Musicians From Italy

"I have been a committed vegetarian for many years, I can't even remember how many. Even as a child I refused to eat meat, I just didn't like it. [...] Over time, being vegetarian has become an existential necessity. I can no longer eat something that is close to human sensitivity. And one day, long ago, I realized that my choice was irreversible. [...] Also because I see the results on my health and my mental state. Since I banned meat and fish, I have had better dreams, and I know for sure that it depends on the food I eat."

"Battiato [...] is considered an intellectual author, but if you analyze his lyrics, they are complete nonsense: quotes upon quotes with no real meaning."

"Once you free your mind about a concept of harmony and of music being "correct," you can do whatever you want. So, nobody told me what to do, and there was no preconception of what to do."

"My name is Giovanni Giorgio, but everybody calls me Giorgio."

"[T]he 23 and 24-year-old Guido Cantelli was prepared to sacrifice his life for the moral outrage he felt towards the fascist and Nazi regimes. Speaking personally, I have never been so tested; really, very few (if any) of us have. I stand in awe of his moral strength and conviction. This is my definition of a hero."

"When Toscanini conducted, it was like fate striking, infallible, inexorable. His innate sense of rhythm, his memory, were prodigious. Operas and concerts, he conducted them all from memory, without a score."

"Every conductor–even those who, like me, were born in Britain and raised in the United States–must sooner or later confront the ghost of Arturo Toscanini."

"[F]rom the youngest age Guido imitated his father by “waving his arms about”, and by the age of 10 he was, on occasion, conducting his father’s band."

"Cantelli was indeed one of the most prodigiously gifted conductors of his generation."

"[Guido Cantelli,] the gods' lad."

"He projected the figure of the conductor beyond the stage. Every legend has a surplus, an excess of image. However, when he conducted, he was spare, he knew how to extract the essence from a score without adding any artifice."

"I'm happy to inform you of Guido's great success and that I've brought him into my orchestra, which holds him in high regard, as I do. This is the first time in my long career that I've encountered such a gifted young man."

"He had a clear gesture and beautiful hands, he knew how to firmly control the orchestra and get what he wanted. He didn't need to imitate anyone because his artistic personality was confident and convincing."

"Maestro Cantelli was a few years younger than I, but despite this, he exerted on me a special fascination. I listened to his stories, followed him with enthusiasm, and felt proud of this young Italian talent, so famous throughout the world"

"I feel the necessity to tell you for once how much I admire and honor you. You are not only the unmatchable interpreter of the world’s musical literature [...] In the fight against the fascist criminals, too, you have shown yourself to be a man of greatest dignity [...] The fact that such a contemporary exists balances many of the delusions one must continually experience from the species minorum gentium."

"He was a great conductor, a true "servant" of music, he was the one who taught us to respect the scores, but he was also a great man, who never used music for self-interest... He was one of the three artists who radically changed the history of musical interpretation. The other two great names are Liszt, for his way of playing the piano, and Paganini for his revolutionary way of playing the violin."

"Every rehearsal is like a concert, and every concert like a debut."

"Everyone here is celebrating me—everyone is raving about me! […] Tonight I have my first concert. It's useless for me to say it, but you can imagine how nervous I am... I'm the eternal beginner. Perhaps the only person who doesn't hold myself in esteem..."

"Qui finisce l'opera, perché a questo punto il maestro è morto."

"1909, the Edwardian golden days. Genteel civilization had come to England, the continent, and the eastern United States. New York rivaled London and Paris as one of the great metropolises of the world. Albert Einstein had expounded his theory of relativity back in 1905, and science had brought us the wonders of the modern world. Culture and refinement had arrived on the east coast of America. Caruso was singing Pagliacci at the Met. Arturo Toscanini was conducting. The Barrymores were performing and a Ziegfeld girl was the rage."

"My dear Maestro, my great friend, come to Fiume d'Italia, if you can. Here today is the most resonant air in the world. And the soul of the people is as symphonic as your orchestra. The Legionaries await the Fighter who once led the warrior chorus."

"They ask me what my secret is. My secret is very simple: it consists in having the music performed, note by note, as the author wrote it."

"La Scala is the lover who made me despair the most"

"[While witnessing Cantelli conduct for the first time] That's me!"

"Among musicians, I had a true friend, Maestro Cantelli. He was a young man of particularly noble sentiments."

"He is one of the greatest conductors."

"[After hearing Marian Anderson perform] What I heard today one is privileged to hear only once in a hundred years."

"Look at him. He is one of your kind, gaunt like you. His head is carved in hard bone, between chin and forehead, with those deep hollows that form between ear and nose when he clenches his lips and jaw, with that frown that brings to mind the wild gaze of a swan beneath the swelling of its beak, with that neck that energy dilates as if to fill it with unspoken commands. Look at him. Look at his hand holding the scepter. His scepter is a wand as light as an elder rod; and it raises the great waves of the orchestra, releases the great torrents of harmony, opens the cataracts of the great river, digs the forces from the depths and carries them to the summit, restrains the tumults and reduces them to whispers, creates light and shadow, creates serenity and storm, creates mourning and jubilation… Who is he then? He is a Chief as I am a Chief, O my people."

"[Arturo Toscanini is] the greatest conductor in the world."

"[Upon learning of the beating of Toscanini by a group of Fascist Blackshirts] I am really happy. It will teach a good lesson to these boorish musicians."

"In the non-choice of Italian politics the best choice is the M5S but by this I do not mean that I believe in conspiracies of chemical trails or mind control as some supporters do. I do not trust Renzi and I would like Napolitano to go and testify at the trial on the State-Mafia negotiations. That's all."

"Union makes strength and competition and machismo are counterproductive. For us the union was physiological, we were under the same house, we wanted to go away, we said ‘ok let's do it’, alone it would have been impossible."

"We didn't care about the generation gap, when you make a company you don't care about the age difference but about other things. Not least because I have seen peers who are much less in tune with me than Ax is. Sure, it can be difficult to mix art, friendship and money, but problems only arise when the latter end. The generation gap between us is actually not that big, we complement each other: I am much older than my age and he is younger than his."

"[What if tomorrow they no longer ‘buy’ you?] Everything would change, the vile money changes, success is a pact with the Devil. But we are the first generation to achieve success coming from rap, so we go by trial and error. When I started I didn't have references, there were no artists of our type selling what we sell today. You chose rap out of a need to aggregate, you did rap to express yourself, to not be alone, there was a purity of soul that, it's undeniable, you lose to some extent along the way."

"What a useless martial art karate is. Boy, I am a blue belt in karate. I wasted years of my life learning some completely useless stuff. Like, you punch like this, but who the fuck punches like this? It's just some fun little moves."

"(Dubai is) Disneyland with corpses under the carpet."

"Two events related to clergy sexual abuse have touched the figure of Prevost. The first dates back to the early 2000s, when, as Augustinian provincial in Chicago, he was involved in a case of hospitality to a priest already convicted of paedophilia. The second, more recent, concerns his episcopate in Peru: he allegedly handled an investigation into two priests accused of molestation with little transparency."

"Although I look like a drug dealer, I am very polite in terms of food."

"It is essential to know who surrounds us. Knowledge is power, it all starts from there. I come from a family that thinks differently from me, which has always been right-wing, but my parents never imposed their ideas on me. That's how I realised that the truth lies in the middle, that factions are dead, and that you have to take action."

"I have just seen a report ... on the congress of families in Verona, where the people interviewed who attended the congress spoke out on the subject of homosexuality, all stating in the same way that homosexuality is wrong because it is against nature. Making the equation against nature equals wrong. I am always pleasantly surprised to see extremist catholics making this kind of equation."

"I am 25 years old, I have no idea why parents don't understand their children. But I think it's a dog biting its own tail: older people tend to devalue younger people simply because they have a ‘background’ that the young people are creating instead. All new generations are seen as listless and less enterprising, it has always been like that. Or has it?"

"If you're going to be wrong, it's better to do it with your own ideas. Everyone has great prejudices, something dark deep in their soul. I have it towards the ‘children of’. It is possible that there are some who do their job well, but I just can't get past that.."

"(About Matteo Renzi) He is a Berlusconi who didn't make it."

"Now I am a different rapper and I want to distance myself from those who consider me only a product of the hip hop scene."

"He will be born and will not be afraid of our son | and who knows what he will be like tomorrow, | on which roads he will walk, | what will he have in his hands, his hands, | he will move and be able to fly, | he will swim on a star, | how beautiful you are | and if she is a female she will be called | Future. || Her name said this night | it's already scary, | she will be different, beautiful as a star | it will be you in miniature. (from Futura, side B, n. 4)"

"Who knows, who knows tomorrow | what will we get our hands on, | if we can still count the waves of the sea | and raise your head. | Don't be so serious, | stay. (from Futura, side B, n. 4)"

"If I were an angel | who knows what I would do | tall, blond, invisible | how beautiful I would be | and what courage would I have. (from If I were an angel, n. 1)"

"I know a place in my heart | where the wind always blows | for your few years | and for mine who are one hundred | and there is nothing to understand | just sit and listen. | Because I wrote a song for every repentance | and I have to be careful not to fall into the wine | or end up inside your eyes | if you come closer to me... (from Cara, side B, n. 2)"

"How much hair do you have, | you can't count, | move the bottle, | let yourself be watched | if you can trust so much hair. (from Cara, side B, n. 2)"

"The night has its own scent and you can fall into it, | that no one sees you | but for someone like me, poor guy, who wanted to take you by the hand | and fall into a bed | how sad, how nostalgic | Don't look yourself in the eye and tell yourself another lie. | At least I hadn't met you | I'm dying here and you're eating ice cream. (from Cara, side B, n. 2)"