INTERVISTA DI MAGGIE WILLIAMS – AUTUNNO 2004 –Double Bassist

"Singing from the soul "

Stefano Sciascia's mission is to encourage bassists to look to their soul for inspiration. He opens his own to Maggie Williams

As anyone who has ever played a solo work will know, there's more to successful interpretation than merely getting the notes and rhythms correct. Emotional involvement and the ability to bring your own character to a performance are equally important, and these are facets that Italian soloist Stefano Sciascia has put at the centre of his own art. Born in Turin in 1960, Sciascia began playing the double bass relatively late at the age of 16. He progressed quickly to the Italian Youth Orchestra, which gave him plenty of insight into what life as a professional musician might entail.

'We did a European tour, performed at the Edinburgh Festival and saw some beautiful places. I began to understand about orchestral playing, and how it would be to do this as a profession,' he recalls. After completing his studies, Sciascia continued his orchestral career, joining the Turin Radio Symphony Orchestra. He supplemented his section work with Baroque performances on modern instruments through I Solisti Veneti di Claudio Scimone, and played Classical period works with l'Orchestra da Camera di Padova e del Veneto.

While inspired by his orchestral and chamber experiences, Sciascia discovered that these roles only partially fulfilled his musical desires. 'I got to play with many soloists through my orchestral work, and that made me realise there was something inside me that I wanted to express. It's very beautiful to hear an orchestra or a bass section all together, but it's like a choir - you can't hear your own voice.' The young bassist started to work on a more individual means of expression. He studied Bottesini's solo works during breaks in his orchestral schedule, and after a mere two to three months, hired a studio to make 'a simple record' of some of these pieces with the pianist David Giovanni Leonardi - who remains Sciascia's regular accompanist. 'We made a basic recording, and then I decided I wanted someone to publish it. It wasn't a very good tape, though,' he concedes.

'I went to [record companies in] Milan and Turin, but everyone wanted money to produce a CD. Nearer to my home in Venice, I found the producer Robert de Pieri who runs the Rivo Alto publishing company.' De Pieri's passion for Italian music, and his fondness for Bottesini's works, convinced him to take a chance with Sciascia. In 1994, after some reworking in the studio, Opere per contrabbasso e pianoforte appeared, cementing the start of a long-term working relationship with de Pieri which continues to this day. 'Robert is great, a real professional,' Sciascia enthuses. Sciascia's published repertoire now extends to six recordings on Rivo Alto, but it was the third of these, 1998's Quella fiamma which marked a real turning point for the bassist. Comprising his own transcriptions of operatic arias by 18th century composers including Vivaldi, Handel and Pergolesi, it not only marked the start of Sciascia's passion for creating his own repertoire, but also changed the way he viewed the double bass. 'I began to think about how to make the instrument sing like the human voice,' he explains. 'This was my new inspiration, to try to forget that you're playing the bass and to be free with your mind. Your feelings have to be able to reach the heart of your audience, like a singer does.' Sciascia cites Gary Karr as a big influence in this respect. 'Gary Karr was the first person who I really heard sing with my instrument,' he explains. However, Sciascia concedes that the double bass repertoire doesn't always help players to achieve this lyrical goal. 'Sometimes double bass music is not that beautiful, other instruments - and singers - have more attractive repertoire.' In transcribing arias for the bass, Sciascia also points out that he is in good company. 'Bottesini was a man of the opera.

He created music around vocal works, lots of fantasies based on Italian arias.' The bassist hasn't lost his passion for Bottesini, and ten years after his first solo CD, he intends to record some further works by the Italian composer. 'When I play live, I always include some Bottesini in my recitals,' Sciascia explains. 'Friends have often suggested that I make a CD of some pieces, but every time I've tried to settle down to record them in the past, I've had a new idea and it's got put to one side. Hopefully, now it'll happen.' Sciascia will be visiting the studio in July to record the works, with the CD due for release some time in 2005. Recording the Bottesini repertoire will mark Sciascia's second session in the studio this year.

At the beginning of 2004 he created a CD of his own compositions, taking a radical departure from his previous projects. 'The CD's not really classical music, not ambient, not ethnic - in fact, I'm not sure how to classify it!' he explains. 'Once it was finished, I asked lots of people what they thought, and many said it sounded like a soundtrack, with images of wind, water and suchlike. So, it's a soundtrack, to a year of my life.' Titled Mantra 22:22, the work uses the bass on its own but also with overdubs, multi-tracking and other studio techniques. 'It's all improvised, and completely different from everything else that I've done. I had the ideas when I was teaching, then went to Infinity Studios in Trieste and said to the engineers, "I have to record this music". I worked with Paolo Carrer who has produced all my CDs, and I went ahead, playing it all in one day. I was so hypnotised by the music that I couldn't drive my car afterwards.' Sciascia admits that 'the new CD will be a shock to people who know my other work, but I don't mind that, it's from my soul.' The CD will be available through Stefano Sciascia Production and should be ready to buy at the end of this year via Lemur Music (www.lemurmusic.com).

Encouraging all bassists to play from their soul is Sciascia's mission in his teaching, both with his regular students at the Conservatorio di musica Giuseppe Tartini in Trieste, and in the masterclasses he has given across Italy and abroad. 'The heart is the most important thing,' he asserts. 'You need to learn about fingering, bowing, etcetera, but I like to teach the music. Everyone is different, I don't want to have everyone playing the same as me. You need to be able to move the audience in your own way.' Sciascia admits that this approach was not always at the forefront of his own learning. 'When I was a student, my maestroes told me "it's impossible to teach [musicality], you are either naturally musical or not". But now, I do teach that way, you have to be able to find things inside people. No-one plays the same as I do simply by learning with me - I help them to find their own voice.'

Regardless of whether he is giving a live performance or recording for CD, the importance of bringing his soul into the music remains the same for Sciascia. 'Many people say that it's easy to record, as you can edit afterwards,' he muses. 'But I think everyone should try recording before they say that! Yes, it's easy to cut things, but you could end up being in the studio for a whole month, and that's expensive. In reality, you have two to three days, and you have to be able to leave something of yourself in that CD, it will be there forever. When you record, you have to be in the right mood all the time, it's hard work.' Sciascia's process of recording provides him with some time for reflection before editing begins. 'I like to play a piece three times without stopping, then I go home afterwards and choose the best parts from the recordings, where I hear the emotion is there - that's the most important thing.' Preparing for a live recital requires a different approach. 'As musicians, you make yourself quiet before playing, you can do meditation, Feldenkrais exercises, anything to become quiet. Then, you go on and you're not quiet! Before a performance, there are a lot of distractions, but the moment you go out onto the stage, you're quiet, the audience is quiet, everyone is silent, and it's like magic. There's something in the air.'

With a schedule of over 15 live recitals this year in Italy, as well as assignments further afield, Sciascia has a lot of magic to create. Over the past years, he has performed twice at the International Society of Bassists' conventions, in 2001 and 2003, gaining a standing ovation for his performance at the latter. Looking ahead, Sciascia has a tour of Japan planned for later in 2004, where the bassist has an enthusiastic following - including an ensemble bearing his name. After hearing the Quella Fiamma CD, Japanese bassist Yoshihiro Utsumi began writing to Sciascia, and went on to form the 22-person Sciascia Ensemble Japan (SEJ) to play around the country and 'make people know [Sciascia's] art'. More exposure in Japan followed, with Susumu Morikawa of Tokyo's King Records selecting two pieces from Quella Fiamma for his compilation CD of double bass solos, King of Bass. King Records also re-released Sciascia's 2002 album Songs of the World in 2003 for a Japanese audience, with the title Contrabasso!. Sciascia has built up a network of friends and colleagues in Japan, including Minoru Kimoto, who he describes as running 'the best bass shop in Tokyo.'

Sciascia sums up his approach to music, saying 'we need more communication between people - it's a mission to make people laugh, cry and feel things. The importance of the music is to make you feel free, and I play to lighten the hearts of other people. I hope I can help everyone else to do these things as well.' Whether listening to his CDs or in a live performance, Sciascia leaves a part of himself in the music, and with his audience.

Issued : Autumn 2004 Version   Published Sep.2004