ANGELO GILARDINO
The Writer
Another book Angelo Gilardino dedicated to the great composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, with whom he had enjoyed a personal relationship of collaboration and friendship.
Numerous testimonies remain of the great Florentine artist's esteem for Angelo, who went so far as to give him the fountain pen with which he signed most of his compositions.
Both the book on the life of Andrés Segovia and the one dedicated to Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco were published by Edizioni Curci of Milan, which also printed another book that Angelo wrote on the very famous Aranjuez Concerto composed by the great Valencian composer Joaquin Rodrigo and that has continued to be celebrated for decades in the repertoire of all the most talented international concert performers.
For years, Angelo edited columns for the most prestigious music magazines, putting his expertise and sensitivity at the service of reviews of works, books, performances and record productions; the arguments the writing of those 'short essays' represent real lessons of great significance for anyone wishing to explore the complex world of Art and Music.
Angelo Gilardino then also directed his 'aptitudes' as a researcher to the world of lutherie and art. 'Il Legno che canta' (The Wood that Sings) is the title of a book that presents a very select group of Italian luthiers who built guitars of great quality and value in the 20th century; Rodolfo Paralupi, Pietro Gallinotti, Lorenzo Bellafontana, Luigi Mozzani, Nicola De Bonis, Mario Pabé...
These luthiers, whose work in life has not always received the recognition it deserved, have been able to be rediscovered and understood for their great value and the stature of their instruments, thanks to Angelo Gilardino's essay.
Finally, there is a book by Angelo that I am sure can offer very meaningful reasons for many people not necessarily interested and involved in various ways in the world of Music and Guitar.
It is an 'autobiographical' book written in a very personal way that Angelo published in 2017.
Angelo recounts his life through the recollection of some of the most important moments that embellished it...
Tales of great beauty and imbued with a feeling of elegance, humanity and sweetness.
One of the qualities that characterised Angelo Gilardino's life was an insatiable thirst for knowledge, which led him to develop a great interest in reading as a child, and which over the years allowed him to form a world of broad and deep cultural intensity.
Angelo's wisdom was an accurate appropriation of this knowledge that flowed into his everyday life, colouring it with visions, perceptions and feelings that then determined the steps of his journey.
His ability to use words as if they were notes in a harmonic warp, sometimes limpid in its simplicity other times complex and articulate in its architecture with roots that are never taken for granted, was often expressed in the exercise of writing, whether it was to review a work or a performance, or to present the fruit of his musical and instrumental research or the expression of his memories and passions.
Numerous are Angelo's treatises on classical guitar technique, where every word is subjected to scientific evaluation; the quality, or 'beauty' of the sound is therefore no longer ascribed to a 'gift' determined by the personal morphological structure of each performer, but rather to the use of a particular technical aptitude that knows how to combine it in an infinite range of nuances, characters and intensity.
An important piece of research is dedicated to the artist who embodies the very idea of the classical guitar, Andrés Segovia, a true legend in the history of the guitar.
Having held the position of artistic director of the Segovia Foundation in Linares for years, called to that task by the great guitarist's widow, the book grew out of that experience with great dedication and competence, which allowed the discovery of numerous unpublished compositions that Angelo Gilardino then revised and gave to the press.
The fountain pen given to Angelo by Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco
Angelo Gilardino was a great lover, connoisseur and collector of paintings.
In the last years of his life he decided to devote himself to the study of 20th century painters from Vercelli, whose poetic quality he loved and in whose landscapes he found the colours of his childhood.
To Umberto Ravello, one of Angelo's beloved Vercelli masters, is dedicated the book that recounts his life and takes its title from one of his works that stands out for its suggestion, intensity and symbolism: “L’arco nel buio” ('The Arch in the Darkness'.)
Photo: ANDREA CHERCHI
