NEW YORK -- The challenge
facing composer Daniele Lombardi: Through music, transform the tragedy of Sept.
11 into hope.
"I wanted to create a sense of profound meditation on the
meaning of life -- and all of this in four minutes!" Lombardi said in his native
Italian.
So it was with the world premiere of Lombardi's "Threnodia for
21 Pianos," dedicated to the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and the
U.S. premiere of his "Sinfonia Nos. 1 and 2 for 21 Pianos," conducted by Antonio
Ballista.
In a stunning performance Thursday night, 21 pianists sat at
21 pianos on the stage of the World Financial Center's Winter Garden, which
overlooks ground zero, creating a mixture of deep, thunderous sounds and
lighter, higher chords. At times, the performers stood and leaned over the
instruments, plucking their strings.
Lombardi had told the pianists
exactly what effect he was after, said performer Kerstin Costa.
"Of
something rising into the air -- that he wanted to evoke an image of dust, of
things dissipating, ethereal," Costa said. "But at the same time I find there is
a sense of urgency -- all of us playing one key at one time very, very quickly
-- it creates a sense of tension."
The effect was unsettling at times,
magical at others -- but never easy.
"This is not entertainment music,"
Lombardi warned minutes before the concert started. "This is music made from
sounds that have never been heard before, it must be listened to with patience."
Lombardi, 57, said he sought to create a completely new sound by taking
the piano, a solo instrument, and multiplying it into an orchestra.
The
21-piano concert was the centerpiece of the weeklong "88 Keys: A Celebration of
the Piano," which opened the 15th year of the World Financial Center's free,
year-round arts series.
It also marked the culmination of a six-year
quest by one of the concert's co-producers, Sujatri Reisinger, to hear 21 pianos
perform in the Winter Garden.
Reisinger, who owns the piano company
Klavierhouse, met Lombardi in 1997, one year after the composer finished writing
the symphonies, which have since been performed in Berlin, Paris and Lombardi's
hometown of Florence, among other cities.
Since their meeting, Reisinger
has worked tirelessly to bring the concert to New York.
Over the last
year, he convinced the Italian piano manufacturer Fazioli to help him round up
the necessary 21 handcrafted Fazioli pianos, which they borrowed from private
owners across the United States.
"I thought things looked difficult,
because I thought where are we going to find all these pianos," said Fazioli's
founder, Paolo Fazioli, who attended Thursday's concert. "I thought to myself,
'He's never going to make it.'"
Hundreds of people, many with their eyes
closed, sat through the hour-long performance, despite the background noise of
people coming and going from the World Financial Center.
"I think it's
fabulous, absolutely fabulous," said Victor Friedman, 70, whose piano teacher
was one of the performers. "Not only the audio, but it's a visual treat with the
21 pianos."
Added Friedman: "They evoke storms, sunshine. They evoke
nature in many ways."
