Omni’s New Video of Alberto Mesirca

I first became aware of guitarist Alberto Mesirca at the end of last December. As most readers might guess, this was due to a release in the OMNI on-Location video series, curated by the Omni Foundation for the Performing Arts. The performance was a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the death of composer and musicologist Gian Francesco Malipiero. Mesirca played an excerpt from “Machere,” an homage composition by Angelo Gilardino; and the video was recorded in Malipiero’s home in Asolo, Italy.

Mesirca’s latest video, which was released this morning, was also recorded in Italy, this time in the Santuario della Madonna de Caravaggio, located in the town of Franzolo, which is in the province of Treviso. As was previewed this past Tuesday, the video, whose duration is about four minutes, presents two compositions from two decidedly different centuries. The first of these is a fantasia, given the title “La compagna,” composed by Francesco Canova da Milano. A catalog of Francesco’s lute music was compiled by Arthur Ness and published by the Harvard University Press in 1970. Since that time, all of those works have been identified by “Ness numbers;” and the number for this particular fantasia is 34.

 Screen shot of Alberto Mesirca playing the work composed for him by Bogdanović

The video then concludes with “Primo Ricercare su la Compagna,” composed by the Serbian-born American guitarist Dušan Bogdanović. This is clearly a reflection on the first composition that Mesirca performed. Furthermore, Bogdanović dedicated the piece to Mesirca.

Mind you, Francesco’s fantasia is highly embellished (as most compositions in that genre are); so I am not embarrassed to say that, even after a few listenings, I am still trying to tease the underlying theme out from all of the embellishments. (Such an undertaking is usually much easier when one can consult the score pages!) Thus far, all I can say is that both works share the same opening gesture (which is a single note).

Nevertheless, exploring this meeting of distant past and immediate present made for an engaging way to spend a Sunday afternoon!