(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Joelyn Baluyut |
The Peninsula
Giovanni Pasini's musical life sounds like Chopin's Nocturne in C Sharp Minor (No. 20). The progression is slow, low, its delving harmony is a coalescence of major and minor keys. A quiet introduction, broken chords in legato as it dissipates to a tranquil pianissimo. Giovanni's melody is a moment of elated clarity, unsullied, contemplative and a bewitch yearning of coming home.
The contemplative and wonderment on how he plays and conducts the choir and Orchestra is an assemble of a great masterpiece. Watching and listening to his concerts is an affinity, dreamy and buoyant.
Giovanni is a no stranger in the music world who was raised from a family of musicians. For four decades now, he has been to prestigious and finest orchestras in the world as Principal Violist and now a Conductor at Qatar Concert Choir and Principal Viola at Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra (QPO).
He has a lot on his plate as he also co-founded Qatar Youth Orchestra, and regularly conducts the Doha Baroque Ensemble and the Cinemoon Ensemble, both members of QPO. Giovanni narrated how music played a major role in his life who has worked with famous conductors in the world including Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Muti, Giuseppe Sinopoli, and Neville Mariner, among others.
The virtuoso likened the music as a language.“The best thing about music is it's a language that you can share with anyone, even if he doesn't speak that language, because music itself is a universal language. It opens the world to meet people and share things,” he said.
“I am a passionate musician. I love the opportunities that music gave me especially it made me travel a lot and know different cultures, that's the best thing that ever happened to me. Before coming in Qatar in 2014, I was in Malaysia, Australia, and Brazil, I have been in every continent.”
The musician recalled how he chose the viola whilst his parents were pianists.
“I come from a family of musicians. My fondest memory is my father and mother playing the piano and organ at home, they are both pianists. I myself grew up playing the piano.” He told The Peninsula that being a performer was“meant to be,” the symphony runs in his family.
Giovanni Pasini is the Principal Viola of QPO.
“Recalling on how I picked the viola as my main instrument is funny. My father said that if I want to do music, he will let me meet all of the instruments then I can choose one. We went around in school, I've seen the flute, bassoon, cello, double bass and I chose the funniest teacher which is flute, I was little that time. But when I went to the dentist, the doctor told me that I cannot play with it because I have to put on braces.”
“Another humorous scenario is when the teacher is teaching how to play with the viola. The viola is bigger than the violin, but I didn't choose it yet, I picked the violin because it's easier to play when you are small. Then when the class started to play the viola, I was looking at them and I liked it so much, it has a unique sound, so I switched from violin to viola.”
He explained that viola players are“pure blenders.”
A conductor and principal viola, that's a two-man job, but Giovanni managed to do both. He said he has a dual personality when it comes to this.
“When I came to Qatar, this is my seventh job, and blending is my second nature. It's funny that when I conduct, it's a different thing – I have to make people blend in, but you, yourself cannot blend because you give your personality to the piece. So I have this double identity, and I enjoy it,” he explained.
The orchestra is a large instrumental ensemble that combines different families from string, woodwinds, brass, and percussion. Musicians play altogether to produce one harmonious sound and blending is of importance. This is also the same scenario with the choir, thus, the voice is the main tempo.
“You need to develop this sixth sense—am I really blending? Am I really making the sound of the group? We have a saying in the orchestra“if you can't hear my neighbour, I am playing too loud.” And blending is not just sitting on the chair and playing, but also when you go out with the others and have a coffee and have a break, that's also an occasion to blend,” he said.
The musical sheet of Giovanni is a delightful journey. Keys on high and low notes but always ending with a struck of twilight.
His reputation in the industry goes beyond recognition. He was selected for the Australia-based Symphony Services International Conductor Development Program, where he was taught by Christopher Seaman. After attending masterclass across Europe including the AtsoAlmila of the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. He also received his master degree in conducting at the Katarina Gurska Foundation in Madrid under the mentorship of renown conductor and pedagogue George Pehlivanian.
During his studies, he built his repertoire conducting various orchestras across the globe, including the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Philharmonia, Sydney Sinfonia, Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic and Cairo Symphony Orchestra.
One of the latest concerts he conducted together with Alastair Willis was during the opening of the FIFA Arab Cup in December 2021 at Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor.“Al Bayt is my favourite stadium so far, it looks like a tent inside and out. Conducting is far beyond my expectations, we don't have this kind of crowd, even though in that particular occasion, music was not the focus rather the show. The adrenaline that comes from the people around you, that is something I will never forget,” he said. The said stadium has a maximum capacity of 60,000 spectators.
Being in the QPO since 2014, Giovanni said the orchestra is truly“a gem in the desert. In the whole Gulf, this is the only professional orchestra on international level. Our neighbour countries don't have something like ours.”
He said that bringing the music is significant not only to the older generation but the youth and the melody they perform in this Arab country is challenging.“More than 80 percent comes from the so-called Western tradition. We do classical music, pop music, musicals or videogames music as we are in an Arab country with a completely different music tradition.”
“We have done a lot of efforts to blend these two traditions and offer the fusion of two and also bring Arab music under a different perspective. Like in the choir now, we are recording an album of Arab music songs. And when performing as the market is is a combination of expatriates and the locals, we bring to them something easy to digest, then we have to add something a bit more sophisticated for the expatriate. At the same time, we include the young audience, so we offer new concept to them like videogames music, we diversify the market,” he explained.
Giovanni conducted and performed thousands of concerts, and each show is distinctive. Music for him is like a food.“I think music is like a food which should be in every plate, it's part of artistic education. I really want to tell the young people to learn and play a musical instrument, have fun, play together, have a mini-orchestra. Music contributes for a better society,” he said.
To a question about his favourite musical piece, he responded with Concerto for Ochestra by Bela Bartok.“It's a masterpiece of modern time music and makes every instrument feel important and soloistic at times. If you ask me tomorrow I might answer with another one,” he responded jokingly.
The finale for every masterpiece of Giovanni is like how the Concerto for Orchestra concludes in the form of sonata-allegro. The tonality is thematic and harmonious and will always be contemplated. Music has been engraved into his soul, and that is his concert that will forever keep on orchestrating.
MENAFN27012022000063011010ID1103599994