Curt Cacioppo: Granite Technique and Cultivated Sound
By Anna Laura Longo
Rome, October 10, 2010

Compact and square, the body holds itself firmly balanced – almost motionless – before the keyboard, while the hands, assured in their movement, unleash a gripping, prehensile attack on the keys to render a sound ever stimulating and present. 

In the context of the Festival “Nuovi Spazi Musicali 2010” (Villa Aurelia – Rome), Curt Cacioppo, in a brimming program today, offered us his thorough mastery, penetrating into the pages of Arauco, Trythall, Porto, Piacentini, Kirchner, Cacioppo [both C. and Ch.] and Campodonico.

The compositions spanned the period 1980-2009, and despite their variegation, followed the artist’s maturity and control in a flow that proceeded along the lines of a well-measured argument.

Expressivity, however much apportioned, found complement in clean gesture: the listener was never disappointed, by virtue of this union of emotion and sagacity.

Even the calm moments could be assertive, with the sound so well nourished and anchored.

Fidelity to the score was absolutely convincing, as manifest in a true and authentic ability to draw with lucid austerity the interior world of the author.

The music united with us entirely, in steady ardor.