While the Francesco Tristano concert that bulthaup organized last year at Flowers by Bornay was memorable, the one he offered this past November, held at the same venue, added new elements that further enriched and provided new resonances to his art of playing the piano, at times intimate and dreamy, enraptured and vibrant on others.
The piano, moved to the center of the lofty space covered by a grid of wood beams, was framed against a background of thick vegetation which in turn was accentuated by a skillfully conceived light installation: an allegory of the jungle, of a hidden, mysterious world beyond. An overhead spotlight created a pyramidal halo of light which, on its descent, delimited the space in which the instrument stood: a square whose luminous borders defined the space of art, the territory of Francesco Tristano. Last of all, a hidden smoke machine let out a subtle mist that imbued the scene with a dream-like texture.
A monologue of sensations
The concert, attended by a small group of bulthaup customers and friends, unfolded in a seductive, ongoing flow, a monologue full of contrasts spanning everything from Baroque to minimalist and percussive music.
What makes Francesco Tristano such an extraordinary musician is his ability to carry his listeners out of the everyday realities and off into another realm of sensitivity: a dimension in which harmonies and rhythms come alive, in which music and life weave into each other and end up merging into a whole. And as Tristano acted as our medium in the ever-renewed mystery of music, we listened in silence, hypnotized by the luminous square from which his language emerged, speaking of emotion and rationality in equal parts.
After the concert, the time came to experience the appetizers created by Nandu Jubany, who once again delighted us with an exquisite, broad array of culinary sensations.
The sounds fade and the emotion remains
Afterwards, in a less formal atmosphere, Francesco sat down at the piano again. People wandered around him – and some even dared to cross the magic boundary of light to lean on the piano and engage in the music with a closer view. The artist, yielding to free association and the mood of the moment, played a variety of pieces, some from his latest release.
And so, comforted by the music –occasionally punctuated by the bells of a nearby church– we ended up saying our goodbyes, speaking softly so as not to break the magic spell. Once again, jointly with the kindred soul of this extraordinary artist, bulthaup managed to renew its commitment to beauty.
Photographer: Adrian Pedrazas Profumo