MASSIMO AIELLO tribute to Beethoven  (2003)     Reviewed: September 2003 Genre: Jazz/Rock Key tracks:  1° Movement: Allegro ma non troppo,un poco maestoso; 2° Movement: molto vivace; "Present for Ludwig" 3° Movement: Adagio molto e cantabile; 4° Movement: Presto (con coro finale): Inno alla Gioia - Melodic Drum Solo - Resto del Finale   Exists an old tradition of experiments in music mixing between what we define “classical music” and modern kinds of music: some turned out well, others disappointly or anyway uninteresting. From the Bach’s masterly jazz interpretations of Jaques Loussier and his trio, to the unforgettable “electronic” Beethoven used as soundtrack in “A Clockwork Orange”, to the scores in samba version (!) of “Bach in Brazil”. The experiment done by Massimo Aiello, defined by himself an “intrusion”, use as base a recording of the Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, one of the absolute masterpieces of the symphonic repertoire of all times (or rather, of the music tout-court) accompaning it with that is maybe the symbol of the non-classical music, the break-instrument (in harmonic sense): the drums. It’s one of those experiment that could make turn the nose up (much) to the classical purists, and to the crowds of aficionados by the german genius, who Aiello join as he say in the record booklet declaring his admiration for Beethoven. But the operation is uninteresting not at all, and deserve to be analysed and listened with attention.   One of the aspect turned out better is the ability of drums to emphasize some of the most impetuouses passages of the symphony, that are the Beethoven’ stylistic code. The Aiello’s credit is to carried out the right dimension for his “intrusion”, neither hangin over nor beeing squashed by the orchestral sonorous mass. The bad one could ask “What this edition add to Beethoven?”; to this question we can answer only saying “Nothing”. But this don’t take nothing away from the permissiblity and the validity of Aiello’s “divertissement”, if it’s considerated like that. I want to say even that the drummer demonstrate a great ability, modulating his drumming depending on the musical situation: obviously there’s an abyss of difference between accompaning a modern song and following a symphony from the viewpoint of the rhythms and musical colors’ variety. In short, a record that can be appreciated by the classical music lover for the study that was done and for those emphasis moments that increase the “Beethovenian” passion; who listen only to rock or jazz can take the occasion to meet a giant of Music. Concluding, I have to reproach that the choosen edition of the symphony isn’t much good, if you compare it with any else historical editions recorded during the 20th century (Furtwängler, Klemperer, Toscanini etc.). But maybe one of these editions, more vivid than the choosen one, could made more difficult the accompaniment’s task, made easier instead by the quite flat and without peaks’ edition of the Slovakian Philarmonic. So we challenge Aiello to re-performing all using a “stronger” edition that can render the Beethovenian force (Massimo Aiello's note: the directed version of Ninth from Karajan with the Berliner I have used it for years from the alive one and for the demo but, perhaps, the recensore has not understood that in order to publish a disc with base they want the rights to us and he is not simple and that the base of the Cassovia Comrade, to my opinion and is not not only flat indeed, is of property of Music Blue and solo therefore has been possible to realize the disc….I'm sorry….!). It’s sure that the great classics still have something to tell. Reviewed by MASSIMILIANO "MAXXIMILIAN" DI FAZIO