Caruso, Vincenzo
Vico Novecento: A Century Of Neapolitan Piano Stories
The center of the city of Naples is a labyrinth of narrow streets, frequently called "vico". Unless one knows the map by heart, it is practically impossible not to get lost in that intricate web of minuscule openings between old buildings. If one would feel the need for a further, imaginary vico after so many actual ones, the pianist and composer of this Da Vinci Classics album, Vincenzo Caruso, created a new, hidden vico just for his listeners. He called it Vico Novecento, and drew it, in an imagined map, as a line connecting the Conservatory of Naples (San Pietro a Majella) to a publishing company, Casa Musicale Simeoli, opposite it. The album Vico Novecento therefore explores the glorious school of (piano) composition which flourished at and around the Conservatory of Naples in the twentieth century, and whose sprouts still continue to show nowadays, as is demonstrated by two newly commissioned pieces (by Fabio Ambrosino and Ciro Ferrigno) and by Carusos own pieces featured here. They complement works by Gennaro and Jacopo Napoli, Mario Pilati, Terenzio Gargiulo, Aladino Di Martino, Enzo De Bellis, Alfredo Cece, Antonio Caggiula and Tito Aprea, who are among the leading figures of the Neapolitan school.