Spallotta, Stefano: Perpetuum

for Guitar and String Quartet (2022)

The piece Perpetuum was written following a precise request of mine to Stefano Spallotta: I needed a composition to go with the performance of the short piece Elegia by Vittorio Fellegara, written for guitar and string quartet as a clear tribute to Gabriel Fauré. In fact, I found it useful to combine the composition by Fellegara with another one which was short and easy to listen to, a characteristic to be found in the final production of the Milanese musician. Stefano Spallotta, whose Concerto for guitar and strings I had greatly appreciated (he composed it and performed it as a soloist), proved very willing to satisfy my request, and wrote the quintet Perpetuum, which I then had the pleasure of performing for the first time in Frosinone as part of the “Corde di Primavera” Festival. Like the Concerto, this short piece also shows some characteristics which make it particularly interesting: in addition to being naturally very well written for the guitar, the composer combines a refined way of writing with a straightforward idiom and also creates a luminous expressive atmosphere, something not particularly common in music today. I take the opportunity here to thank the composer also for the nice dedication, which refers to my long collaboration with many composers; a collaboration also shown by the present series which I have the honour of managing. (Piero Bonaguri)