Iiro Rantala takes us through a kaleidoscope of different sound worlds, bringing a virtuoso sense of flow, melodic richness, drama and wide-screen technicolor emotion: "Veneziana" is an enlivening and highly distinctive portrait of a city. One might call it programme music, but it is of a kind that only Iiro Rantala can write...where the listener, as in the winding streets of Venice, will find a new surprise behind every musical corner.
“When I seek another word for ‘music’, I never find any other word than ‘Venice’.” Friedrich NietzscheThe Italian city built in the water, a metropolis of art and music, a place of myths and yearnings, where renowned artists have created amazing work: Venice. How could its beauty and mystery, its architecture and its centuries of art history not be an abiding inspiration? First and foremost among those who left their musical mark on the city was Venetian-born Antonio Vivaldi, but Gustav Mahler’s connection also runs deep: ever since Luchino Visconti's film of Thomas Mann's “Death in Venice”, the Adagietto from his Fifth Symphony has tended to be the first piece of music which comes to people’s minds when they think about Venice. For 500 years, the crème de la crème of the European music world played and composed here. Venice was where...
line upIiro Rantala / piano & conductor
Mitglieder der Berliner Philharmoniker:
Marlene Ito , Eva Tomasi / violin
Martin Stegner / viola
Dávid Adorján / cello
Esko Laine / double bass
Jelka Weber / flute
Sofia Zamora Meseguer / oboe
Matic Kuder / clarinet
Selim Aykal / bassoon
Johannes Lamotke / horn
Recorded by Thomas Schöttl live at Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic, Großer Saal, 01.02.2023
Mixed and mastered by Klaus Scheuermann
Produced by the artist
Curated by Siggi Loch
Cover art (detail) by Gert & Uwe Tobias
