Folk & Ba-Rock Cello
Giovanni Sollima is an internationally renowned cellist and one of the most frequently performed Italian composers in the world today.
His original BaRock Cello project gave new readings to Rock pieces in the intimate setting of a solo performance, matching these to little-known 17th- and 18th-century Italian composers.
These improbable contrasts and surprising connections are now extended further back to their musical roots in Folk & Ba-Rock Cello.
In this Sollima takes up the tonal colours and rhythmic grooves of archaic songs from a diversity of countries and blends the common features shared by all music, whether it is globally iconic, nationally popular, or long lost amidst the dusty manuscripts of time.
Naxos catalogue
REVIEWS
AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE | January 10, 2025
This strange program contains a variety of pieces, all played here by cello alone. It begins, middles, and ends with traditional pieces, ‘Krunk’ from Soghomon Gavorki Soghomonyan’s Armenia, ‘Monsuziam’ from Trentino, and ‘Santo Paulo’ from Salento—all arranged by our cellist. Working our way towards the present, we meet Francesco Corbette (1615–81) in ‘Caprice de Chaconne’, Giovanni Battista degli Antonii (1636–98) with a ‘Ricercata’ from his Opus 1 collection (1687), Giulio de Ruvo (c 1700) with ‘Romanella, Ciaccona, and Tarantella’. Giuseppe Clemente Dall’Abaco (1710–1805) submits his Capriccio No. 1. Working our way towards the present, we meet Ignacio Cevantes (1847–1905) with ‘Illusiones perdidas’, Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) with ‘Hallelujah’; Jimi Hendrix (1942–70) depicting an ‘Angel’; Sollima himself in a ‘Fandango’ (after Boccherini) and later, a considerable 7-minute ‘Lamentatio’, and also couple of unidentified flying objects depicted as by Nirvana, ‘About a Girl’, and by Slayer, ‘Raining Blood’. The notes are in Italian and English, with photographs of So – llima and his cello, one of which shows him playing his cello in a canoe! He has come our way before, both as cellist and composer. He plays with great polish and accuracy and composes with warmth and wisdom.
David W Moore