Chiara: a simple name, a fresh, a luminous one, that makes one imagine transparence on the person that has it. So it is with Chiara Bertoglio, the pianist I had the pleasure of hear in a r�cital Sunday 4th November in the picturesque Basilica of s. Nazaro Maggiore in Milan. But under this effective semplicity in appearing, what a force, what an intensity, what an ability in performing a so difficult program, with an author as Schubert in the first part, and a Mussorgksij in the second. The beginning of the first Impromptu op. 142 by Schubert was simply perfect: a calibrature of sounds based on the half-weight, to create immediately a soft and intimistic atmosphere. It was given also by the central semiquavers of the right hand, while the left was playing alteratively, phrasing with sweet and clear sounds, as the pure schubertian lyricism requires. A calibrature that, by the way, the artist maintained through the performance of the four Impromptus op. 142, demonstrating the possession of a greatest control, both in dynamic and in cantability. This is typical of the great performers, but very rare in the young emerging pianists. But surely a great ability is needed to know how to appropriate a piece, and to perform each Author according to the style and the epoque he represents. In the second part Chiara faced the �Pictures from an Exhibition� by Mussorgskij, with an incredible and surprising vigour and certainty, most thinking that she is only 18. The melancholic and limpid tune used in Schubert, leaves the way to a modern and conscious sonority: a pre-impressionistic sound for an identification to be understood symbolically.
The �Pictures�, in fact, consist of ten pieces, that refer to pictures by Hartmann; and they are preceded and almost always bounded by a Promenade, supposed to reflect the author�s thoughts while moving from a picture to another. From painting to music, so, to nake alive the kaleidoschopical variety of russian culture, that the piaist has to know how to perform creating the sonority. After Promenade, played forte and sostenuto, there is Gnomus, a grotesque piece; the last scale on contrary motion and accelerando was absolutely perfect. Then came a more sweet and secret Promenade, to prepare the atmosphere of Il vecchio castello. Once more Chiara demonstrated a great balance in the sonorities: she highlighted the harmonies in the central part, keeping the ground, during the 107 measures, always a little lighter. The singing of the right hand, also in pianissimo, revealed an intensively poetic melody, never �blank�. I would underline that cantabili and pianissimi allow to make the true comparison between the different pianists. Often the virtuoso ability deceives, but it is only a dynamic and athletic training, obtained by a serious study. This can be very different from performing sensitivity. Anyway, this is not something that lacks to Chiara, that in Tuileries, Ballet of the Unhatched Chickens, Limoges, Baba-Yaga, demonstrated to own an excellent technique, between repeated sounds, staccati of wristle and forearm, dizzy trillos, incredible octaves�
I�m thinking now of the great Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, an artist that evidently inspires Chiara, and that told to his pupils: �the capacity of rendering the legato, the non-legato, the staccato, the portato, each dynamical graduation, and the refined search of the sound are strictly bounded to an high control level of our fingers�. To conclude, I think Chiara Bertoglio is on the right way to become a first-class star. I wish to everybody to hear her soon.
�It�s important to have a deep relationship with God; it helps in discovering the true signification of life, for a human but also artistic growing-up. I arrive, e.g., to communicate to those that hear me, with an untouchable language that transmits universals and infinite values�. So speaks Chiara Bertoglio, only 18 years old, an exceptional pianist for technique and expressive sensitivity.
She is tall and slim; she smiles naturally with her green eyes that enlighted by a particular light. She is determined and likeable, always thinking of the fellows. This evening she will be the protagonist if a concert with the Youth Orchestra �Buxtehuder Jugendorchester� conducted by Christian Klett. She will be playing Maurice Ravel�s Conc�rto en sol.
Among the different activities that the De Sono carries out in favour of music, there is also the very important one of increase the value of the young talents through giving them scholarships that encourage their further training and their career. Some young people in this artistic group, that yet produced numerous famous musicians, will play in this month at the Conservatory. It is a series of concerts titled �Three evenings with Mozart�. The presence of mozartian musics will not exclude pages from different composers. Last evening, e.g., the turinese pianist Chiara Bertoglio played also Debussy and Schubert, in a program that allowed to see her young talent engaged on very different fronts. They were the intimate expression and the great virtuosity, the music based on a single line and that of the balancing poliphony that requires the piano to be transformed in an orchestral-complex instrument. I�m thinking of Debussy, by whom Ms. Bertoglio played �Estampes�, �Masques� and �L�isle joyeuse�, revealing a great sensitivity for a refined and iridescent sound, given gracefully and with an expert touch.
