Paolo Conte

A sultry midsummer evening sets the scene for Paolo Conte's first appearance at the Vittoriale degli Italiani, Gabriele D'Annunzio's villa-museum perched on the hill of Gardone Riviera, overlooking the lights of Lake Garda. A unique stage that hosts a top-tier lineup every summer. Last year we reported on Lou Reed's great performance; this year has seen the likes of Francesco De Gregori, Patti Smith and Yann Tiersen pass through.

Paolo Conte's presence in this small Lombard town carries a significance that goes beyond the merely musical. The lawyer from Asti is an all-round artist, a multifaceted figure who for decades has held high the name of Italy, especially beyond its own borders. One of the greatest figures of our time, and thus deserving of the "Il Vittoriale" Prize, which the eponymous Foundation, led by its president Giordano Bruno Guerri, presents to him, not without emotion, just hours before his performance on the shores of Lake Garda. Now in its second edition (last year it went to director Ermanno Olmi), the Prize consists of a small-scale reproduction of Mimmo Paladino's Blue Horse, located beside the theatre nestled in the garden of the Vate's residence. There's a half-promise in the air to dedicate a song to this very place: we'll soon know more.

The last glow of daylight has only just given way to the dark of evening when Nunzio Barbieri, Luca Enipeo, Daniele Dall'Omo (guitars), Lucio Caliendo, Claudio Chiara, Luca Velotti (winds), Daniele Di Gregorio (drums and percussion), Massimo Pizianti (piano, keyboards and accordion), Piergiorgio Rosso (violin), and Jino Touche (double bass) take the stage. Paolo Conte appears once the music has already begun, and the instrumental intro immediately morphs into “Cuanta Pasion”, the most explicit hymn to life in the Piedmontese maestro's vast repertoire. Jacket thrown over a plain t-shirt, standing in front of the microphone, hands drumming against his hips and that unmistakable gravelly voice reaching across the entire distance between stage and stalls: nothing more is needed to pick up a conversation that has never really stopped.

The first part of the concert is a brief parade of classics that take us back to distant times, yet ones that still feel so close: “Sotto le stelle del jazz”, a vivid memory of an incomparable musical apprenticeship; “Come di”, still as fresh and cheeky as ever; “Alle prese con una Verde Milonga”, a declaration of love for South American music and tradition. All of it seasoned with his usual grimaces, those little touches on the piano, that whole repertoire of gestures and expressions that spice up the songs and the pauses between them, as he tries, in his own gruffly way, not to be overwhelmed by the emotion. Just when you least expect it, a completely reworked version of “Bartali” arrives, unrecognizable right up until the first chorus. Were it not for those famous words, no one would recognize the identity of such a joyful, genuine song, which suddenly finds itself immersed in a far-off dimension, like a snapshot resurfacing from the depths of memory before regaining the features, colors and spirit that define it.

A short break marks the concert's turning point, and things pick back up with “Dancing” and “Gioco d'azzardo”, a pairing that says a great deal about Paolo Conte's class, unmatched in his ability to depict intense situations, in a whirl of feelings spanning tenderness and gruffness, melancholy and regret, a play of light and shade in which you can never quite tell which side will win out, or when. Music may well be a pagan thing, but Conte's has a way of leading the listener far beyond the boundaries of lived experience, guiding them through moments that feel as vivid and real as can be.

The concert also makes room for more recent chapters, not least because his output has recently been enriched by a new album, “Nelson”, dedicated to his beloved dog. But the high point of the live show, as it could hardly be otherwise, comes with the notes of the famous “Via con me”, punctuated enthusiastically by the crowd clapping along in time. There's still room for the never-ending ride of “Diavolo rosso”, in which the soloists take absolute center stage, and when, after a stunning version of “Sijmadicandhapajiee”, taken from that great album “Una faccia in prestito”, the master craftsman signals that he has nothing left to give, the lights come up and the audience rises to its feet to pay tribute to the great ringmaster and his orchestra with a long standing ovation.

The fact that a multitude of famous songs are missing from the set list leads more than a few to hope there might be a third act, but that's not how it goes. In the end, the secret of great artists is that you wish they'd never stop.

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