Stefano Bollani

It's a huge success with the audience at the Politeama theatre in Palermo: after hosting Ludovico Einaudi and Michael Nyman in the preceding weeks, the nineteenth-century theatre is won over by the talent, flair and charm of pianist and composer Stefano Bollani. The Milan-born artist (Tuscan by adoption) enthralled the audience for almost three hours, with a repertoire in which the music often opened up into performance and direct interaction with the crowd. Stefano Bollani played piano, sang, did impressions, entertained the audience, and much more. He performed some of his own pieces alongside covers of other artists' work, brilliantly blending cultures, counter-cultures and sub-cultures.

The first thing that's clear is the sense of being in the presence of an enormously talented pianist: Bollani comes across like a modern-day Jelly Roll Morton, showing off his qualities both on a strictly technical level (not a single wrong note all night!) and as an interpreter and improviser. What's striking, too, is how he manages to keep a masterful balance between the serious and the playful, never tipping into either extreme, just as his music sits halfway between "serious" music and "popular" music: ragtime and jazz meet the Italian songbook, poetry gives way to comedy and parody. His art is light yet profound at the same time, never shying away from irony, sparking sharp, often surreal laughter, but free of both vulgarity and sterile intellectualism.

During the evening, the artist alternates between more demanding piano pieces, some of them his own, and moments of greater whimsy and virtuosic flair: to give an idea of the latter, we heard a version of Beethoven's "Per Elisa" in which the effect of a broken record is simulated; his own interpretation (sung and played) of a poem by Fosco Maraini about "the cicada and the ant"; and a piece about Milan Kundera that is an amusing tribute (with a touch of parody) to Franco Battiato, which the audience in the front row actually requests by unfurling a bedsheet (never seen anything like it at the Teatro Politeama!).

Finally, to close the show, Stefano Bollani takes on a rousing ragtime by Scott Joplin. As the artist introduces the piece by naming its composer, someone in the audience lets out a kind of approving howl. Bollani doesn't miss the chance to joke about it: "I said Scott Joplin, not Pink Floyd!". And yet, I assure you, this Joplin as played by Bollani sounds more "rock" than Pink Floyd themselves!

Naturally, at the end there had to be an exceptional "encore". This "encore" turns out to be something truly unusual, because it's the audience itself that decides what it will be; or rather, what they will be. Stefano Bollani asks for a sheet of paper and a pen. Meanwhile, from every corner of the hall, a chorus of voices rises up with the most bizarre and disparate requests: even Vasco Rossi and "Vamos a la playa" make an appearance. Almost surreal. Bollani takes notes, and finally thanks the audience for at least sparing him from having to play "Heidi" (by his own account, a real earworm among his most die-hard fans). The whole theatre erupts in a roar of laughter. At this point, the artist sits down at the piano and, with one eye on the hefty list, his interpretation/improvisation turns truly "serious": in a brilliant, sparkling melting pot with jazzy overtones, he plays all the requests, blending and transforming them in wonderfully original ways. Recognizing the songs, and above all listening to how they're reworked, the audience alternates between laughter, applause and sheer amazement at the pianist's talent.

The relationship with his audience really does seem to be one of the secrets behind Stefano Bollani's art, and he proves it by spending a long time with spectators as they leave the theatre: signing autographs and dedications, posing for photos, thanking people for their compliments, joking around with some of them. At this point, I approach him too and introduce myself; I ask if he'd be willing to do a phone interview for Onda Rock. He answers very warmly, and confirms he might be available. We hope to bring you that interview on these pages soon. In the meantime, congratulations once again to Stefano Bollani for the memorable evening he gave the Politeama in Palermo.

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