Questi Diversi Mondi (These Different Worlds) – Luca Panicciari

From one of the earliest examples of notated music, the Greek “Epitaph of Seikilos” – renamed Pandoura here, up to a piece written in 2023 and to an improvisation realized in the recording studio, and touching traditional Irish tunes from the Middle Ages, Renaissance lute music, baroque lamentos, as well as other arrangements and original compositions, cellist Luca Panicciari invites us to a fascinating itinerary. We are led to discover works which lay outside the boundaries of the traditional cello repertoire, and, through them, to rediscover the familiar voice of this instrument, which is employed unconventionally and imitates the rebab, the pandoura, the duduk, but also the lyre and the guitar, in a poignant homage to blues. The itinerary we are led to explore in the company of the cello, therefore, is a terribly pleasing one, and one which will not fail to conquer today’s listener. From Ancient Greece to a piece written in 2023, we observe the cello’s palette and cannot but envy those who can play it at these levels. We are led to rediscover a familiar instrument, through an unfamiliar, but magnificent, repertoire.