The composition of La Risonanza varies and we adapt to each new project. But we always start out with a good measure of intuition and emotion, feelings that allow us to strike a balance with the rational, almost scientific approach to music. It is the balance between these two approaches that provides us with our own musical vision and elegance of expression in performance. Basically, La Risonanza is what one might call a ‘constitutional monarchy’ in that although the thrust of the interpretation comes from me, and I am the one who chooses the repertoire, the musical result depends on all the members of the group. I think my artistic approach is more or less the same, whether I am playing solo or in an ensemble, although playing in an ensemble is a different kind of experience. I always approach the music with the same sense of joy and passion. When playing with other people, though, the musical ideas need to be verbalised. Sometimes this results in the definition of certain aspects that would remain on an intuitive level if one were playing alone. For both historical and musical reasons, I usually direct La Risonanza from the harpsichord. Conducting technique, a 19-century invention, is not so very important. I have developed a method of playing and directing based on the need to ‘make myself understood’; I lead the way at the beginning, and that is all. After that, I just play and let the other members of the ensemble play.

How does your approach change when you play with other ensembles?

I place my musical skills at the service of other directors, it’s as simple as that. I try to understand what the director wants and then translate it into my own personal language, adapting the way I play. By the same token, I also expect musicians playing with me to understand my ideas and translate them into their own language. It’s the only way to ensure giving one’s best. Musicians must be free to interpret the music in their own way and transform it into a personal experience. Otherwise, they will feel frustrated and not play at their best. My own experience as a harpsichord soloist and continuo player with other ensembles has been profoundly important to me. I have been enormously enriched by my work with Jordi Savall, Ton Koopman, Fabio Bondi and La Venexiana. Coming into contact with the aesthetic ideas and the vision of other great artists enables me to rationalise my own work.

The recordings

You have made some interesting recordings over the last few years. What criteria do you follow in selecting repertoire for your recording projects?

My recordings, especially those I have made with La Risonanza, have a common thread running through them in that they concentrate on Italian composers. I like this repertoire and I would like to make it better known among music lovers as well as my own students. When it comes to concert programmes, however, I am more wide-ranging in my choices. I have recently begun to move out of the exclusively Italian context to explore different kinds of sound. Inevitably, recording projects must take market trends into account and respond to them. In my case, the choice of a small, basically instrumental repertoire is largely dictated by financial considerations. But it is a first step towards a repertoire that offers greater potential, both in vocal and instrumental terms.

The recording of Selva di varie compositioni by Bernardo Storace is arguably one of your most innovative projects.

Storace is a real mystery. Although in aesthetic terms he belongs to the Italian Baroque period, he is a highly individual composer, one whose life, moreover, remains a mystery to us. We know that he was an organist in Sicily, but nothing is known about his origins. His style of composition is very different from that of his Neapolitan contemporaries, such as Gregorio Strozzi and Salvatori. This is particularly evident in his works based on an ostinato bass: the passacaglia, the ricercare, the chaconne and other reiterative stylistic forms. Less sophisticated and intellectual, these are very academic compositions that are built on an idea and repeat it over and over again without varying the rhythm or the instrumental texture. With Storace’s music, and also that of Gregorio Strozzi - another composer with a highly individual style whose work I find extremely interesting - one has to enter into its spirit and understand it, rather than observe it from a distance. The music appeals to our instinct more than our imagination. As a result, the constant repetition induces in us a kind of trance that takes us outside ourselves.