Cinque Danze sulle Crete

I am delighted to include in this series – so far almost totally made up of pieces written for me – this piece for guitar and piano composed by Giovanni Scapecchi and dedicated to the duo made up of my former student Raffaello Ravasio, who edited the fingering of the guitar part, and of Samuele Amidei. I am also particularly delighted because this piece was commissioned by the Duo Ravasio-Amidei as part of their full project in homage to Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco on the fiftieth anniversary of his death.

In this composition, there are many references to the figure and work of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. First of all the duo guitar-piano is the same as in Fantasia Op. 145 by Castelnuovo-Tedesco (written for Andrés Segovia and Paquita Madrigueira), the most famous piece of the twentieth century composed for this formation. The piece by Giovanni Scapecchi, in the form of a Suite of dances, refers explicitly to the one by the famous dedicatee by means of some references which appear in the Sarabanda and in the Giga.

The Crete mentioned in the title are, of course, the famous Senese clays which, with their colours and shapes, make up a remarkable part of the Tuscan landscape. Furthermore, profound meanings are attributed by Giovanni Scapecchi to the earth which makes up the clays (like Castelnuovo-Tedesco, he is a native of Tuscany, where he still lives).

The Composer recalls first of all that the book of Genesis tells us that the first man was taken from the earth (there is therefore this primordial connection between man and earth). Moreover, the “historic” man, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, honoured here, maintained a deep relationship with his homeland – despite the dramatic separation due to the enforced exile to the USA, which took place in 1939 following the racial laws. Stylistically, I then found a further link between this piece and its dedicatee – who was influenced in his early works by musical Impressionism – in a certain “French” atmosphere running through the Suite.
(Piero Bonaguri)