In the summer of 2020, the summer of Covid I don’t even have a concert scheduled. I adapted to the new ways improvising some Facebook live shows like many of my fellow musicians, but I miss the chance to play live and share the emotion of the sounds.
However, anyone who knows me knows: I always try to transform “negative” events into something “new” and capable of surprising.
Already in 2013, in full economic crisis, I had loaded my grand piano on a truck, traveling all over Italy with the “Piano piano on the road” tour and playing for people in incredible places traveling through Italy from Friuli Venezia Giulia to Calabria and Sicily. This time the challenge is even more difficult, but the solution came to me by “playing” with my mini plan: in Sardinia for a short vacation, one morning I decided to wake up at dawn and go to seashore with my video camera and my miniature piano, an instrument that can be mistaken for a toy but which actually has fascinating sounds, especially if they blend with those of the natural environment of the sea, cicadas, some little bird in the distance …
I posted this short video on my facebook page and you immediately overwhelmed me with “likes” and messages full of affection and interest in this way of sharing my music.

mini concerto sui sassi rossi  di Salinedda

mini concerto nei pressi dello stagno di Salinedda    

So I came up with the idea of giving a shape to this project and of creating Mini concerts on the Mini piano in suggestive places and natural oases, blending compositions and improvisations inspired by the place with the sounds of Nature.
There is a region that attracts me and that every time I cross it gives me special emotions: it is Friuli Venezia Giulia. So I decided: I will leave with my mini piano, my little video camera and a tripod and play along the waterways that flow through this fascinating region.
The first stop will be in Topolò, where on September 12 I will do a short performance near the Mill. Then, in the following days I will let myself be shown the way by instinct, but also by the locals. I am selecting an itinerary that will take me to the Pozze Smeraldine, along the Arzino river, to the Borgo di Movada …
Finally I will collect the material and I will tell you about my summer of covid, the one in which I will not have been able to play for people, but alone in front of a nature that is always wonderful..

Music is my life and there is no greater happiness than sharing it. For me, a concert serves this purpose: to multiply happiness. And I think that at a time like this, when many people are scared, sad, anxious for an uncertain future, it would be important to give as much space as possible to concerts and in general to art. Music is not something superfluous. On the contrary, it is a precious gift capable of restoring joy and hope even in the darkest situations. I sincerely hope to be able to return to playing for people and between people soon. Being deprived of this possibility is difficult to sustain even for those who, like me, have a cheerful and playful character.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Italian.

My interest has always been about the essence of sound, understood as color and tonal experimentation. This time I propose to you a trip in the blue, always my color. I like to think of it as a stellar journey during which the disk (a 33 rpm) is tinged with the color of the sky.

It is not for fashion nor nostalgia if I decided to print this work on vinyl. The deep reason lies in the desire to go more and more deeply into the search for this sonic essence, this “pure” color.

I bring you back in time: in 1948 in America the 33 rpm is officially introduced as an evolution of the previous 78 rpm disc. As its shellac ancestor is a round plate on which the recording is coded in an analogical way. However, the best quality of vinyl (PVC) compared to shellac has made it possible to reduce the thickness of the grooves, decrease the pitch of the spiral and consequently lower the rotation speed from 78 to 33 revolutions per minute. The sound is read by means of a pin, in diamond or other synthetic material, placed on the engraved groove. The rotation of the disc causes the needle to generate vibrations resulting from the irregularity of the groove and the sound reproduced produces a series of imperfections that make music more “natural” and “hot” compared to modern digital systems, certainly more precise but also more “cold”.

But back to today: to 2019. Now the 33 rpm records are almost always recorded digitally and then printed on vinyl. A sort of compromise between new technologies and romanticism that can certainly guarantee an excellent result of sound “beauty” but also of executive precision.

But for this new musical journey I wanted to be “romantic” to the end. No compromise in this new adventure. The recording took place entirely in direct mode, on analog tape and without noise reducers. Not even a cut to remove imperfections or add the best parts.
The disc consists of only two tracks: one on the A side (17’58 “) and the other on the B side (21’32”). Stylistically I do not know what to say: as I like it there are no rules.
Some parts are written, others improvised, others, perhaps, only dreamed.
At this point I can finally reveal the solution to the riddle, jokingly launched in one of the stories on instagram, and tell you that the vinyl is produced by Guido Laudani, cardiologist, but also a photographer and art lover.

You cen reserve your copy on bandcamp: https://alessandracelletti.bandcamp.com/album/cellettiblue

#alessandracellettiblue

(colored vinyl – 180 gr. – limited edition 500 numbered copies)
Recorded live on the Studer A807 (1/4 “) analogue recorder without noise reducers, using Focusrite Red1 preamps and Neumann and Gefell microphones.
Bechstein piano B228

Francisco Goya: Il sonno della ragione genera mostri

In 2015, Massimo Martella contacted me to create the soundtrack of “My Duce I write you” a documentary film that tells one of the crucial periods of Italy through an unpublished view: hundreds of thousands of letters
written by the Italians to Benito Mussolini. During the twenty years, Italians of all ages, sex and social backgrounds take the pen to write to the duce. They are accounts and peasants, students, nuns, prostitutes, writers and illiterates, workers and soldiers at the front. Many write to ask for financial aid, some to denounce wrongs or illegality, but most want only to communicate to Mussolini the faith in his person, with a devotion that sometimes leads to adoration.
An exalted correspondence of hundreds of thousands of letters, selected, interpreted by four actors (and accompanied by the testimony of an exceptional sender, Andrea Camilleri), which is worth an extraordinary insight into life in the twenty years. These letters tell the story, the hopes, the pains of those who wrote them; and show how he was born, he grew up and then broke that relationship of affection without intermediaries that Mussolini, thanks also to the pervasive use of propaganda, was able to create with the Italians.
For me it was very interesting to give a sound to this piece of history, to these feelings … and now I decided to make available to all of you the songs I had composed (almost all on the piano) for the soundtrack of this interesting work . In order to avoid misunderstandings on my political vision, profoundly anti-fascist, and wishing that every person can always maintain his autonomy of thought and his essence of being “free” I have included them on spotify with the title “Sleep of Reason”:

We are now in full autumn and for this reason, in this season that I adore, I promise you surprises and beautiful things, music and colors ….

I would like to start by telling you something about Antea … 

Antea was a young Roman courtesan portrayed in a beautiful painting by Parmigianino. The “French” dress, with a tunic made of precious fabrics, interwoven with gold, and puffed sleeves on the shoulders, which become more adherent along the arm. The face framed by the hair gathered in an elaborate hairstyle with a diadem and two precious earrings. Intense gaze ….

This year Antea has become the protagonist of the film by Massimo Martella “In the Name of Antea”: here the beautiful courtesan takes a voice and tells how, thanks to a group of young Italian officials of Fine Arts, she could escape the bombing and to the destruction of the Second World War.

It was not easy for me to compose the soundtrack of this exciting story full of nuances. The director first asked me to entrust a string quartet with a theme that began in a “suspended” way and then flowed into a singable and involving melody. Thus the theme of Antea was born. But this was only the beginning … Each new chapter in the story, every scene, every landscape needed a new color, a new harmony, a sometimes dramatic melody, sometimes light, sometimes even ironic. ..

It has been a long and demanding job, which, if I have to be honest, has also given me some moments of discouragement. But now I can tell you that I am very happy because the film / documentary (and also my music) had a warm welcome in many cinematrographic rooms throughout Italy … and it seems that Antea has not yet tired of traveling.

Just in these days I decided to give the soundtrack an autonomous life and I loaded the tracks, as many as 32, on bandcamp where you can listen to them for free in streeming or even to download.

Then I leave you with Antea … and his beloved astronomer.   

click on the image below to go to bandcamp and listen the soundtrack:

We live in a complex and contradictory age but sometimes we can be surprised by beautiful and poetic stories and thanks to the internet we can cancel the distances and share them in every corner of the world.
Paul lives in Thailand with his Khwan and a lovely little girl who was born of their love. Like me, he plays the piano, and for many years he has made me happy, performing my music with care and passion. Some time ago he brought his piano to an elephant sanctuary there in Thailand experiencing the effect of music on these giants. From this experience has been realized a beautiful documentary full of engaging images. Paul has played for them music by Debussy, Beethoven, Ravel, Joplin …. and also some of my compositions. You can not imagine my joy in seeing the reactions of Koko, an orphaned puppy still wild, rolling in the mud happy while Paul plays my “dear to me”

Ho appena saputo che il mio amatissimo istruttore di volo, Ferdinando Verde è volato in cielo….questa volta senza l’aliante….Lui ha rappresentato tanto per me e gli volevo profondamente bene. Mi ha insegnato tante cose e soprattutto a superare la paura del vuoto….Era sempre allegro e molto affettuoso. Ora che è volato via… vola via con lui anche un pezzettino di me…ma non il desiderio di volare. E’ bello che venne ad ascoltarmi suonare quando portai il mio pianoforte sul camion in giro per l’Italia. Una delle tappe fu a San Cesareo (dove lui abitava negli ultimi anni)….Era commosso e anche io molto felice di rivederlo e ricordare i tanti voli che avevamo fatto insieme….Eccolo qui, al minuto 41’38″….ciao Verde! Buon volo….mi batte il cuore come prima del decollo

Gentile, elegante, bello….con una collezione di dischi da mille e una notte e una delicatezza che mi catturava ogni volta che avevo la fortuna di passarci un po’ di tempo insieme. Parlare di musica con Paolo era sempre come aprire uno scrigno di perle preziose, di suoni incantati… Sarò sempre grata a Paolo per avermi fatto partecipe delle sue tante conoscenze musicali, e anche per quel suo articolo su “Musica di Repubblica” che, quando ancora non ci conoscevamo, parlava proprio di me….io ero solo una giovane pianista un po’ timida e lui invece mi presentava con grandi apprezzamenti, quasi orgoglioso della sua “scoperta”. Avevo appena inciso un album di musiche dedicate a Gurdjieff e Paolo ne parlava con parole bellissime che a me sembrarono “troppo”, ma che ora vorrei condividere con voi, senza nascondere, in questo momento particolare, un miscuglio di gioia, di nostalgia, e di profonda tristezza. Più di una volta abbiamo trascorso lunghe ore negli studi rai di saxa rubra, condividendo il microfono dei suoi indimenticabili “Notturni Italiani”. La sua conduzione era originale e imprevedibile, ma sempre ricca di contenuti colti e mai lasciati al caso. Quando mi intervistava, sempre con garbo e fantasia, mi raccontava ogni volta qualcosa di me che ancora non sapevo… Proprio qualche giorno fa c’eravamo sentiti…Gli avevo appena spedito il mio nuovo album ,,,un altro disco dedicato a Gurdjjieff, l’autore che, 20 anni prima, ci aveva fatto conoscere. Non so se Paolo abbia fatto in tempo ad ascoltarlo perchè qualche giorno dopo mi ha avvertita che era in ospedale….poi non ho saputo più niente da lui. Ci sarebbero mille cose da dire di Paolo…mille sfumature, quelle stesse mille sfumature che lui amava tanto nei suoni… Grazie Paolo, grazie del tuo amore per la musica, grazie di averlo condiviso con me e con tutti noi.

Hidden Sources: Gurdjieff De Hartmann (Alessandra Celletti, piano)

It’s been three days since Michael flew away, three days that I cannot sleep. I have a hole in my heart and I feel like a little bird with a broken wing. I thought Michael was immortal. A strange angel descended to earth in search of music to let flow into space. I felt proud and lucky that among millions of possible sounds he had chosen mine as well. Michael is the most generous person, full of enthusiasm that I have never met before; he offered to this spoiled world his clear and delicate mind, his romantic and a bit ‘crazy heart. He was the best producer an artist could wish for. He always encouraged me and made me feel valued and respected without reservation. Every detailed was considered together with care and love, and if we had to talk about money he would apologize as if he was afraid to pollute the purity of inspiration.

I’m glad I could share with him an infinity of beautiful and important musical projects, a great trip by car on the coast between San Francisco and Los Angeles and a flight by plane to New York. Twelve days entirely spent together, walking through icy wind and giant buildings. Sometimes he was bleeding from his foot and I was worried, but he reassured me by saying that it was nothing serious and he continued to walk with the sole desire to make our dreams reality. Some have come true, others were there … suspended between the earth and the sky. When you share an art project with passion our souls mingle and remain forever linked so now it’s up to me to continue the Transparency journey to a musical world of purity and magic. I will be guided by the last words that Michael wrote to me a few days before he left this earth: “I am with you in spirit at every note you strike on the piano or any songs you create with vocals”.