Can one be successful, in some ways ‘mainstream’, and still enjoy unconditional appreciation from critics and colleagues? Yes, if one’s name is Stefano Bollani, who is expected to be the protagonist in February and March of a new leg of his solo tour around Italy.

by Luca Testoni

Tour starts on February 6th at Lugano’s LAC (where he will perform with the United Soloist Orchestra) and it ends on March 31st at Bari’s Teatro Petruzzelli Bari.

In between, Bollani will perform on February 17th at Trieste’s Teatro Politeama Rossetti  (conducting the Bollani All Stars formation), on the 18th at Vicenza’s Teatro Comunale, on the 19th at Bologna’s Auditorium Manzoni and on February 28th at Udine’s Teatro Giovanni da Udine.

In March, he will play on the 7th at La Spezia’s Teatro Civico, on the 9th (with his wife Valentina Cenni) at Moncalieri’s Teatro Fonderie Limone, on March 13th with Iliro Rantala at Sassuolo’s Teatro Carani, on the 14th at Sacile’s Fazioli Concert Hall (once again paired with Rantala), on the 20th at Alba’s Teatro Sociale, on the 21st at Camogli’s Teatro Sociale, on the 22nd at Florence’s Teatro del Maggio and on the 29th at Catanzaro’s Teatro Politeama.

On stage with Bollani is the inseparable (they say that, don’t they?) piano, an instrument which the 51-year-old musician has always had an intimate, almost physical relationship with. As if it were an appendage of his body.

‘I’ve always had a percussive relationship with all instruments. And if you think about it, even the piano is a percussive instrument. If struck well, the string produces something so harmonious. And what about its 88 keys? A godsend, full of infinite possibilities,’ said the good Stefano recently.

Born in Milan, then lived in Alba and Florence, where he attended the Conservatory, he has now set up home in Rome, but his life is ‘always on the move’. His first concerts? ‘I started playing in front of an audience when I was 15’.

A jazz musician of the first magnitude, he is also a great performer (live, he never fails to do imitations and sketches) and an equally skilful and highly enjoyable popularizer-entertainer.

What we like about Bollani is that he is polyedric. He loves jazz above all, but also likes characters that are ‘heretical’ in their own way, in classical music (Maurice Ravel and Sergej Prokofiev) as in rock (Frank Zappa); Brazilian music and the songs of Billie Joel, Steve Wonder and the Beatles, ‘who draw you an emotional world in just three and a half minutes of music’. When you go and see him, his setlist always amazes you. It really does. Because the important thing is to improvise. His main thing. His way of conceiving music. As if he were a craftsman, he takes apart and reassembles pieces of compositions. His own and not his own. Even at the explicit request of the audience in the hall.

Info e Biglietti: https://ponderosa.it/artist/stefano-bollani/

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