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QUESTION: What do the following people have in common? German sculptor and painter Alexander Polzin, Austrian pianist Alfred Brendel, American stage director Peter Sellars, Canadian architect Frank Gehry, British cellist Steven Isserlis, Turkish mathematician Betül Tanbay, Russian film director Aleksandr Sokurov, Vancouver Recital Series director Leila Getz, Italian neuro scientist Alice Mado Proverbio, Lebanese writer Dominique Eddé, British mathematician Marcus du Sautoy, German choreographer Sasha Waltz, British composer George Benjamin and young Italian pianist Filippo Gorini (a 2020 BBT award-winner).

ANSWER: A passion for the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and a profound appreciation of his last unfinished masterpiece, The Art of Fugue. So much so, that all of them accepted Gorini’s invitation to meet with him and discuss in depth their love of Bach, each prompted by one of the counterpoints in this legendary and enigmatic work as the starting point for their conversation.

The result is Ricercare sull’arte della Fuga, a series of 14 half-hour documentary films, presented by Unitel, which launches 21 March 2024 for the first time on TV by RAI Cultura, part of the Italian national broadcasting network, on Rai5 (Channel 23) and also available on the Raiplay website and app. It begins with an introduction by Gorini outlining the history, structure and meaning of The Art of Fugue and concludes with his performance of the whole work. The weekly programmes will be broadcast every Thursday evening until 20 June 2024.

More than a decade ago (when he was 18) Filippo Gorini began thinking about a project to explore The Art of Fugue – not only to find personal pathways towards understanding and knowing the work more deeply, but also to share his discoveries in a wide variety of ways – live, digital and virtual – with the largest possible audience. Global lockdown and his 2020 BBT Award provided him with the unexpected opportunity to research and prepare this epic quest.

The project launched in Autumn 2020 with a haunting recital filmed without audience in Turin’s extraordinary Mole Antonelliana* building and a critically acclaimed recital disc on Alpha Classics. The Art of Fugue is a continuing thread in his programmes and tours, with more than 30 live recitals throughout the world to date.

This documentary film series marks another major phase of the exploration. Gorini firmly believes that historic masterpieces such as this are vitally connected to contemporary life and culture and deserve constant exploration; “In this project all the forces that have meant most in my life come together organically, from my love of music – especially counterpoint forms – to my passions for art, architecture, mathematics and science.”

Remarkably ambitious in scope, this part of the project has seen Gorini travelling far and wide, from Istanbul to Los Angeles, and welcomed into the homes, studios and retreats of some of the world’s most eminent cultural commentators and practitioners in the worlds of art and science. Touchstone topics of their conversations about The Art of Fugue include time, memory, infinity, rituals, symmetry, nature, life and death, and reveal the importance of Bach’s music in their careers, creativity and personal discoveries. https://www.theartoffugueexplored.com/documentary-1

Filippo Gorini comments; “More and more ideas are taking shape involving film and visual arts, and just as The Art of Fugue is unfinished, so it seems like my work on it will only get more intensive and dedicated. There is nothing more I could welcome in my artistic life than to make such an eternal masterpiece its centre for many years, and my hope is I can bring this seemingly difficult work close to the heart of whoever will choose to listen to me.”

Bach: The Art of Fugue Explored is entirely curated by Filippo Gorini, organised in consultation with Keynote Artist Management and Ute Fesquet and supported by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust and Deutsche Telekom.

The interviews are conducted in English, apart from Alice Mado Proverbio (Italian) and Aleksandr Sokurov (Russian), with Italian subtitles.

* Italy’s National Museum of Cinema

FILIPPO GORINI piano

• Born 1995 into a family of nuclear physicists.
• Awards and prizes include Italy’s most prestigious musical acccolade ‘Premio Abbiati’ in 2022, Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award 2020, Telekom-Beethoven Competition (First and Audience prizes) 2015, Neuhaus Competition Moscow 2013 (First prize)“Una Vita per la Musica – Giovani” of La Fenice Theatre, Young Euro Classic Award and BeethovenRing of Bonn. Most recently he received the Franco Buitoni Award in recognition of his Sonata for 7 Cities initiative, a radical reorganisation of his professional life to allow month-long residencies in cities around the world that encompass performance, education, outreach and philanthropy https://www.sonatafor7cities.com
• Concert appearances include Wigmore Hall London, Tonhalle Zurich, Meany Hall Seattle, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Berlin Konzerthaus, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Munich Herkulessaal, Società del Quartetto di Milano, Louis Vuitton Foundation Paris.
• Orchestras he has recently guested with include Santa Cecilia Orchestra Rome, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchester, Verdi Orchestra Milan, Flanders Symphony Orchestra, Gyeonggi Philharmonic Seoul, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra and Ópera Nacional de Chile. In 2023-24, he will debut in Teatro alla Scala di Milano, Carnegie Hall New York, at Cal Performances Berkeley, and with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
• Festival appearances include Al Bustan Festival Lebanon, Cliburn Beethoven Festival, Naples Associazione Scarlatti, Accademia Filharmonica Romana, Ravello Festival, Ravenna Festival and Festival Bach Montreal, as well as a chamber music tour in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington DC for the Marlboro Music Festival.
• Chamber music collaborators include Steven Isserlis/Prussia Cove and Chamber Music Connects the World in Kronberg and with such musicians as Marc Bouchkov, Itamar Zorman, Pablo Ferrandez, Brannon Cho and Erica Piccotti.
• Recordings on Alpha Classics of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations (winner of Diapason d’Or Award), Beethoven’s Op. 106 & Op. 111 and Bach’s The Art of Fugue, all critically acclaimed.
• Contemporary music also features prominently in his repertoire including performances of works by Stockhausen, Kurtág, Lachenmann, Gervasoni and Lanza. His main passions are the works of Bach, Beethoven and Schubert.
• Teaching. Has taught masterclasses at Liechtenstein Musikakademie, University of British Columbia, Royal Welsh College of Music and the conservatories in Bergamo and Siena.
• Studies with Maria Grazia Bellocchio and Pavel Gililov and is mentored by Alfred Brendel.
• Graduated from scientific high school with a thesis on Godel’s Incompleteness Theorems, then with honours in piano studies from the Donizetti Conservatory in Bergamo, followed by postgraduate course at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg.

The critics: Bach: The Art of Fugue – Filippo Gorini on Alpha Classics (released September 2021)

All in all I have to declare that this is one of, if not the, most expressive recordings of this work available.

Music Web International

Bach is what you hear, not Gorini. This is indicative of an artistic maturity and skill which are nothing short of astonishing.

WDR3 TonArt

…a truly enlightening and deeply moving performance.

CD Hotlist (US)

…a reading that does not exhibit anything dramatic but knows how to recall enchantment even from the depths of uncertainty.

Corriere della Serra

This beautiful album is a landmark in the Bach discography. Gorini brings archaic into our time, confidently, multilayered, uninhibitedly natural, with the voice of one who transposes cosmic loneliness into lucid experience … Stupendous!

Online Merker

More reviews here: www.bbtrust.com/artist/filippo-gorini