Giulio Viozzi (1912-1984)
Sonate pour guitare
Racconto
Fantaisie
Itinerario
Suite variata
Etude chromatique

Andrea Gallo, guitare

On sait fort peu de choses du compositeur Giulio Viozzi. Né à Trieste en 1912, études de piano et de composition auprès Antonio Illesberg et la fréquentation des musiciens et interprètes (dont Gilardino) qui l'encouragent à la carrière de musicien. Il devient par la suite chef d'orchestre et critique musical. Son œuvre est aujourd'hui presque ignorée en dépit de quelques parutions (Les Quatuors à cordes enregistré par le Bruno Maderna Quartet (2018) pour un label marginal) et ce disque du guitariste Andrea Gallo qui a exhumé quelques partitions pour guitare. Giulio Viozzi est un adepte de la forme ouverte chère à Umberto Eco. S'inspirant dans ces œuvres des formes traditionnelles Sonate, Fantaisie, Suite, Études ou Rondo, le compositeur les laisser décanter longuement dans un processus d’improvisation. Si les pièces isolées (Racconto, Fantasia et Itinérario) procèdent de ce schéma récurrent, l’Étude Chromatique, la Sonate (1984) et la Suite (1978) se conforment davantage aux modèles. Andrea Gallo évoque dans sa notice l'aspect surréaliste de cette musique, assez voisin de celui des peintres, assemblant çà et là des éléments hétéroclites sur leur toile. Ainsi les grappes de notes formant des micro mélodies arpentent la partition comme du lierre sur un mur. Si la présence d'un folklore réinventé fait songer aux miniatures pour piano de Bela Bartok, les rythmes latins renvoient eux explicitement à la danse. Espérons que cet opus fasse des petits. (Jérôme Angouillant)

Born in the northern port city of Trieste in 1912, the Italian composer Giulio Viozzi worked and lived in the region throughout his life before his death in Verona in 1984. He composed in a modal, melodic, diatonic language inflected by Bartok but essentially shaped by native traditions of cantabile writing whether for instruments or voices. Viozzi’s music for the theatre won success and performances throughout his lifetime, notably the opera Il sasso pagano (1964), which makes the modern neglect of his output all the more surprising: this is the only modern album available which is dedicated to his music, and it should introduce many listeners to a distinctive voice in the musical landscape of 20th-century Italy. As he explains in his booklet introduction, Andrea Gallo was astonished when he first encountered Viozzi’s music for guitar, through the Fantasia (1964), which itself reworks two shorter earlier works, a Gavotte and Brasileira both indebted to the folk tradition. He finds a magical, surreal quality to Viozzi’s repetitions and his evocation of mood in a piece such as the Chromatic Study of 1982. While Viozzi wrote several fantasias for three guitars, his solo output for the instrument centres around the more Classical forms of the Suite variata (1978) and the Sonata (1984), also in three movements. Two works of the mid-70s, the Itinerario and Racconto, are more experimental in technique and impressionistic in mood. This album introduces the names of both Viozzi and Andrea Gallo to the ever-growing library of guitar music on Brilliant Classics. Born in 1990, Gallo studied at the conservatoire in Milan and is based there while giving recitals and appearances across Italy and farther afield.