“What I felt” is what I feel or rather, what I felt at the moment of composition, whenas he said Rick Rubin: “I find myself in that state of ecstasy that makes me understand that the time has come to record”.
Thus, Francesco Maria Mancarella, pianist, composer and conductor of international standing, presents his fifth album.
The quote from Rick Rubin, one of the most important producers of this century, capable of experimenting with different musical styles, from Run DMC to Johnny Cash, from Metallica to Shakira, highlights Francesco Maria’s natural predisposition to musical contamination. In this album, released last October 17th, in fact, in addition to introducing electronic music, he presents us with a new “instrument”: felt.
Francesco, the title “What I felt” contains a double meaning. Felt like felt, but, in the meaning of ppast articiple, too “sense”trialto”
““What I felt” is a record that I particularly care about, a record that is very free from puntorfrom a compositional point of view. For me it was important to put my hands on the piano and find that creative streak, present in that moment, in that moment. The songs are “one shot”: I sat at the piano and recorded directly onto vinyl. I took the emotion of that precise moment and told it. THEThe felt caresses the piano strings delicately. Thus a new, warm and enveloping tone is born, which in jargon defines itself “mute” or “deaf”, but which in reality turns out to be profoundly intimate and suitable for the story. The feeling is that of listening from only what we feel, not that breadth of the rooms dto concert, with that power that the piano has. AND sweeter, more delicateiFelt only softens the touch. THEThe composition process of this album is the his added value; the search for soundThat must be the primary value. FMaking a record in itself is simple, but making a record that can have such a particular sound that it is recognizable is something different. In this albumthere is all of me. When I play it, I feel like it’s part of me. I like that there are no barriers.”
How did you recreate the right effect?
“I have used a grand piano, because being a very large instrument, the resonances do not die like in other pianos. The very thin felt allows me to obtain, as heard on the record, a very deep sound, Of grandthe dimensionthe. So it is soft, warm, but does not appear to be muffled and closed, and the piano arranged in this way finds its space without disturbing the other instrumentsalso present on the album. The piano has the ability to have the range of the entire orchestra. Here we are He behaves delicately with all the tools, coexisting with them in harmonyas if it were a small company.”
Fifth album, new sounds, a tour ready to gobut you are also known internationally as the artist of “the piano that paints”. A piano, an audiovisual project that grabs yours musical composition and translto on canvas. As you play, you create a true work of art
“My piano painting is pure synesthesia. The union of two sensations, two senses that overlap at the same time, in this case, the view and hearing. The synesthetic process is something magical, a rather rare quality. The piano that paints helps discover or rediscover this emotion and makes my music something material, of tangible. Muse which becomes matter, to be seen and touched.
He patented it in 2014: you’ve come a long way together
“The piano that paints it’s not just aor tool, he is my adventure companion. He was born in Vienna and traveled the world with me, he breathed the air of my concerts. When I press notes on his keyboard, he gives me back the same energy I send to him. Hor goosebumps telling it, because I believe that this is a very intimate project, a branch that is part of who I am, so inside the stage there must be Always to be, it absolutely cannot be missed!”
CHow the music-color combination is born?
“The colors that are chosen are never random: when we let’s pull over music to color, we bring it back to sensation, the simplest element we have to express that is that we try. The color pairing is a pairing I visualize in my head. The work is instantaneous, for each painting there is only one song, there are no replicas.
The piano he paints is an instinctive project, which is born from the desire to give a new shape to music, for not to beAnd linked to the instrument, not to be required by the instrument. I don’t connect note-color, but I connect context with color. The works that are created are circular, iFirstly because the circle is an ancestral element of our lifesthink, for example, of the simple halo of the angels. Circularity does not allow you to have linearity presents the music. THEor score tells us what note do we start with and what note do we end with. Here however, in the final circularity of the painting, we know that the notes are all there, but not we are allowed chaptheking in what order were they played. There we must please the whole rather than the order.”
Wassily Kandinsky “listengo” the colors like notes in a musical compositionwith a predilection for yellow: Is there a color that particularly excites you?
“It depends on periods. When I think about this recordthe color I associate with it is purpleperhaps because I played in the dark with LEDs which if I’m not mistaken they had that tone. Regardless, anywaythe color of this latest album, isdecidedly purple.”
Purple, which is said to be the color associated with spirituality, to wisdom, to the connection with the universe And to awareness. That awareness that next year it will make youalso realize a show.
“Exactly, in 2026 there will be an exhibition with all my paintings. My works are all circular, but each one different from the other, unique pieces because they Everything is fine song chosen from my repertoire, but played only once, only one painting is born.
Every painting can also be listenorframing the Qr code that is imprinted oneach work. The work can be seen and heard at the same instant.”
Speaking of synesthesia.
