America

NativeDSD Senior Reviewer

If you enjoy some seriously great pianism, here it is! I love the Gershwin pieces!

Bill Dodd, NativeDSD Senior Reviewer

France Musique – Album of the Day

Between popular and scholarly music, this album brings together composers who have always had a complex with symphonic and classical music.

He is a musician who plays both the bandoneon and the piano, he composes and improvises. He was born in Peru and lives in Spain. He has the culture of Latin America in his blood – and it is this music that he interprets with charm.

Claudio Constantini is not a pianist like the others. He made an album of Tango Jazz on the bandoneon and then recorded the complete preludes of Debussy.

There is a scent of freedom in Claudio Constantini’s playing. We will especially remember the works of Piazzolla which are played here on the piano but which come from the Bandoneon.

Between popular and learned music, this album brings together composers who have always had a complex with symphonic and classical music. And yet, Gershwin and Piazzolla found a style that is unlike anyone; singular and poetic.

Emilie Munera and Rodolphe Bruneau-Boulmier - Source

Music Chronicler

America features pianist, bandoneonist, and composer Claudio Constantini, a passionate musician with great expressive force in his musical interpretations.

In this album, you will enjoy lively and lively interpretations of music by a group of composers linked to America and its rhythms and musical styles. The album provides a wide range of musical textures and great sonic contrasts.

The Peruvian pianist creates an orchestral vision of the piano in its sound and musicality, He has an absolute technical mastery of the keyboard that allows it to transmit all its musical essence with a wide sound and ample sound. Clear and very precise articulation to create great expressive contrasts.

The album also features a score written by Claudio Constatntini titled “Summertime Variations”. These are variations of George Gershwin’s famous aria “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess. It features an interesting mix of warm and varied sounds.

This is an album with excellent sound quality and very natural audio.

Ofelia Roca - Source

Beckmesser

America features Peruvian pianist, bandoneonist and composer Claudio Constantini. The album is focused on American music from north and south: Gershwin and Piazzolla.

Both had parallel lives, with study in Paris and then development of their own personalities. Four of his best-known works are found here with a clean, precise and contrast-filled interpretation.

Gonzalo Alonso - Source

Digital Music Lover

Pianist Claudio Constantini’s album América is a mature and thoughtful work that perfectly shows the result of a job well done. It is the effort of a lifetime dedicated to music and a dream fulfilled.

Constantini assures that in this album a very important part of his life, of his experiences and of his restless personality is captured. These experiences have led him to discover sounds, cultures, and to travel through time and space. On the piano keys, he carefully studies each sound to seek to optimize the result without letting the smallest detail escape.

The pianist surprises us with a work full of sound amalgams. This is a musicological study that links two great artists: Gershwin, who considered jazz as the popular American music; and Astor Piazzola, who created a different language in tango, taking it away from the hustle and bustle of the streets and adapting it to chamber music.

From Gershwin the album highlights Rhapsody in Blue, the first work in which jazz turns into the pentagram with classic forms. It is a composition that managed to have in itself the aroma of the American jazz style and the magnitude of the European symphonic tradition. It is a piece composed for orchestra, although its most solid foundations start from the piano, so it can be perfectly adapted to be played on the keyboard.

Of Piazzola, the Four Seasons of Buenos Aires stand out. Nuances of Baroque and tango are perceived. We can notice the changes that the composer made in tonality and modality and the rhythmic variations that made it a true work of art.

From Constantini himself, we find Summertime Variations, a delight inspired by the theme with the same name of George Gershwin.

In short, América is an album with which we travel the American continent from north to south listening to the best sounds from each place. They are played by a great piano and composition teacher, Claudio Constantini, who shows us that you can love different styles and that by combining them harmonic jewels like those found in this recording are obtained, with sublime interpretations.

Ana R. Colmenarejo - Source