Progetto Italiano

The wonder of discovering...

How often, nowadays, do we feel that there is nothing left to discover, that everything is predictable, that everything goes according to the plan. Gone is the chance to experience the tingle of anticipation and curiosity, gone is that child-like inquisitiveness we feel when coming into contact with something unknown for the first time, that incredible feeling….

We go to concerts expecting to hear our favourite, great, well-known classical works. Works that have been played and heard dozens of times…. They fill our souls with joy and caress our ears, but there is hardly any room for the wonder of discovering new harmonies and melodies.

But is this really true? Have all masterpieces really been discovered? Maybe there is a small, musical diamond hidden in the midst of all these works by the great masters, lost over the centuries…

The Inspiration

When I first heard Ottorino Respighi’s music, a thousand images flashed through my mind. I was transported into a whole new world. I was overcome by an immense feeling of pleasure and awe, and I experienced the pure emotion, strength and dignity of humanity. An incredible splendour expressed through a rich palette of musical language, innovative harmonies, and the perfect combination of rhythmic and melodic lines. «How has this amazing music not been discovered yet? It seems so unfair!», I wondered.

I was fourteen at the time, and I studied his violin sonata tirelessly. With every note I realized that this music was perfectly attuned to my soul and that a long, shared journey lays ahead of us. The passion for Ottorino’s music has been firmly embedded in my heart ever since that first moment of discovery. Since then, little by little, this project came to life, the «Progetto Italiano».

«Progetto Italiano» – the CD!

We want to introduce music lovers to Italian instrumental music of the late 19th and early 20th century. I have found a soulmate in the wonderful pianist,Christia Hudziy, somebody who shares my passion for Italian music. We both hope to be able to share this music with as many music lovers as possible.

Our programme reflects the way Italian instrumental music has developed since being «rediscovered», (it had been virtually nonexistent for almost a century as a result of the fascination for opera). The programme starts with work by one of Respighi’s mentors, Giuseppe Martucci, and goes on to reveal different aspects of Respighi’s genius in his miniatures and violin sonatas until finally, we come to Nino Rota, one of the most famous Italian composers of the 20th century and who created masterpieces for film directors such as, Zefirelli and Fellini.

We regularly play this programme at our concerts and are now hoping to instantiate our dream of bringing out a first joint recording. Ultimately, this is an opportunity to share this amazing music with many more people and to encourage music lovers to discover the genius of Respighi and his contemporaries.

Our Team

We have put together a fantastic team for our recording and will work with two of the best sound engineers available – Gregor Zielinsky and Lasse Nipkow.

We have also booked one of the possibly best acoustic venues for our recording – the Beethoven (Leibnitz) Hall in Hannover, where we already carried out a test recording last month. The result was beyond all our expectations!

So what do we need to record a great CD?

The first thing is that we want to book the mentioned concert hall for at least 3 days. Next we need to transport the piano to the recording hall. Then we need a piano tuner on duty throughout the three days to tune the piano immediately upon request. And finally there’s the technical team. There are sound engineers and technicians, who need very expansive equipment, which has to be rented. On top of all that, we shouldn’t forget the hours of editing the outcome after the recording sessions to achieve the perfect result… Putting all that together, it adds up to about 10,000 Euros. It’s a big number, and it’s just not possible for us to carry all the costs by ourselves…

We need You!

Dear friends & music lovers,

We need you now more than ever before! We need your enthusiasm and belief in our project. We cannot record our CD without your support as the costs are just too high for us… Today young musicians like ourselves have to organise their own funding for recordings, the major record companies are themselves suffering major losses and are not willing to back ventures like ours. They are happy to bring out a CD under their own label, which is already a major success, but it is up to us to finance the recording itself.

We hope we can count on you, dear friends! All contributions, however small or large, will be immensely helpful! In this way, all of us together will be able to breathe new life into this wonderful music so that it can be heard again.

Yours, gratefully,
Vladyslava & Christia