Stanze

For the first time, Decca Records present the album that started it all - Einaudi's original studio recording from 1997, 'Stanze'. Stanze' (rooms) is a cycle of 16 pieces for harp composed over the course of 2-3 years, between 1990 and 1992. Each piece is a musical space separated from the others - like the rooms of a house. Every room has it's own character and form, like a song, but at the same time it's connected to the structure of the main building.... it is the diary of a journey toward essentiality, with the aim to achieve the maximum expression using the least possible;This is how Ludovico Einaudi describes Stanze, his first cycle of ballads for solo instrument originally composed for piano. After having listened to the performance of some songs performed on electric harp by Cecilia Chailly (the sister of conductor Riccardo Chailly), Einaudi decided to entrust the playing of the whole project to her, privileging her instrument for the whole album. There is no piano: Einaudi's signature style here is expressed in the composition and the artistic production in the recording studio. This 2014 edition of Stanze has a quality that the original version could not offer: an electric harp solo of 55 minutes has never created such an embraceable and warm atmosphere. Sixteen pieces interweaved with great charm & without any dull moments - so light and rich to compensate the absence of any other instrument. These melodies that the harp weaves are overflowing with a deep emotional power - as simple and melodic as any great composition for a solo instrument. Each piece is paradoxically independent from and essential to the others, due to an extremely focused and creative performance style - as hypnotic as any perfume.