les fêlures de l'âme

Paolo Dirani pianist and storyteller

Music by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Fischer,
Genesis, Gershwin, Händel, Pachelbel, Ravel, Schumann

Direction, scripts and videoclips selection by Paolo Dirani
Lights and video mixage by Roberto Passuti

Within our innermost souls there exist deep, unfathomable, feeble enclosures we hardly ever have the venture to explore. Therefore, something almost magic takes place whenever we do reach these depths and react upon their influences; an unrestrainable stream of blissful feelings comes swiftly up for air. I am used to calling such experiences “soul cracks”, since they rise unexpected from nowhere and sadly last just the blink of an eye. les fêlures de l’âme clings on the childlike unbiassed misconception of being able to reproduce and re-experience certain feelings at one’s own will. It is as though we were looking up an old photograph album and were miracolously hit by the identical frame of emotions we were going through while the snapshots were taken. With these words Paolo Dirani leads us into the heart of his new show of which he is also director, sound and vision curator and playwright. It consists of thirty short pieces for piano entwined with as many animated pictures cast on a large screen. Sound and vision melt together and excite vigorously each other in order to reach the most intimate fusion. The show is a peculiar ensemble of vision and sound dotted here and there with curious short tales, anecdotes or just plain thoughts.

Videoclips were filmed non-professionally and then digitally remastered: they are meant to be piercing, innerewise looks in whose midst everything seems to turn and spin and yet remains unsuspectingly still as a cloud  passing by or the foliage of a tree caressed by a light breeze. A throbbing impulse that moves along as music proceeds.

The piano section is divided into five movements and draws its inspiration from the classical repertoire with one exception, namely one of  Genesis’ cult songs. Short compositions, or just parts of them, get unusually entangled with one another and are maintained together by the playful attempt to mix up tone and harmony. Thus, one of Bach’s Preludes ends on the notes of Gershwin’s Concerto in F which in its turn introduces Chopin’s fourth Ballad. Likewise, the Adagio of Beethoven’s Emperor disappears into the Adagio of Brahms’ Concerto in D Minor. les fêlures de l’âmeis divised for piano solo; its melodies are fully included in the cd bearing the same title. It was recorded in Lugo at the Rossini Theatre and later published by Mobydick in 2010.