Andrea Orsi - Opere per chitarra (2025)

The idea of developing a project on Bolognese composers for guitar has been more and more appealing to me, as my activity of ensemble guitarist increased; an activity which I had firmly chosen in accordance with the 1970s' ideals regarding collective work.

I have always found this way of making music more rewarding and useful than soloistic work, which I still perceive as self-referential; especially in the field of contemporary music, very self-referential per se. Within programmes structured even for large ensembles, I have often found myself proposing pieces for soloists, sometimes very beautiful, either by young authors at the beginning of their career or by renowned composers who often belonged to the Bolognese music environment.

However, what I have always found somewhat absurd is that those compositions, prepared with care, sometimes for prestigious events such as "Chigiana Novità", were often first and last ever performances. From this sort of frustration derives the choice to collect these few pieces, in order to narrate the Bolognese voice of the guitar from the 1970s to the 2020s, along an ideal itinerary of teachers and students (who became teachers themselves) starting from their forefather, Giacomo Manzoni, and to record them so that they won't be forgotten. Andrea Orsi