From “Il Resto del Carlino” – January 21st 2011: Discovering the contemporary repertoire for voice and piano

“[...] the Duo Alterno [...] undisputed excellence of Italian art, as well as a happy example of how you can join a long tradition of experimentation and artistic path that shines for its originality and coherence in the international scene. Significantly entitled 'Voice and gesture', the concert provides a strong, multifaceted contemporary repertoire for voice and piano, with music by Berio, Festa, Piacentini, Morricone, Berberian, and Battistelli and Lombardi [...]”

From “The Sub-Saharan Informer” – December 17th 2010: The Wonderous Duo of Riccardo Piacentini and Tiziana Scandaletti

“Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – This week at the Italian Cultural Institute an event was held for more than two hours [...] the concert of the Duo Alterno [...] Italian journey is a brilliant musical trip of the Duo Alterno across Italy, from Turin to Venice, to Genua, Rome, Naples and Palermo. The guiding idea of this program is to discover the most beautiful Italian dialectal texts set to music by the best composers of 20th century. The Italian language is so rich of musical nuances especially by using the numerous dialect, and music cannot forget this! Particularly the voice-piano repertorie has dozens of masterworks where popular and culture are mixed together with an impressive variety of colours. [...] Leone Sinigaglia [...] Francesco Paolo Tosti [...] Ghedini [...] Berio [...] The program also includes two piano pieces by the living composer and pianist Riccardo Piacentini (1958) respectively inspired to Venice and Rome [...] a lovely and lyrical evocation of wonders [...] When opportunities like these come to our city we should all jump for joy and revel in the mastery of artists that love entertaining their audience. The Italian Cultura Institute should be commended for bringing event that broaden, enlighten, entertain, and bring joy to the the people of Addis Ababa. The duo will be in town for three performances to a sold out audience that doesn't seem to get enough of the talents they have been lucky to witness.” (Bineyam G. Michael)

From “il Giornale della Musica” – November 2010: Voices of Today

From “La Stampa – Torino Sette” – February 12nd 2010: Duo Alterno: if the timid Rosina from “Il Barbiere” jokes to act sexy

“Among the most assiduous promoters of contemporary music there is the Duo Alterno from Turin [...] The two performers becomes to the forth recording of the CD series La voce contemporanea in Italia [The Italian contemporary voice] by Stradivarius label (in the previous three CDs, authors such as Dallapiccola, Petrassi, Berio, Manzoni, Maderna, Nono, Vacchi, Mosso, Colla, Pinelli and others). In this forth CD the Duo Alterno joins, in a page of the same Piacentini, the Penderecki String Quartet: the piece is titled An Mozart [...] where the so-called ‘foto-suoni’ play a decisive role [...] In Lachrimae Piacentini's voice intervenes with frames in different languages [...] Franco Donatoni is remembered through an ermetic page over the mysteries of the life and the death. Remarkable the Vocalizzo that Marcello Abbado has dedicated to the Duo Alterno [...] the melody is widely de-structured, often reduced to simple vowels, that Tiziana tranformes in a sympathetic erotic page [...] Gilberto Bosco shows off his skill to get deep meaning of the words leaning on a famous Lied by Schumann. Amidst these pages, Tiziana Scandaletti hurls herself in the solo voice ‘Stripsody’ [...] genial [...] linking noises, bubblings, grunts, onomatopoeic words as in the comics.” (Leonardo Osella)

From “Vesti Segodnya” – Riga (Lathvia) – October 26th 2009: Close to the “Music of the Spheres”

“[...] the father of the great Galileo Galilei was a composer! [...] The composer and pianist Riccardo Piacentini pointed me this fact after a concert titled ‘From telescope to telegraph to foto-musica’ at the Festival of the Italian Language in Riga. The Duo Alterno – Riccardo and his wife the soprano Tiziana Scandaletti – presented a really unusual program, dedicated to their famous compatriots [Galilei and Marconi]. In 2009 there is the quadricentennial of the invention of the telescope by Galileo [...] And one hundred years ago Guglielmo Marconi got the Nobel Price for the invention of the wireless telegraph. In 1999, ten years ago, the first ‘foto-musica’ (with constant screen projections behind the musicians). The metaphor is double: [in the foto-musica] sounds amplify and make better the acoustic qualities of the ambient where they vibrate, like Galileo's telescope enlarges and makes more close and clear the distant stars; and ‘wireless’ sounds like those ones transmitted by the telegraph through waves in the space by person to person, by continent to continent. The new piece by Riccardo Piacentini Foto-suoni delle Nuove Scienze established an alliance among sounds, flavors, colors and smells. It is just what Galileo wanted in his Dialoghi delle Nuove Scienze [...] At the moment the ‘Music of the Spheres’ is unachievable! But Riccardo utilized the music of Galileo's father, in the name of Jupiter and combining it with sounds produced by a marble [rubbed on the piano strings] of his son sixteen years old and with the screen projection of color images from the telescope of Galileo, with Tiziana who was bringing fragrant flowers on the stage (smell!) and an apple to bite (flavor!) [...] Tiziana rose above the piano, was crouched on his knees, then turned into a respectable woman who put the leash to her husband while he played the piano, lauched a ball to train Boby's invisible puppies [...] Very funny Ada Gentile's piece, written in 2006 espressly for the duo, and people perfectly appreciated these two artists coming from Turin.” (Natalija Lebedeva)

From “Amadeus” – October 2009: La voce contemporanea in Italia, Vol. 4: Artistic score ****, technical score ****

“This is the forth volume of the CD series of the duo formed by the pianist and composer Riccardo Piacentini and the soprano Tiziana Scandaletti dedicated to the contemporary voice [...] repertoire inscribed in the rut of the nobil tradition of Lieder [...] That world is in fact evocated by Mauro Bortolotti's dyptich in German language Schatten (1995) and Ein Spiel (1995), and also in Gilberto Bosco's Lied ...im Traume (2007) [...] Same discour about same Piacentini's An Mozart (2008), that elaborates Mozart Lied materials, extending the organic to five instrumental parts joining Penderecki String Quartet. Marcello Abbado's Vocalizzo [...] (1997) fingers the world of the lyric opera with a renewed sensuality that makes this page of the best of the CD. Donatoni's and Bussotti's compositions, both of 1978, look at the fashinating Seventies: respectively ...ed insieme bussarono [...] and Lachrimae (in the version for voices and piano licensed by the author we can appreciate a theatrical-gestural [Duo Alterno's] performance on YouTube). At last Cathy Berberian's Stripsody (1966) [...] very aspired field of comparison for today singers.” (Michele Coralli)

From “Musica e Scuola”  – September 15th 2009: La voce contemporanea in Italia, Vol. 4

“On the international stage by several years, the Duo Alterno, composed of two talented specialists, Tiziana Scandaletti (voice) and Riccardo Piacentini (piano), with this forth cd dedicated to contemporary composers [...] presents a different landscape devoted to voice and piano [...] A great approval to the Duo Alterno that with a huge Carthusian work is successful in communicating and leaving through recordings the musical patrimony of our time.” (Michele Gioiosa)

From “Io Donna – Corriere della Sera”  – September 12th 2009: La voce contemporanea in Italia, Vol. 4

“The soprano Tiziana Scandaletti and the pianist Riccardo Piacentini, that is Duo Alterno, [...] in this fourth stage face very various pages by Bussotti, Bortolotti, Abbado, Donatoni, Berberian, Bosco and the same Piacentini. They do this with their usual stylistic ductility and interpretative intelligence, revealing also forgotten flavors.” (Enrico Girardi)

From “allmusic” – September 1st 2009: La voce contemporanea in Italia, Vol. 4

“Stradivarius' series La voce contemporanea in Italia is a comprehensive survey of new vocal music from Italy [...] The artist on all volumes of the series, of which this is the fourth, is Duo Alterno [...] Scandaletti is a very gifted ‘new music soprano’ [...] especially well-versed in avant-garde techniques; more like Cathy Berberian, Jan De Gaetani, Esperanza Abad and other new music sopranos of a bigone generation. Piacentini appears to be as expert inside the piano and in handling external sound sources as he is at the keyboard. On the Riccardo Piacentini work, An Mozart (2008), they are joined by the Penderecki String Quartet [...] a very strong program that seems to have the legacy of opera at its heart [...] Sylvano Bussotti's Lachrimae [...] comes off like a twelve-tone vampire intermezzo, with wicked laughter and a high sense of campy drama. Macello Abbado [...] is represented by Vocalizzo sopra ‘Ma se mi toccano dov'è il mio debole’ dal Barbiere di Siviglia (1997); the familiar Rossini aria is transformed into erotic moaning with atmospherics courtesy of Piacentini's dexterous handling of the piano strings. The pièce de reistance, however, is Scandaletti's solo take on Cathy Berberian's Stripsody (1966) [...] a tour de force for an operatic soprano looking to stretch out. Scandaletti performs it with considerable enthusiasm and it's a great deal of fun.” (Uncle Dave Lewis)

From “Il Cittadino” – July 15th 2009: The contemporary stage

“Fourth powerful brick of an architecture that, especially in these slim times (‘tempi di magra’), sounds heroic, the last stubborn volume that Stradivarius label dedicates to the contemporary voice in Italy. Really superb in this all Italian ‘restoration’ the Duo Alterno of Riccardo Piacentini and Tiziana Scandaletti, respectively piano and voice of an infinite palette of colors and humours joked in total adherence to the scores and the ensemble. This is a contemporary based on the ancient, on never renegaded univers of the possible order and the lucky word, that is the univers of the liric opera and the dead languages, that emerge as marmoreal busts in a leafy path. An entire compass circle by the time and the space, a personal as universal anthology [...] the highest maestro Bussotti, the scientist Donatoni, the omnivorous Cathy Berberian, the melancholic Gilberto Bosco. One hour of listening that rewinds and clots an handful of feverish years for the national music, at now unreapeatable. Just to seal all, an intense Piacentini, composer bred at Bussotti's school, with a very personal look ‘An Mozart’.” (Elide Bergamaschi)

“In the Rakhmaninov Hall of the Moscow Conservatory we listened to a concert of Italian music from Forties to today […] This concert was very exceptional thanks to the participation of Italian artists, with music of their own homeland in its natural habitat. It could be that Russians love Italy or that there was the opportunity to free the Italian vocal style, the fact is that the hall was completely crowded. This happens infrequently in the Moscow concerts of contemporary music, and among them this is surely one of the best in several years. Singer Tiziana Scandaletti (soprano) and pianist Riccardo Piacentini formed the Duo Alterno in 1997. Since then, they tour the world and record a great number of CDs, including a series dedicated to the new vocal music in Italy. Their repertoire includes works by dozens of composers, many of whom wrote specifically for the Duo Alterno. Scandaletti and Piacentini can hold the public attention throughout the evening, both in academic or gestural-theater manner of performance. But the most successful numbers were the last two where our musicians of Studio for New Music Ensemble together with the guests were involved in a purely Italian Gambling. The vocal cycle Folk Songs by Luciano Berio is performed all over the world and rarely in Russia […] Tiziana Scandaletti and Studio for New Music were in “shocking love at first sight” and people crowned them. Another author also appears in an unusual perspective: Ennio Morricone. Everybody knows his film-music, but in this case we listened to a fragment of his cycle Epitaffi sparsi  and it was beautiful, even without movie. Morricone writes as a professional for the ensemble of contemporary music as well as for his orchestra. In this case he skillfully uses an ensemble of six instruments plus singer, joking on the pitches related to the name BACH and introducing theatrical elements: at the beginning Tiziana appears down the stage, then she goes on the stage, then removes her shoes and climb the piano! Even more striking example of musical theater was Sylvano Bussotti’s Lachrimae, where Riccardo, as a kind of magician, rolls out grand colorful ribbons and hang them on the piano strings. The two artists briefly switched roles too – she sat at the piano keyboard, and he suddenly sang – and then continued dragging ribbons, talking and singing in several languages simultaneously. More close to the tradition, in the spirit of the best songs of Schönberg and Berg, were the vocal works by Goffredo Petrassi [Due liriche di Saffo] and Luigi Dallapiccola [Tre Poemi] […]” (Ilya Ovchinnikov)

From “corrierebit.com” – June 12th 2009: Vocal pieces of contemporary musicians for Stradivarius

“[...] Leading actors of this interesting work the Duo Alterno and, in one of the eight pieces presented, the Penderecki String Quartet too. The Duo, internationally acclaimed, is formed by the soprano Tiziana Scandaletti and the pianist-composer Riccardo Piacentini. In the cd La voce contemporanea in Italia [The Italian Contemporary Voice] - vol. 4 we can listen to pieces composed between 1966 and 2008 from Bussotti, Bortolotti, Abbado, Donatoni, Berberian, Bosco and the same Piacentini. The female voice has always a central role in all the compositions. The “historic’ pieces by Bussotti and Donatoni, Lachrimae and ...ed insieme bussarono, are both of 1978 [...] a strong gestural and theatrical component is highlighted in the first one and a need of structural freedom, well defined from the first timbric beginnings of the female voice, in the second one. This need of expressive thatricality is even more evident in the solo voice piece Stripsody of 1966 [...] by the great Cathy Berberian. Excellent interpretation of Scandaletti. [...] Vocalizzo sopra ‘Ma se mi toccano dov'è il mio debole’ from Rossini's Barbiere by Marcello Abbado, composed for the Duo Alterno, is a nice example of musical divertissement written in 1997, that is a joke on the infinite possibilities of the vocal timbric variations. ...im Traume, piece of 2007 by Gilberto Bosco, also dedicated to the Duo, has the text in German language: it starts from Schumann to arrive to a passionate transformation in modern way [...] An Mozart, written by Piacentini in 2008, joins the voice and the piano to a string quartet and presents musical qualities where the influences of the German tradition of the first 20th century are mixed, in the final, to a musical past easy to recognize. The search on the text is mediated by a visionary language rich of suggestive images. A very well interpretated cd that we recommend to all lovers of the voice.”

From “ESZ News” – June 2009: A postmodern night

“[...] ...im Traume for voice and piano on Heine's text, interpretated by the Duo Alterno [...], is in the miscellaneous CD La voce contemporanea in Italia [The Italian Contemporary Voice] - vol. 4 (Stradivarius 33833), a «beautiful anthology [...] a wide landscape that honours the 20th century Italian Art» (Claudio Strinati on la Repubblica) with which Bosco comes in the important series of contemporary composers presented from the two artists, «spokespersons of absolut reference for sensibility and competence and of laudable coherence in choising the repertoire and the interpretation» (Claudio Bolzan su Hortus Musicus).”

From “4ARTS” – May 3rd 2009: The new CD of the Duo Alterno dedicated to the contemporary voice

“The Duo Alterno [...] comes out with a collection nr. 4 of La voce contemporanea in Italia. It is not easy to find, in the Italian recording stifled landscape, so courageous cultural operations. An hommage to Bussotti, with his extrahordinary Lachrimae, Donatoni, Berberian, just to cite some composers, with the excellent performance of the Duo that confirms itself as one of the most prestigeous ensemble in the Italian panorama.” (Daniele Ribustini)

From “Tandem” (Toronto, Canada) – April 5th 2009: Music meets technology. Event celebrates visionaries Galileo and Marconi

“The Bata Shoe Museum and the Italian Cultural Institute invite the public to a free concert [...] by Duo Alterno [...] returning to Toronto after a previous successful concert last year at the Music Gallery. The Duo proposes a dialogue between technology and music through time and it unites situations of the past with the present: an important 400 year anniversay – the invention of the telescope by Galileo Galilei in 1609; another important centenary – the Nobel Prize in Physics for Guglielmo Marconi and his research on ‘wireless’ communication, in 1909; today's photomusic by Riccardo Piacentini – 2009 – which could be interpreted as a metaphor both of Galileo's telescope (music which virtually infitely enlarges the acoustic particles of the musical landscape) and Marconi's wireless telegraph (music that ‘communicates without wire’, from one continent to another, from one context to another, transporting the ‘waves’ of photo-sounds to different places and cultures) [...] The program is accompanied by screenings of images [...] that refer to Marconi and Galileo.”

From “The Globe and Mail” (Toronto, Canada) – April 3rd 2009: From the telescope to the telegraph to photomusic  

“The inventive Duo Alterno presents a multimedia concert dedicated to Galileo and Marconi [...] Bata Shoe Museum [...]”

From “Neue Wesfälische Zeitung” (Bielefeld, Germany) – March 11th 2009: Inspired Italian

“Inspire. Expire. Make vibrating your vocal cords. It is a common practice. But in the Italian evening at the Süsterkirche this happened even more perfect. The Duo Alterno presented an exacting program of XXth century popular compositions. The two musicians from Tori proposed just Italian composers and their own compositions too. Remarkable since the first note the full voice of Scandaletti. Also without any amplification it was able to fill all the church. The piano accompainment was very controlled to perfectly highlight the voice. The Duo Alterno [...] was professional and gallant [“professionel und galant”]. Riccardo Piacentini explained the single points of the program. Scandaletti was very concentrated and, together, they created an atmosphere of great partnership. Soprano gave proof of an extrahordinary vocal technique. She sang, among other works, Ghedini's Four Songs on Ancient Neapolitan with inimitable security as well as with much flexibility in high passages. Considering such a vocal art [“Sagenkunst”] it is not strange that Duo Alterno's repertoire includes many pieces expressly written for them.” (Alexandra Limont)

From  “Musica e Scuola” – January 15th 2009

“[...] decisive Italian presences: two first world performances - Marcello's divertissement by the young and promising Victor Andrini, splendidly sung from Tiziana Scandaletti on a famous chamber aria of Benedetto Marcello [...]” (Mario Gioiosa).

From the Letter of Thanks by the President of the Shenyang Music Conservatory, M.o Liu Hui – December 28th 2008

“[...] you've taken the most beautiful Italian music and the perfect technique to us, and this kind of activities will definitely further strengthen our understanding about Italian music culture [...]” (Liu Hui)

From “Il Globo” (Melbourne, Australia) – October 22nd 2008: Duo Alterno: two fascinating voices

“[...] at the Melbourne Federation Hall [...] the fascinating voice of Tiziana Scandaletti weaved a magic atmosphere substeined by the music at the piano of Riccardo Piacentini. The texts of the popular songs acquired a clear and cristallyne sound quality that enchanted people. Sometimes dramatic, sometimes passional or very sweet, like in the encore, the Lullaby by Alfredo Casella, the pieces revealed themselves in all their beauty [,,,]” (Gabriella G. Hubbard)

From “La Stampa” – September 29th 2008: Scandaletti-Piacentini, a couple between Dallapiccola and Morricone

“Among the most worthy of approvals musicians by Turin, among those ones that promotes the contemporary repertoire, there are Tiziana Scandaletti and Riccardo Piacentini [...] Joint in the life through marriage, they are joint also artisticly with the name Duo Alterno, and together they became well known all over the world as refined interpreters. They signed also some suggetive ‘sonorizzazioni’, such as for the 8th and 9th International Biennial of Photography in Turin, the Train Museum in Bussoleno, the mines in Traversella, the Royal Castle in Venaria. MiTo Festival has invited them to perform [... with] a series of pages that are converged into their CDs dedicated to composers of today [...] A pleasant tracking shot through 20th century music” (L. O.)

From "Musica e Scuola" – July-August 2008: Flash from Toronto

"[...] the 3rd edition of ‘SoundaXis Festival 2008’ has happened in Toronto with conferences, symposiums, screenings and concerts dedicated to the new music. A wide space was devoted also to Italy with three concerts, two of which dedicated to Giacinto Scelsi [...] ed the third one, titled Intra/Introspections: Piacentini & Gentile, just dedicated to the composer from Turin Riccardo Piacentini and the woman composer from Rome Ada Gentile. By Piacentini were performed two works: For four for string quartet and, in world premiere, An Mozart for voice[, piano] and string quartet. [...] The excellent interpreters of this third concert were the Duo Alterno [...] and the Penderecki String Quartet [...] The appreciation of the thick public was optimum [...]" (M&S)

From "Show Time Magazine" (Toronto, Canada) – June 8th 2008: Intra/Introspections reviewed by Stanley Fefferman

“On a hot summer night, a concert of ‘new’ music with a breeze of mischief and humour blowing through it is cool news. We begin with pair of offerings for voice and piano by John Cage. Formally mocking form, composer/pianist Riccardo Piacentini and soprano Tiziana Scandaletti first adorn the silence with gestures and then perform strongly around a text of “Finnegan’s Wake” by James Joyce. The Penderecki String Quartet brought their exciting intensity to an important work by Riccardo Piacentini, his For Four (Part IV) for String Quartet (1994). The piece is a texture of horizontal and vertical elements, highly coloured and strongly contrasted in their details, as if irreconcilable differences were searching for agreeable combinations. Thus the music mixes pizzicato with discordant unison drone bowings, relaxed tempi churning into states of alarm, powerfully intense passages that dissolve into squeaking, gibbering, ghostly tones that fade away. One feels somehow involved in a personal confession and struggle against restraint, a journey towards unfetteredness. [...] Gentile’s La giornata di Betty Boop for voice and piano (2006) in five sections, has Piacentini at the piano wearing a tail, a dog collar and leash while Scandaletti outfitted like the cartoon character prances and sings to ‘Boby’ her doggie six funny texts by Sandra Cappelleto [sic], leaving the audience in high spirits.” [Stanley Fefferman]

From “Libertà” – May 26th 2008: A 20th century of fables and songs. The Duo Alterno closed with success the Bibiena Art Festival

“Fables, ballads and songs [...] gave us an intense trip through the chamber repertoire of the first and second 20th century, disovering those authors that were mostly fashinated by the popular melody: Leone Sinigaglia, Alfredo Casella, Franco Alfano, Giorgio Federico Ghedini and, at the end, Luciano Berio [...] Performer, as well as inventor of this original and captivating program [...] the Duo Alterno, sturdy chamber ensemble born in 1997 thanks to the union of the soprano Tiziana Scandaletti and the pianist and composer Riccardo Piacentini, both professor at the conservatory [...] Encouraged by the success of their frequent tours in Italy and abroad, the two artists also proposed pieces expressly compoded for the duo, such as Due canti brevi [Two brief songs] of the American composer Curt Cacioppo, that was present for the Italian première of his work [...] Worthy example of modern ‘Lied’, Cacioppo's piece takes form as a long sequence of broken phrases, strongly and painfully intense in the expression. Of remarkable interest is also the piano piece written and interpretated by Piacentini as a pleasant interlude, just instrumental, between the vocal performances: freely inspired, as the same title Venexiàn suggests, to a popular Venetian melody, this Piacentini's composition explores the last frontiers of the della piano colors, putting objects on the strings of the instrument so as obtaining sounds close to the metallic vibrations of an harpsichord. The soprano Scandaletti, ductile voice, sharp and agile, particularly suited to a chamber repertoire, immediately captured the public, chiselling with refinement and partecipation four songs from the Vecchie canzoni popolari del Piemonte [Ancient popular songs from Piedmont] elaborated and arranged by Sinigaglia. Then, at the end of the vibrant interpretation of Cacioppo's Canti brevi, the duo performed Ghedini's Quattro canti su antichi testi napoletani [Four songs on ancient Neapolitan texts], where the composer, brought the melody at the highest point of the dramatic intensity, melts it in suspended phrases, evoking dreamlike and restless atmospheres. From Alfano, instead, the duo performed the song Mamma il giovane principe [Mum, the young prince] (1919), one of the first exemples of the intense work in composition, flowed two years after in the opera La leggenda di Sakuntala [Sakuntala's legend], on Tagore's poetic textes. As completion of the brilliant performance, Piacentini and Scandaletti interpretated the Quattro canzoni popolari di Berio [Four popular songs] (embryonal idea of the more famous Folk Songs), work that, in the past, they were honoured to play just in presence of the composer [...]” (Alessandra Gregori).

From “Hallandsposten-Sweden” – March 4th 2008: Entertaining Italian duo [...] Works of Morricone, Berio, Corghi and Piacentini

“Modern tones wrapped in several layers of humour started the springseason in Kulturverket [Halmstad, Sweden]. It was last Sunday that Duo Alterno from Torino in Italy, consisting of the soprano Tiziana Scandaletti and pianist Riccardo Piacentini, alternately challenged and entertained with mostly italian music from 1900 and forward. To be able to really fascinate and engage this kind of music demands a lot from the executors. In this case not only the musicians great technical ability convinced but also the richness of variation  in expression permeated both vocal- and  pianoefforts. No detail in the demanding pianoparts escaped Piacentini’s sensitive fingers and no mood or intonation was foreign to Scandaletti which she with her expressive soprano explored and exposed. Fine presentations and crazy humorous ideas (whims) also helped to lift the entirety. Names like Luciano Berio, Ennio Morricone, Azio Corghi and Ada Gentile were in the programme. Morricone who is known to most of  us for original and creative filmmusic has also composed traditional music. During his nervy humorous Epitaffi the singer took place halflying on the grandpiano, as if the aim was to sell a used car. Were it not for these acrobatic escapades the grandpiano could have been open as the risk of drowning Scandaletti’s powerful and strong voice was non-existant. We also heard an example of Piacentini as composer where a taped American song of crickets was a foundation to his own pianomusic. When he to the audience's great delight imitated a dog while playing was only one of many examples of the duo's incomparable rampage. Summarizing all, the concert was varied, entertaining, challenging, and perfect in time. Praise also for the genial ending with a shockingly tonal folksong from their region.” (Per Björk)

From “Wolfsburger Nachrichten” – February 2nd 2008: Shouting of happiness. Tiziana Scandaletti sings sentiments. The Italian Duo Alterno performs German poets from Goethe to Rilke at Wolfsburg Castle

“The Alterno with soprano Tiziana Scandaletti and pianist [...] Riccardo Piacentini kidnapped one hundred fifty people joined at Gartensaal of Wosfsburg Castle into the world of sounds of 20th and 21th century. The Italian Cultural Institute could book the two artists, requested all over the world, for this invitation evening. The Duo presented a choice of Lieder on texts of famous German poets, realized in music by Italian contemporary composers. So through relations of friendship the ‘New Lieder from Italy’ were born. The start was with ‘Hölderlin-Lieder – Linien’ by Alessandro Solbiati. Then ‘... im Traume’ (Heinrich  Heine) by Gilberto Bosco and ‘Due liriche da Rainer Maria Rilke’ in the musical translation of Alberto Colla. The artists were animated by a thrilling fervour. Tiziana Scaldaletti gave jform to the poetic language clearly and intelligiblely and realized the different atmospheres and sentiments of these Lieder with a vocal emission (“Stimmgebung”) characterized by manifold and changing colours. She master with experience the various ranges of the voice, developes the sound in the high region (“in grosser Höhe”) with power and brilliance. Shouting of happiness expand or gush in a sonorous reciting voice in the low region (“in der Tiefe”). She fills the huge intervals with intense expressive energy and with tension; soft and elegant, instead, the colorations fit to the melodic situations. Often a single word is interpretated in an expressive manner. The singer is inspired and give form to the contents with and intensity rich of nuances, like in a kind of talk with herself. Moments of great emotional implication derive from this. The pianist listen to the sing both as partner and performer. The agreement between the two artists is made by a subtle tuning, contained inside the piano part, rich of changes and colours, continuous source of stimulus for the singer, acoustic base that substains and eviscerates all the expressed sentiments. Piacentini played some his composition with partially prepared piano. Lieder of Fabio Vacchi, ‘Mignonlied Sehnsucht’ by Goethe, and the ‘Opheliafragmente’ of Luca Lombardi by Heiner Müller were the content of the second part of the evening, that ended with a popular song from Piedmont and a modern lullaby.” (Angelika Kannenberg) 

From “Unitrè Informa” – January-February 2008: Great music [...]

“[...] beautiful concert that the glorious Accademia Sinfonico Corale ‘Stefano Tempia’ [...] committed to the Duo Alterno [...] A concert, in Conservatory, almost all on the French versant, with the nice Debussy's «Chansons de Bilitis» that Scandaletti sang with proper accents and beautiful, fluted sonorities, seconded by Piacentini's elegant piano plots. Really emotional. Then Piacentini alone performed in the double role of pianist-composer interpreting his own composition with the provocative title «Jardins sur la pluie», clear reference to Debussy's «Jardins sous la pluie», genial and fashinating page hybridized by one thousand timbric refractions thanks to Guido Boselli's cello and Annamaria Morini's diaphanous sonorities on the flute, and thanks also to the ‘foto-suoni’ (sounds reportages on tape) whose Piacentini is inventor and tireless finisher. Then Chausson, and his unforgettable «Chanson perpetuelle» [...] In the second part Casella's «Adieu à la vie»: an artist born in  Turin, Alfredo Casella, but formed in Paris at the beginning of 20th century, and the voice of Scandaletti was able to give back us at the top the modernity of that page, still upsettingly actual with its sharp profiles, pointed like stalactites, wonderful, such as wonderful and imbued by subtil erotism are Ravel's «Chanson madècasses» that the Duo Alterno magnificently performed, still giving emotions [...]” (Attilio Piovano).

From  “Musica e scuola” – January 15th 2008: The Italian contemporary voice. Cuneo, December 14th 2007, A day of studies and music

“[...] the composers Alberto Colla, Ada Gentile, Riccardo Piacentini and Alessandro Solbiati, with their remarkable curriculum vitae, took part [to the meeting] coordinated by the musicologist Sandro Cappelletto [...] The confirmation how much the voice is alive and vital, how much it is possible, also today, to write Lieder and at the same time ironic and biting pages, was in the evening, with the nice concert kept, as conlusion of the meeting, by the Duo Alterno [...] The concert was opened by Solbiati's Die Linien (second of the Hölderlin Lieder composed in 2000 with dedication to the Duo Alterno). Another time we could appreciate Tiziana Scandaletti's meticulous care in phrasing, the clear pitches, the attention in making palpable the recondite meanings of each fragment; besides this people could admire the perfect melting of the ensemble, thanks to the exquisite qualities of ‘accompanist’ of the composer and pianist Piacentini. These peculiar strokes were present also in the performance of Due liriche da Rilke (2005) by Colla, samely dedicated to the Duo Alterno, suche as in the performance of a brief collection of pages by Corghi. Then Piacentini set down alone at the piano, leaving a bit to the voice, and performed Jazz motetus VI (Cricket play) that he same composed in 2003, for piano and tape: captivating and fashinating page, with its polychromatic variety. At the end of the evening the nice and difficult lyrics by Casella under the title Adieu à la vie, written in 1914 but impressively modern, well realized by the warm voice of Tiziana Scandaletti. Last La giornata di Betty Boop by Ada Gentile (2005), page full of effects, somewhere dramaturgic, somewhere dreamlike, somewhere exhilarating, true and concise comical sketches (dedicated to the Duo Alterno e and maybe not unmindful of the unforgettable Cathy Berberian) with mix of languages and dialects, and an agreable combination of various vocal emissions: from the simple ‘parlato’ to the pure lyricism and much other more. The irony seems the main attitude [...] a very amusing joke [...] Really irrestible. Plitenessly realized by the protean voice of Scandaletti to whome interweaved also that one of the multi-performer Piacentini, ‘forced’ to perform with an explicitly gestural attitudes because of needs of... copycat [...]” (Attilio Piovano)

From “La Stampa” – January 6th 2008: Italian music for singing German poets

“A strong idea feeds the third CD that the Duo Alterno from Torino - Tiziana Scandaletti and Riccardo Piacentini [...] - dedicate to the ‘Italian contemporary voice’. The first one privileged the relation among poets and musicians in the XXth century, the second one the relations of the the art music with the popular tradition; the last one has as leading actors German poets and Italian composers. The poetries by Goethe, Heine, Rilke, Müller inspire the fantasy of masters such as Aldo Clementi and Giacomo Manzoni, successful artists like Luca Lombardi, Alessandro Solbiati, Fabio Vacchi, Alberto Colla. Se un giorno tu by Heine is the last work of the disappeared Carlo Pinelli. The different sensibilities are well picked by the interpreters, appreciated specialists in music chamber lyric. Vacchi confers to Goethe's Mignon an disquiet sensuality, Lombardi perfectly snatches the violence of Ophelia and Electra rewritten by Müller and invents a passionated piano part. Clementi frezees Rilke, Colla ignites him (and Scandaletti enkindles him) [...]” (Sandro Cappelletto)

From “il Venerdì di Repubblica” – November 30th 2007: The duo that give voice (and piano) to the Italian XXth century

“[...] The three recent cds titled La voce contemporanea in Italia [The Italian contemporary voice] represent a beautiful anthology of many tendences retraceable in the XXth century and give a very precise idea of some our maximum composers. The first cd is historicly remarkable. It includes pieces by great and ‘grandissimi’ composers. A true discovery is Tre canti di primavera [Three Spring Songs] by Giacinto Scelsi [...] so sweet and animated from a dimension of celestial and ecstatic harmony [...] Masterworks of the following decade are Due liriche di Saffo [Two Saffo Lyrics] [...] by Goffredo Petrassi. Two marvellous songs in which the idea of a di una classical style that prescinds by the commonplace of the harmonic solution of any disagreement is formulated in a perspective that makes overlapping what is far and what is near [...] And also Dallapiccola's Tre poemi [Three Poems] are wonderful [...] free and structured at the same time, the dreamy Liriche written in 1951 by Domenico Guaccero [...] the strong pieces, written in the first Sixties, by Azio Corghi and Luigi Nono. By this one Mrs. Scandaletti perform Finale for solo voice from La fabbrica illuminata [The illuminate factory] in an acrobatic lightening of archaic trillings. And very interesting is Piacentini's piece on texts of Sandro Cappelletto, 2001, a kind of post-modern evocation of an hypothetical and humorous futurism. Important the other two cds too, where some cospicuouses things appear by Maderna, Morricone, Berio, Sciarrino, Clementi, Manzoni, Vacchi and others, in a musical landscape that does honor to the Italian art of XXth century.” (Claudio Strinati)

From “Life of Guangzhou” (Canton, China) – October 16th 2007: Duo Alterno, soprano-pianist from the hometown of Pavarotti

“[...] Ms. Tiziana Scandaletti, the Italian soprano, stood besides the piano under the spotlight at Xinghai Concert Hall on Sunday night. In the dim lighting her voice began to permeate thrughout the Chamber Hall and seep into everyone's ears. From the hometown of the renowed tenor Pavarotti, the vocal-piano assembly undoubtedly prepared an Italian repertoire for Guangzhou audiences. I could not help holding my breath, afraid of missing any note from the elegant lady. With agile and quiet melodies, music is the best language for people with different backgrounds. Don't worry about understanding the deeper meaning of Italian lyric, an eligible audience could simply admire the performance. [...] For encores they performed a Chinese traditional ditty ‘Jasmine’, tending to get closer to the local audiences. Interval meritorious laughter from audiences seemed to be an affirmation to sincerity and articulation [...]” (Jesse Hwang, Kimberly Barteau)

From “Musica e Scuola” – September 15th 2007

“The Duo Alterno with this third CD voted to the Italian contemporary music con questo terzo CD dedicato alla musica contemporanea italiana earns a great applause [...] Due Poesie [Two Poetries] by Aldo Clementi, Due Liriche [Two Lyrichs] by Alberto Colla, Ophelia-Fragmente [Ophelia-Frames] by Luca Lombardi, Du Dunkelheit by Giacomo Manzoni, Se un giorno tu [If one day you] by Carlo Pinelli, Holderlin Lieder by Alessandro Solbiati, Mignon by Fabio Vacchi, will remain in the memory just because realized by the ‘bravissimi’ musicians that are able to make agreable listening to so arduous pages. Tiziana Scandaletti and Riccardo Piacentini, almost successful all over the world, are clever at bringing contemporary music with simplicity but above all musically and professionally. Excellent recording.” (Michele Gioiosa)

From “il Giornale della Musica” – September 2007: Voice and piano of today

“Third volume of a CD series that investigates non only the range of the vocal writing in Italy in the main composers of the second XXth century, but mostly its marriage with the piano (renovate, reconceived marriage, though always tied with the German Lieder tradition or with the precious manifacture of some French chansons francesi between XIXth and XXth centuries), this CD explores just this last aspect, through a poetic anthologythat is almost all in German language. It is surprising – though they are two ‘iuvenilia’ – the maturity with which Clementi takes and reformulates expressionist and dodecaphonic peculiarities in the first one of Due poesie [Two poetries ...] the harmonic skill of Colla seduces; the power of the expressive gesture of Lombardi shakes [...] the articulated but clean plot of the the first Hölderlin Lieder of Solbiati captures; the kaleidoscope in which the refined texture of Vacchi's Mignon charms. The various gems of this recording, after those ones included in the other volumes (the first, around Italian poets of the XXth century; the second, crossing the regions of the popular song, gestures and contaminations) would not appear such as this without the cleverness and passion of the performers, often dedicatee of many pieces, and living examples of the vitality and valorizzabilità of a new vocal repertoire with piano: Scandaletti valorizes a medium range particularly warm, and Piacentini an immersion and total mastery in the articulated dialogue with the voice.” (Alessandro Mastropietro)

From “Musica e Scuola” – June 2007

“It is going on the contemporary trip of the Duo Alterno [...] In this CD there are works by several maestros [...] Ennio Morricone [...] Bruno Maderna [...] devoted to the Duo Alterno the funny sketches of La giornata di Betty Boop [Betty Boop's daytime] by Ada Gentile [...] Carlo Mosso [...] Salvatore Sciarrino, with the partecipation of the cellist Madeleine Shapiro [...] Tiziana Scandaletti's voice is always at the top of the situation both in singing, so particular in this kind of repertoire, and in declaiming and acting. Riccardo Piacentini, pianist and composer, is the right musical partner in this search, hard but with sure and great artistic results.” (Michele Gioiosa)

From an official letter of the Secretary of Pontificium Consilium de Cultura, Padre Bernard Ardura – May 18th 2007

“[... The CD La voce contemporanea in Italia - vol. III is the] lucky crown of the trypthic devoted to the XXth century's vocal music by the Duo Alterno [...] One listens to the work without distractions, concentrated in catching the most thin nuances. In each interpretation the text lights the music with quick sparkling, so that the listener is induced to penetrate into the preciosity of minimun details, enriched by a constant care about the ‘breath of the voice’ [...]” (Bernard Ardura)

From “Musica e Scuola” – May 2007: [...] an announced success

“[...] Title: Pagine cantate. Cross-fade tra letteratura e musica del Novecento [Sung pages. Cross-fade between Literature and XXth Century's Music]. Performers: the cellist from New York Madeleine Shapiro in trio with the very harmonious [“affiatatissimo”] Duo Alterno, accompained by Oliviero Corbetta's readings wtih background of Daniela Vassallo's suggestive photographic projections. The program, very appreciated by a visiblely amused audience, was focused on some of the principal XXth Century's Italian autors (both for music and texts), from Scelsi-Aleramo to Petrassi-Quasimodo, from Nono-Pavese to Corghi-Bertolucci-Ungaretti, to Guaccero-Montale, to Panni e Gentile-Cappelletto, with a very interesting “raid” into the American contemporary repertoire (Earle Brown's Special events), of which Madeleine Shapiro is excellent performer. Particularly Ada Gentile's piece (La giornata di Betty Boop [Betty Boop's daytime], dedicated to the Duo Alterno on the humorous texts by Sandro Cappelletto, requested a remarkable cleverness in vocal and scenic gestures, realized with great charm by the soprano Tiziana Scandaletti [...] In short, a musical performance of high impact and level, based on the interactions of the worlds of music, literature and images.” (Mario Gioiosa)

From written declaration of the General Italian Consul in Houston, April 19th 2007

“[...] The Duo Alterno [...] got a remarkable success of audience and excited general interest [...] through its technical and interpretative skill and originality” (Cristiano Maggipinto)

From written declaration of the Chair of Department of Music in Portland State University, January 30th 2007

“[...] Your concert was sensational. Everyone I talked to afterwartd said that they enjoyed the range of music performed as well as the artistic mastery you both displayed. Your musicianship and expressive range were very inspiring to both students and faculty as well. Thank you so much for coming to our city and enriching our cultuarl life by sharig your own. You have made many new freinds and fans in Portland.” (Bryan Johanson)

From  “Rinascita” – Ottobre 31th 2006: Betty Boop & C. - 27 years of Festival “Nuovi Spazi Musicali” celebrated with large and amused audience

“[...] full house even for standing places [...] The opening of the performance was with two pieces for voice and piano by ‘Frauenliebe und Leben’, texts by Adalbert von Chamisso and music by Robert Schumann, ‘fil rouge’ of the programmation in hommage to 150 years from Schumann's death. Soprano a ductile Tiziana Scandaletti in this in this chamber work performed with such a gracefulness. Scandaletti with the pianist Riccardo Piacentini in 1997 gave life to the Duo Alterno [...] many well known composers wrote for them and their partecipations to international festivals are really numerous. The program [...] has got its point of strength in a curious piece by Ada Gentile, woman composer of exquisite sensibility [...] The work, in world premiere, is ‘La giornata di Betty Boop’ (Betty Boop's daytime) [...] on texts of Sandro Cappelletto [...] Turn into a girl of Thirties with a short striped skirt and Parisian socks on high heels Tiziana Scandaletti acts and sings among whistle sounds and playful notes, governing through a leash the little dog (pianist) wagging tail and adoring. Music gets shape, becomes an onomatopoeic barking, then a strange solfeggio and frames from Mozart [...] The program goes on with a composition of Mario Bortolotti titled ‘Ein Spiel’ (A joke) on texts by Michael von Bibernstein, all bet on high registers with delicious lulling charme [...] Here Fabio Cifariello Ciardi comes on with ‘Altre distrazioni’ (Other distracions) for solo voice on texts of F. T. Marinetti, P. Handke and Evergreens. A very theatrical piece of pure amusement with her trying the patience and asking: ‘Is he arriving or not?’, fixing a point in front of herself. Then a rigmarole on her freedom of staying alone. Modulated words, rap poetry, reciting voice holding out of the song prepare to weave a futuristic canvas with pieces like Amado mio, Toreador, Besame mucho, while delirious words and also crumbled, crashed, assonantic, homophonic, chosen for resonating in the air, are mixed together American songs and stretch out the end with classical vocalisms. Many applause from the people [...] Closing the performance, piano and cello [Madeleine Shapiro from New York] recount together with the singer (here reciting voice) some moments of the life of San Francesco. A little mystic shiver, gentle and solemn, written in a simple language where the word becomes the third instrument conversing with the humanoid voice of the cello.” (F. A.)

From “Corriere della Sera” – July 9th 2006: Scandaletti and Piacentini, direct line with the composers of 20th century

“Duo Alterno, that is the voice of Tiziana Scandaletti and the piano of Riccardo Piacentini, is an ensemble which exists since ten years and devotes itself to a tireless work of apostleship in the music of 20th century, mostly Italian. The Duo realized four CDs, dedicated to personalities such as Maderna, Ghedini and Casella, and now it adds other two anthological CDs. So now the two harmonious artists record works by Nono and Petrassi, Corghi and Sciarrino, Morricone and Berio and many others with the clear purpose to show not only the various technics in writing music, but also the manifold cultural and expressive horizons of the ‘patrol’ of composers that have made the history of the vocal music in the last one-hundred years. To their merit is to add the philological trustworthiness that comes from the scrupulous search and study through which they perform the scores and from having a continuous direct line with the same composers, really happy to give to Duo Alterno their new creations.” (Enrico Girardi)

From “Studi piemontesi” – June 2006

“Hyperactive on the side of performing [...] the Duo Alterno from Torino [...] goes on also in recording CDs and giving in large amounts its energies and engagements to promote the music of 20th century and today [... now] two important CDs dedicated to «The Italian contemporary voice» for Stradivarius [...] We liked much the first one (2005), with music by Corghi, Dallapiccola, Guaccero, Nono, Petrassi, the same Piacentini and Scelsi. In this CD we appreciated - in respect to the soprano Tiziana Scandaletti - the meticulous treatment in phrasing, the clear intonation of the pitches, the carefullness in doing tangible the hide meanings of each fragment, as well as the perfect fusion of the ensemble, thanks to the exquisite qualities of ‘accompanist’ of the the composer and pianist Piacentini. Now - Spring 2006 - come out «The Italian contemporary voice - vol. 2»; going through titles and names [...] two beautiful «Twelve Songs from Piedmont» (1968/70) by Carlo Mosso [...] that Scandaletti interprets with spicy irony [...] the «Four Popular Songs» by Berio [... with the] vocal line greatly impressing [...] In «Avendo gran disio» [...] the piano range - gracefully realized and with such timbric finesse by Piacentini - jokes on a modal setting made modern through rhythmic wits scattered with great intelligence. Really agreeable also the «Ballo» on a text by Sicily, an authentic tour de force for voice and piano, like a tongue twister full of acuminate and delirious rhythmic figures that make the page so irresistible (excellent the vocal interpretation and admirable the piano virtuosity). The fine CD starts indeed with a full bodied collection from the «Epitaffi sparsi» by Morricone (1992/93), bristly and humorous pages that request a not common vocal flexibility. Scandaletti second very well their stimmung declining her voice now with decision and emphasized accents («Epitaffio degli epitaffi»), now becoming painful and nearly imperceptible in the mysterious, worrying «Tu che passando osservi». These are pages [...] full of timbric fascination and reach of inventiveness [...] musically performed with great charme and effectiveness by the excellent Duo Alterno. Irresistible the epitaph «Per anni studiò da pianista» all done on the ironic caricature of the piano study made acidulous from a double-tonality, like a crooked and cubist pseudo-Clementi. All to admire. Other scenery for the «Two Songs on Verlaine» by Maderna (1946/47) [...] with their nice allusions to the habanera rhytm, their rearings in the high positions got with sureness and decision. More than one simple mention we have to deserve to the «Little funny scenes» by Ada Gentile (2005) or «Betty Boop's daytime», reach of effects that are now dramatical, now unreal and fantastic, really concise comic scenes (dedicated to the Duo Alterno and maybe not oblivious of the unforgettable Cathy Berberian) with linguistic and dialectal mixtures, and with a pleasant mix of various vocal emissions: from a simple speech to the pure lyricism and much other more. [...] And the collection is a true very amusing joke. It includes also quotations for instance from the little Papageno's song in the Mozart's «Flute» [...] Really compelling. Elegantly performed by the protean voice of Scandaletti to whome the multi-performer Piacentini interwines his plot. The texts, so nicely fluent, are by Sandro Cappelletto. The CD ends with a arduous and hypnotic page of Sciarrino («Ultime rose» da «Vanitas») shared by the cellist Madeleine Shapiro [...] a really precious, enjoyable and rare CD.” (Attilio Piovano)

From “Specchio” - “La Stampa” – May 16th 2006

“Tiziana Scandaletti and Riccardo Piacentini (voice and piano), since First 20th Century to today, recount the vitality of the scripture for the voice by our composers. And they know perfectly what «theatre of sound» means” (Sandro Cappelletto)

From “Il Giornale di Vicenza” – May 11th 2006: Amusing interpretation of the impure sounds “invented” by Cage

“[...] Here it is [...] ‘A flower’ for voice and piano with the ‘bravissima’ Tiziana Scandaletti, voice of soprano, instrument that dialog with alternative sonorities" (Eva Purelli)

From “L'Eco di Bergamo” – 24th March 2006: The «Duo» alternates tradition and modernity

“Magic mix between popular ancient tradition and cultured contemporary music [...] Pratically known at every latitude specially for the courageus dedication to the rediscovery and valorization of the Italian vocal repertoire in 19th Century as well as in contemporary music, the clever ensemble was able to lead a docile public inside the meanders of a program fomed by so rare and unquestionably interesting pages [...] With great concord and dramatic verve the Duo Alterno coped well with the Alfredo Casella's “Favole romanesche” op. 38 [...] the caustic Ennio Morricone's “Epitaffi sparsi” [...] the intensive Giorgio Federico Ghedini's “Quattro canti su antichi testi napoletani” till the “Quattro canzoni popolari” of Ghedini's pupil Berio. Nice parenthesis also “Madrileño”, warm piano piece by the same Piacentini, and the sweet and dreamlike “Ninnananna” by Pieralberto Cattaneo from Bergamo first time performed. If Piacentini impressed for his exquisite timbrical research, Scandaletti was brilliant performer with her flexible voice [...] really soft in climbing expressively the rich timbrical and tonal range [...]” (Filippo Manini)

From “Hortus Musicus” – October-December 2005

“[... in the CD “The Italian contemporary voice - vol. I] the two perfomers of the Duo Alterno goes on their fundamental exploration of the vocality in 20th century through this very interesting selection of chamber lyrics con signed by some leading composer of the Italian avant garde: Corghi, Dallapiccola, Guaccero, Nono, Petrassi, Piacentini and Scelsi, present in the CD with a collection that reveals absolutely aesthetic qualities and variety of languages. It is, substantially, the first volume of a triptych which is entirely dedicated to the Italian contemporary repertoire, «from Dallapiccola and Petrassi upward, not forgetting the last generations and discovering a young and unknown Scelsi as well as an ‘ante litteram’ Guaccero or Corghi»: a project [...] totally indispensable just because of the absence of systhematic initiatives aimed to valorize an entire artistic civilization which found in Scandaletti and Piacentini two ‘spokespersons’ (also on the didactic side) of absolut reference for sensibility and competence and of laudable coherence in choising the repertoire and the interpretation [,,,] So we give an unconditional approval to a musicological laying able to reveal authentic precious jewells till now really little diffused [...] Authoritative the global setting up of the performance, characterized by a great elegance (sometimes with a necessary humour), by an absolut stylistic pertinence and by an inexhaustible energy of both the performers [...] the singer was totally up to the situation also thanks to the colouristic choices, fairly controlled from an extrahordinarily wide palette extended among arcane pearly sonorities (in the wonderful Nono), dense brush strokes (“Remembering you, far” by Corghi) and livid and biting chiaroscuros (“Three Poems” by Dallapiccola), thanks to the wideness of the vocal spectrum (very well valorized from the high level of the recording) and the complete domination of technical means. Similarly efficacious the deep excavation, such as to approach effectively dramatic results (listen to, among the other ones, the Corghi's  lyric “My hands”, or Guaccero's “Gained happiness”) and also psicologically adequately defined, always supported by a research in timbre (both vocal and piano) of particular charm and suggestion, research which we think culminates in the performance of the two pieces by Nono and Piacentini, highly more complex and varicoloured in their radical sperimental conception. The CD is accompained with a rich bilingual booklet including a presentation signed by the Duo Alterno, two interviews, the texts of the performed works, an exhaustive profile of the authors.” (Claudio Bolzan)