No. It's something else, because I know other Argentinean pianists who try to play Piazzolla and they say to me, I don't understand that much. Because when you see the music you don't have that much besides the notes. There are not so many indications. And sometimes you have to add notes from the chord because they originally come from the bandoneon, they come from the orchestra. Actually, I added a lot of things in the piano version.

Q: Did you write down your additions?

A: Yes, I wrote them down. If you see, for example, the music for Our World, one day I'm going to show you how it was originally. And then, how much I added...

Q: So you didn't feel inhibited to do that?

A: No, because he wrote many times what was really a reduction from orchestra or bandoneon or from his quintet, so it's not breaking faith with him to suggest alternatives.

Q: Have you ever done any composition?

A: Yes, I like it very much. When I was 15 years old I was happy composing...

Q: Why did you stop?

A: Because it was a whole other job and I didn't have time. I studied composition at the conservatory and then I used all the knowledge I achieved there to apply to my interpretation.

Q: When you did compose did you write in a Latin style?

A: In a classical style but at the same time romantic. I wrote a lot. But then I said, this is no good, I love it, but I love more to interpret and then I stopped. But now I realize that I might have this kind of natural approach with Piazzolla because I wouldn't even remember all the things I added: chords, extra notes, like in the left hand... because sometimes the scores are so raw. For La Ultima Grela, which is so simple, I didn't need to add that much. But in the others I added a lot.

Q: That's a question of your personal taste.

A: Yes. But obviously, what I'm proud of is that my personal taste made Harris Goldsmith understand Piazzolla.

Q: You play Villa-Lobos on your CD: have you always liked Brazilian music?

A: I can tell you that I fell in love with Brazilian music when I was living in Teresopolis, in the mountains. I went there to study when I won a scholarship and all the time I was there I was hearing Brazilian music. Not only from my colleagues but from the street. I had this great, great teacher there, who I always mention in my biography, Daisy de Luca, who studied with Magda Tagliaferro. She's living in Florida now. I contacted her, finally, last year. She always said to me, you have a special talent for the stage. She wanted to bring me here, she was a teacher at Indiana University. She taught there for many, many years and when I met her in Brazil, she said, I want to get a scholarship for you. I said I didn't want to come because I didn't speak English. She said it doesn't matter...

Q: You speak music.

A: Yes. Sometimes I regret I didn't accept it. But you know, life is what it is. And I ended up here anyway. Back then she introduced me to a lot of Brazilian composers and I fell in love with Villa-Lobos. Around that time I got the music for his Poema Singelo and Valsa Da Dor, but I didn't play them for a long time even though I loved them because I was playing other Brazilian pieces, Villa-Lobos pieces. For some reason I kept those two pieces to myself. It was only when I appeared at Weill Recital Hall on my arrival in New York that I finally played one. I am in love with Valsa Da Dor. It's amazing how he managed the form of the piece, the way it alternates sorrow and drama. I have a copy of the original manuscript from the Museum in Sao Paulo and when I studied it I felt that each of the three times the sorrow appears should be played differently. And then I found in a small letter where Villa-Lobos himself said that the first part should be a little bit faster, the second part Moderato, and in the third part, the sorrow is Lento. This is why, when I hear other pianist's interpretations, their performances are often faster than mine: They do all the sorrowful parts at the same speed while mine is longer because I respect the composer's wishes.

Q: The other Villa-Lobos piece, Poema Singelo, has some very lively parts and it seems to require a lot of dexterity.

A: Yes. A lot of dexterity, there's a lot of intricate chromaticism. What I have found in his pieces is that you have to take your time to make the connection between the different parts: They are so different in each piece of Villa-Lobos. His mood can change abruptly. As an interpreter I want to make everything clear to the audience and in this music I don't have the luxury of saying "here's the first movement, now here's the second," and so on. Nazareth is different in that I don't have to struggle to integrate the various parts of each composition. His tangos are very famous. The rhythms in most of them are the same but it's very alive. And I love this Odeon piece.

Q: Is it named for the theater?

A: Yes. He played there himself. It's beautiful. It has three parts. One is imitating the guitar, the second is more melancholic, and the last one is like a tango tango - the epitome of a tango. My audiences really, really like this piece. I don't like it when pianists play it fast straight through because I think it has to so much beauty, there are so many things you can do there, and I try to do that. The same experience I have with - I'm going to Spain now - La Maja et el ruisenor. I love that piece. And I feel why Granados identified himself with Goyescas. Because he felt that he could recreate in all these pieces the ultimate romanticism. A treasured memory of mine is of hearing Alicia de la Rocha playing La Maja.

Q: Was she the first person you heard playing this piece?

A: No, but I heard her playing it in Spain when I went to the seminar, and I fell in love with it.

Q: It's a wonderful piece. As a matter of fact, I think I first heard it on a piano roll that Granados himself made.

A: Yes, I'm very sure there was one. When I heard it, I said, this is the piece I identify my romanticism with.

Q: It's a perfect piece, a lovely piece.

A: The dialogue between the nightingale and the woman.

Q: I haven't heard any performance but yours recently, but I have a feeling you made more out of the introduction than some other pianists. I don't know if I'm right, but it seems you play it slower, with a deeper tone.

A: No, no, no. You are so sensitive. It's true, I do it as you say, because for me that part is a dialogue, it's an introduction to what comes later. Many pianists play that part faster but I wanted to give to each sound a depth... You know, sometimes I think people are going to say that my performances are longer than in other interpretations, but it's not because I cannot do it technically, it's because I found other layers of expression. The same happened to me with the Allegro Concierto [Granados], which is of course technically very difficult, but I try not to rush too much. When we were recording it - this is very funny - I was with the engineer and after listening to this so much myself I was having a hard time deciding which take to choose - this is the worst part, to choose, it's very difficult - then I said, oh, this is faster, maybe this is... but he said, Rosa, I like the other, I understand it more. He was just the engineer but that helped me so much.

Q: You trusted his opinion?

A: Oh, yes, completely, because he's a great engineer, great musician. And then when I listened to the one I chose, I was happy, because in the middle part the lyrical part, why I should rush there?

Q: I think you'll appreciate this anecdote as recounted by Harold Schonberg in his book The Great Pianists: "Recalling Clara Schumann, Adelina de Lara wrote that if a student tried 'to rattle through any rapid figuration with mere empty virtuosity,' Clara would throw up her hands in despair. 'Keine passage!' she would cry. 'Why hurry over beautiful things? Why not linger and enjoy them?'"

A:[laughs] You see! Yes. I really, really love the Allegro. I never get tired of performing it, I feel very comfortable. I feel that the romanticism at its heart has to be shown. You have to show the romanticism in the middle, no? Even if he wrote it for a competition, to be the most difficult piece, he never lost the romanticism and the beautiful... When I'm playing the piece, I don't feel I'm playing just a technical exercise.

Q: Well that's the challenge in playing an etude, isn't it? You want to make music, which is not always easy because some of them are so hard. [both laugh]

A: And now I'd like to say a few words about the other composer on the CD, Albeniz, whom of course I love. There are two pieces from his Suite Espanola, "Cadiz" and "Granada." "Granada" reminds me of my year living in Spain after I got the Rosa Salvatore award: All my feelings from Spain come back to me, the happiness of the people, their enjoyment of life, the romanticism... I love "Granada." I love "Cadiz" also but I'm especially connected with "Granada" because it's such a serenade. It's like... it's a special piece you would play to show your feelings to somebody else. Imitating the guitar, the flamenco... This is why Remembranza is not only about Carnegie Hall; it's because Carnegie Hall made me come back to the places I love to be, like when I was in Brazil, or when I was in Spain... And they were those places where I was really, really happy. Like when I was in Brazil and the other students went to Rio de Janeiro on the weekend and I kept practicing for myself for two days, Saturday and Sunday, all the pianos for me, no? And when I was in Spain and it was such a wonderful experience, meeting Alicia de la Rocha, meeting Daisy de Luca in Brazil, getting all her experiences from Magda Tagliafero, all of this. And then, at the end of the CD I play L'Automne Waltz because I believe that a recital should be like a flower: it's the sum of its petals, and in this case, L'Automne Waltz completes the design. I've had it for a long time in my music collection, and I said, "One day I'm going to learn it." Then I found out that in New York nobody had played it and it had only been recorded once. And of course I love waltzes. I love this piece. There's so much you can do to recreate - in each repetition you can recreate a new thing. No? And at the end the coda gathers all the different waltzes [the piece is composed in sections, each with its own waltz]. They come together like a recapitulation of the whole waltz. The coda is itself marvelous. It's not a very, very famous piece, but it was the right one for the occasion. And when I hear it, I remember what Harris Goldsmith wrote, that I played all those pieces at Carnegie Hall with amore.

Q: Well, Rosa, I think it's true that everything on Remembranza is also played con amore. So thank you for a most pleasant conversation, and best of luck with your future projects.

A: Thank you so much, Robert. Ciao.