Badass cello > badass other instruments

March 6, 2013 7:06 PM

Giovanni Sollima is a contemporary composer and cellist whose music is at once fiercely modern and lushly romantic. Witness Daydream: the first half is a rich, warm trio, and the second half is a virtuosic cello solo that is, for lack of better words, punk as fuck. His longer composition Violoncelles, Vibrez! is a lush, pulsating piece that builds to an incredible climax. My favorite work of his, L. B. Files, is a four-part work that rapidly shifts styles and colors and textures – simply glorious all around.
posted by Rory Marinich (24 comments total)

I play cello.

or at least

i thought i did
posted by Sebmojo at 7:13 PM on March 6, 2013 [3 favorites]

Awesome, stuff! Love the simultaneous tapping and intense bowing in the second half of Daydream. Really inventive and exciting playing.
posted by AtDuskGreg at 7:24 PM on March 6, 2013

I wish they hadn't done the multiple-arms thing on the "Daydream" video. I want to see what he's doing!
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 7:33 PM on March 6, 2013

I have been wishing for the cello score to Nightwatching and finally discovered just last night that it was taken from a song called 'Violoncelles, Vibrez!' by a composer I had never heard of. I never expected that I would see the song and the musician on metafilter today...
posted by wrabbit at 7:46 PM on March 6, 2013 [1 favorite]

Thaaaat's the mood this was putting me in. Greenaway. Now it's obvious.
posted by Rustic Etruscan at 7:50 PM on March 6, 2013

Huh, directed by Lasse Gjertsen. Neat, I wondered what he's been up to.
posted by zompist at 7:54 PM on March 6, 2013

That's just insanely beautiful musically, and seriously, thank you. But I'm going to have to go to MeTa and request a "Don't even be just a little high when you watch this" feature from here on out.
posted by timsteil at 7:54 PM on March 6, 2013 [1 favorite]

How could I have gone so long without ever hearing this music? I am in awe. Thank you one million times for this.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 7:59 PM on March 6, 2013

This is amazing.

OK with everyone if I call him "The Morello of Cello" instead of remembering an Italian name?
posted by oblio_one at 8:02 PM on March 6, 2013

This is brilliant, but the quick cuts between cameras in Daydream Part 2 are painful in a way that the music is not, at least to my head (now clutched and a little bowed).
posted by mcoo at 8:13 PM on March 6, 2013

The "four" link is absolutely stunning. Non-stop eargasm. Thanks!
posted by pmbuko at 8:16 PM on March 6, 2013

This is really stunning, thank you so much for sharing it!
posted by yasaman at 8:17 PM on March 6, 2013

I listened to all four parts of Igiul . The first is awesome, the second hauntingly sublime and gorgeous. Then the vocals in the ensuing parts completely threw me.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 9:35 PM on March 6, 2013

Previously.
posted by homunculus at 10:08 PM on March 6, 2013 [1 favorite]

Honestly not.. or at least, not consciously trying to.. play the before-it-was-cool card.. but when I chose cello as my specialty in my years of school orchestra.. I only remember it being a punchline, pop culturally speaking. It being the instrument people played in sitcoms that characters would run screaming from, like Angela on Who's The Boss and to a Lester extent Helen on Wings. What was the cultural turning point when they became hyper cool? My gut tells me around the time of Rasputinas debut album, but maybe there was something I missed in my media deprived Central Oregon prison.
posted by mediocre at 10:34 PM on March 6, 2013

I downloaded this guy's album after the previous post. Genius. I can't believe it's been 6 years...
posted by Acey at 4:54 AM on March 7, 2013

when they became hyper cool?

Cello has always been cool.
posted by aught at 5:09 AM on March 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

CELLO: IT WORKS, BITCHES.

Transcribing the solo would give me conniptions.
posted by RakDaddy at 8:04 AM on March 7, 2013

Also, Bluegrass Cello Funk Punk Metal is a thing.
posted by Roger_Mexico at 8:06 AM on March 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

unable to watch this at work now, but my fav Cello artist is Melora Creager or Rasputina
posted by zombieApoc at 10:41 AM on March 7, 2013 [1 favorite]

This is beautiful, thank you Rory.
posted by mnfn at 12:25 PM on March 7, 2013

This is amazing. Thank you for posting this.
posted by theuninvitedguest at 9:35 AM on March 8, 2013

Is there any place to download "We Were Trees" in the US legally? It's not on iTunes or Amazon.
posted by theuninvitedguest at 9:58 AM on March 8, 2013

He is indeed pretty great. Thanks for posting this. Though I will say that I have tired somewhat of the musical trope of virtuoso solo performer/composers doing the piece of frantic melodic gestures over a rock ostinato that comes in and out. It's always a crowd pleaser, but, eh.

The L.B. Files, however, was wonderful.
posted by Lutoslawski at 1:11 PM on March 8, 2013