There are boundaries that are only an illusion of the gaze. Like the one between science and music. Between the precision of a theorem and the emotion of a note. Ingrid Carbone lives and creates in that territory of light where opposites speak to each other and complement each other. They generate a new language. She is a pianist from Cosenza with an international career. She is a researcher in Mathematical Analysis at the University of Calabria.
Two souls? No, a single consciousness that explores the world with the dual tools of logic and intuition. From university classrooms to theaters in the Middle East to break down the prejudice that classical music – and mathematics – are for the few. And he does it with his “concert conversations”, where, between narrative and musical, the explanation does not precede the performance, but penetrates it, guiding the audience in conscious listening, rich in history, images and poetry.
We asked Ingrid Carbone to reveal the background to this alchemy. With the same clarity with which he explains a function to students and the same passion with which he evokes the waves of the Strait of Messina on the piano. Because his is always a single, splendid lesson: the one on the need to go beyond the surface. To fish, without being satisfied with the catch.
“Conversation-concert” method: what is the founding principle of this innovative format and how does it structure the balance between word and music to guide the audience towards conscious listening?
«The objective is to break the cliché of classical music being reserved for a few, a prejudice that persists in Italy, in parallel with that on mathematics. I show the beauty of music by connecting it to the context that generates it. My idea is to provide images, suggestions, to show the public what I see and feel when I study a piece. I do this by playing the piano, exemplifying the steps, bringing people into my world. It is a conscious listening that comes from a rigorous, almost scientific study, which requires research: knowing the historical context, the biography, the poetry that inspired the song. It is a 360-degree dissemination of music and culture.”
Rapid cultural consumption is an undeniable current trend. How do your activities counteract “not going in depth” and stimulate the critical spirit?
«It’s a crucial point. The spectator experiences the fruit of months and years of complex, multidimensional work. And he senses it. I don’t administer cultural “pills”, but a coherent story that takes time to prepare and, listening to it, takes time to savor. The spectator immerses himself in a story with a beginning, a development, its own atmosphere. My work is in stark contrast to the tendency towards speed: I could have done what I do today even twenty years ago, without current technologies. In those moments, time as we understand it ceases to exist. It induces curiosity, a patience that cannot be exhausted in a slogan.”
Starting from the rigorous analysis of the score, how do you construct the narratives and images that you then communicate during the performance?
«Romantic music, by its descriptive nature, lends itself more than others. I have long been dedicated to Franz Liszt, not only a virtuoso but a “magician” of transcriptions, or to Schubert’s transcriptions. There is a poetry there, a harmony, an underlying beauty. My job is to understand what that song wants to represent. With an almost obsessive reading of the score, I identify the emotions, the moods that the composer wanted to evoke. Then, those emotions become mine. When I play, I’m not an external narrator: I totally identify with it. Playing “The legend of San Francesco da Paola walking on the waves”, with that stormy sea of the Strait of Messina, I almost feel nauseous from seasickness!».
Presenting Italian music in contexts such as the Middle East or China, what are the artistic and communicative choices you adopt to build a dialogue between cultures?
«I focus a lot on Italian baroque music, often underestimated in its fundamental historical role. Playing Domenico Scarlatti in Amman or China serves to make people understand that later music cannot be understood without knowing the previous one. Then, I dedicated myself to Ruggero Leoncavallo, known for “Pagliacci” but not for his piano compositions. I recorded a double album and I take these songs abroad. I choose programs suited to the context, and pieces such as those in Arabic style that Leoncavallo composed after living in Egypt are greatly appreciated. It is a project that has given me great satisfaction, with international awards. And I discover with surprise that his delightful “Notturno” exceeds 220 thousand plays online: extraordinary numbers for an unknown piece! Finally, I also play music about Italy by non-Italian composers, such as Liszt, who lived here for a long time and wrote beautiful pages inspired by our country, from the “Dante Sonata” to the “Legends” about St. Francis. It is an unexpected repertoire that always arouses great interest.”
What is missing from the Italian education system to overcome the idea of classical music as an elitist art and bring the new generations closer?
«There is an economic-structural problem: culture is the first to suffer cuts. And there is also laziness and fear of novelty in many artistic directors. If the rooms are empty, perhaps some questions should be asked. My method demonstrates that the public can be brought closer by eliminating distances. The artist doesn’t have to be a supernatural entity that just plays and goes away. Today, in an era of increasingly tense human relationships, music can and must be a tool to convey warmth and empathy. Instead, sometimes I hear myself say: “Beautiful project, but our audience isn’t ready.” But is it really the public that isn’t ready?”.
After your international experiences, is there a new area of research or an artistic project that you intend to explore?
«There are two roads. The first emerged when the Musicological Society of New Zealand and Australia invited me to an international conference for my “conversation-concert”, inserting it into a line of research on new forms of music teaching. This opened my eyes to a possible scientific musicological publication. The other project is a book. Many people ask me this. An informative book, a story that stimulates curiosity and helps to break down that wall of distrust towards classical music. An ambitious and beautiful undertaking. It’s perhaps the biggest challenge, because while I feel at home on stage, writing a book is new territory. But it’s an idea that I feel is maturing.”
(photo credit: Marianna Zupi)