House Concert at Campegine in July 2014

Report by Stefanie Fünfrocken

This year we chosed a special target for our holidays. We – that are my husband, my brother-in-law, his wife and me. We spent our holidays already several times in Italy – in Tuscany and also Emilia Romagna. Well, now we searched for a destination close to Andrea, hoping that we can link our vacation with the visit of one of his concerts.

Unfortunately there was not any Piano solo concert scheduled for the period of our stay in Italy, but Andrea organised a house concert for us, so that we could get the chance to enjoy yet his music live. He invited also some other artists and prepared a
very interesting programm for the evening.

It was a very special experience to enter Andrea's room, the place where he plays and composes his music.

We were the first guests to arrive and so we could take the best seats. I took a seat next to the piano, so that I could have a look at the keys. The other guests arrived one by the other, I knew some of them from watching pictures or reading reports in our Newsletter, others did I already met in person (Francesco, Andrea and his parents) or I was already in touch with them through the net (Maria and Maria Pia)and could finally get to know them live.

While we were awaiting for the other guests, De Lord took a seat at the piano and played a song to test the piano. It was the moment, when I heard the first time the sound of Andrea's piano and it is an indescribable feeling to stay that close to the piano and to listen in such an intimate atmosphere to the music.

The concert started when all guests were there. Andrea greeted us and presented the first pianist of the evening. Francesco Mantovani opened the evening with "Tears in heaven". Some time ago I saw already a video on the net, in which he was playing that song and I was deeply impressed from the sentimantal way he was playing it. To listen live to it was even more beautiful.

The members of his band "Hey Delay" were also there, the singer and guitarist Gabriele Pigoni and the singer Martina Petrocelli. They played "Wish you were here"from Pink Floyd and two of their own songs, the lyrics to one of them was written by Francesco and the text of the other song was written by the singer Martina Petrocelli. The musicians were rewarded with plenty of applause and made way for the next pianist: De Lord!

I have to admit that I did not know him before although he already has a rather big fan community! He is also a composer and presented some of his works. He was telling us his thoughts to each of the songs, the songs are about love, separation and dreaming. In one of the songs he has descrived life as a journey. Lorella, Andreas mother, was so kind to translate everything for us into English and she asked him some questions about his music. Like we all, she has been rather impressed about the maturity and depth of this young artist. His music is melancolic, sometimes sad, but it also conveys a sense of strength and power!

Then it was Andrea's turn to play. First he thanked all guests and explained why he loves this kind of concert – he likes the intimate atmosphere and to stay that close to the audience and to have a direct feedback in this way. As usually, he told beforehand something about his songs. He started with "Time flies", one of the songs of his new album "Chronos". I knew the song already since the beautiful video of the song already is published at Youtube. Of course, played live, it was something very special! Then he presented us the song "La via delle sette torri", it has some faster passages, alternating with rather slow passages. I was watching at Andrea's fingers, how they scurried nimbly over the keyboard and have vigorously pushed the keys, then in the next moment they seemed to float over they keyboard – like he first had to search for the next key to press, then he continued playing with long and delicate strokes. In this moment I felt once again, how much of his personality and of his heart he is putting in the keys of the piano. Suche moments are magical and I felt
enchanted by his music.

The next song was also very emotional, well, that's not suprising since it is a love song: "Le parole che non ti ho mai detto". Then followed another beautiful song from his new album: "Points of view". As encore we could enjoy "Frammenti", one of my favorite songs from the album "Metamorfosi".There was another hightlight to end the concert: Andrea and Francesco played four hands "Undersounds", it's amazing how well these two pianists are harmonizing.

The concert was now finished, but the evening was going ahead. We moved into the dining room where Lorella has provided lots of treats: stuffed cherry tomatoes, baked zucchini, olives and various savory pastries and a selection of sweet little tarts! So the evening ended nicely with dining and chatting.

Thank you Andrea, for organising the evening for us despite you have a very busy schedule in this period!
Thanks also to the other musicians who enriched the evening with their perfomances.
And of course a special thank you to Lorella and Olbes, who did care so well for the guests from Germany not only at this evening. :)

Stefanie