interview with
|
interview with
|
Tommaso Rossi, multifaceted musician, has a solistic activity as recorder, flute and traverso player.
He collaborates regularly with Antonio Florio’s I Turchini (now Cappella Neapolitana), recording and performing as a soloist in many international festivals. Tommaso has worked with directors like Curtis, Chiarappa, Alessandrini, Di Lisa, Rousset. In 2010 he founded the Ensemble Barocco di Napoli, publishing Alessandro Scarlatti cantatas and, in 2013, the first recording of Leonardo Leo sonatas. In 2019, with Abchordis Ensemble, he published Il Soffio di Partenope, an anthology of Neapolitan music in 18th century . He has been performing and promoting contemporary repertoires for years, also as a founding partner and president of Associazione Dissonanzen. He currently teaches recorder at the Naples Conservatory and is artistic director of the Associazione "Alessandro Scarlatti", the oldest Concert Society in Southern Italy. www.tommasorossi.it Tommaso on YouTube |
The first thing you do when you pick up your traverso to start the practice day, and why?
|
I like to start the day in a relaxed way, the Neapolitan way, therefore I drink a coffee, of course!
|
Any recurring piece to play every day, and why?
|
A session dedicated to the subsequent execution of Telemann's Fantasias is a priceless exercise because it brings everything together: practice of sound, digital and articulatory exercise, work in various keys. I have recently taken up both Benedetto Marcello's and Handel's Sonatas and they are confirmed as inexhaustible treasure chests for the development of sonority and technique, just as probably there is nothing on the Baroque flute other than playing the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and especially performing it in concert.
|
Do you have a daily routine?
|
Unfortunately, due to lack of time, I am unable to have a methodical approach to practice. I usually study what I have to play in concert or record and I invent technical exercises based on the material I have to study.
|
What kind of goals do you set for your practice?
|
It is always necessary to spend some time practicing some aspects, for example stability and flexibility of the sound, intonation, dynamics. In this, the exercises on long notes and the study of scales help a lot, especially in the more closed and difficult keys, I am thinking in particular of those with flats.
|
Do you do any systematic warm-up?
|
I believe long notes will save the world, and that’s the way I usually warm-up.
|
Any distinctive characteristics of baroque flute daily practice vs. modern flute or other instruments?
|
My approach to the Baroque flute reflects the fact that I am simultaneously a recorder player (an instrument that I teach at the Naples Conservatory) and I still dedicate myself to the modern flute, especially in the contemporary repertoire. In short, I've never tried to do just one thing and therefore I've probably developed a technique, a vision of music, a mentality that isn't specifically linked only to the world of traverso. Somehow the aesthetics of the baroque flute influences my way of playing the recorder and the modern flute, and, at the same time, it is influenced by those. On the other hand, we know very well that in ancient times there were no wind instrumentalists who dedicated themselves exclusively to one instrument. During my studies in the archives of the ancient Neapolitan conservatories, I have found many testimonies of this. In general I believe that all “modern” players would do well to have some knowledge of the ancestors of their instruments; it helps to understand not only the technique, but also the taste, the articulation, the "true" color of the Baroque repertoire. Also, again considering Bach’s work, his writing gives no shortcuts, no breathing space, no facilitation. It must always be faced with great humility because it requires a wise and parsimonious use of breathing and total control of the air.
|
How long and distributed should warm-up and practice be?
|
“Today it would be nice to have time for a daily practice ...”. but often a musician is also an organizer, producer, communicator, and therefore there is never enough time!
I always suggest my students to study extensively and consistently when they are young, because later there won't be so much time! |
Any specific tip to address difficult technical passages during daily practice?
|
A good use of metronome can cure many issues, also the intonation ones.
|
Are there any tools that are particularly useful for practicing?
|
Studying with the metronome creates a great rhythmic and coordination solidity which is the basis of the next step, or rhythmic freedom. Only if you are “master” of the rhythm you can violate it and be really free! On the other hand, in my studies and experiences on the modern flute I have to note that a great deal of the technical repertoire (I am thinking of the studies of Köhler, Furstenau, Andersen or Briccialdi) is often tackled without any metronomic knowledge so we often hear only cascades of notes with many wrong accents. In reality this repertoire, which would be fundamental if studied well, produces the opposite effect: a great confusion in the coordination, a scarce equality between the notes and therefore, paradoxically, it generates more defects than it helps to solve.
|
How do you advise your students as far as structuring their daily practice?
|
I usually suggest them to play with other people, as this is very important to address and solve intonation, articulation and coordination problems, as well as clarify interpretation choices.
|
Are there any specific pieces particularly beneficial to be played regularly in daily practice?
|
I believe that an author like Telemann is truly special. Among other things, Telemann is really the perfect author both for those who study the recorder and for those who play the flute. He wrote wonderful music for both instruments and the more time passes the more I discover truly unexplored treasures in this composer, whose oeuvre is truly endless.
|