All language subtitles for Crossing.Rachmaninoff.2015.en

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["Piano Concerto No. 2" playing]

[music rises]

["Piano Concerto No. 2" continues]

[music continues]

[music stops]

[lemon scraping]

[man] I always knew
that I loved music, okay?

But the process of…

of making music part of my life

has been kind of a slow one.

I always knew I wanted to do something
with the piano.

But I've been told,
"You'll never be a pianist"

or I've been told, "It's too late".

Like, I really have to believe
in myself so much.

And to do that, you have to be very brave.

["Piano Concerto No. 2" playing]

I used to hear the "Concerto No. 2"
of Rachmaninoff in my room

and used to wave my hands around
and imagining it.

The big climax of the first movement
for me would be just…

that moment where you have this…

electricity going through your spine.

This is the first piece
where I finally clicked with the music.

I always thought it was too hard

and, uh, the fact that I started
practising the first movement,

it was, for me, a big, um, breakthrough.

It was like saying, okay,
maybe I could be a pianist.

So, for me, it's… it's like the piece
where I can try to be brave.

[piano playing]

And again, can you do this?

♪ Da, da, da, da, ba ♪

[piano continues playing]

Hey, C sharp.

[plays piano]

[man] Where is the one?

I met Flavio, he was around the office

and talking in Spanish
to one of our office girls.

And I eyed him off this Italian leprechaun
jumping all around the place,

and I was a little cautious with him,
and he certainly was cautious with me.

And I think he thought
I was gonna be too religious.

[lively piano music playing]

Well, I first heard him teaching piano,

and of course, with beginners, it's…

it's plonkety-plonk and corrections,

but I knew the young people liked him.

And the name of it. Okay. Well done.

[Flavio] Don't just move about like this.

He doesn't just focus on the music itself.

[boy] He focuses more
on the understanding of music.

He is very picky about the little things.

Can you please not do a heavy thumb here?

Don't do this.

Actually, can we do again
the one that we did before?

[scribbling]

You can tell he's very passionate
about what he does. He talks a lot.

Maybe this one is uplifting,
and this one is down like you're doing it.

Okay? So don't do all of them…

Flavio is, um…

[sighs] He's very precise
about everything.

Like, it needs to be, like, right,

and there's lots of work
to make something right.

Stop, stop. Breathe. [inhales]

[lively piano music playing]

Beautiful.

[man] Flavio's a little bit suspicious
of religion.

And there's a reason for that.
He comes from Italy.

And Italians are suspicious of religion

'cause there's so much of it
in their culture

and some of-- so much of it
doesn't really connect.

Uh, and I'm kind of suspicious
of highbrow musicians.

[dramatic piano music playing]

[man] But, uh, that kind of changed
once I heard him play.

It felt like he really meant it.

He was caught up in it.

And that caught me up.

I was thrilled actually.

[music continues]

[music continues]

[music continues]

[music continues]

[music continues]

[music continues]

[music stops]

[sighs]

[Flavio] I've been invited to perform
Rachmaninoff "Concerto No. 2" in Italy.

It's an incredible opportunity for me

because this is the first time
I will perform with an orchestra

and because I will perform
my favorite piece of music, ever.

One's debut as a soloist with orchestra
is like a rite of passage.

[man] It's a part of what allows you

to express yourself as a solo artist.

The second piano concerto by Rachmaninoff,

it's such a well-known piece,
and the tunes are so memorable.

It is both a gift
and a little bit of a curse.

But when you hear a really great soloist,
a real great musician,

and by that, I mean,
someone that's really in touch

with what that lyrical music can say,

then you realize that the piece
also challenges you

to find what it's really about,

what its heart is,
what it's trying to say.

And even though there's a great deal

of late 19th century Russian bombast
in the piece,

there's also a lot of vulnerability,
a lot of gentle lyricism

that very few people have the ability
to actually communicate.

-[wind blowing]
-[leaves rustling]

No, I don't think I can play this ending
of the first movement.

-Fake it.
-[laughs]

All right, I'll try.

[plays redundant melody]

[in Italian]
Sliding down with the fingers.

[Flavio] Then I restart with an E note?

-[man, in Italian] Then it goes like this…
-[Flavio] This is easy.

[piano playing]

[in English] I know Flavio,
it's now probably about 11 years.

Ten, 11 years.

I got to know him in Italy.
We were both living in Italy at the time.

[fast piano music playing]

[man] Flavio was clearly talented,
clearly talented.

I said, "Look, Flavio,
you need to tell me,

do you want to prepare the exam
or do you want to learn the instrument?

Do you want me to build the final product
without a strong basement,

without, you know,
the basics being really solid?

Or do you want the full pyramid
of knowledge?"

[indistinct chattering]

Flavio had no hesitation.

He said, "No, no, no,
I wanna learn the instrument."

-[fast piano music playing]
-Ah!

[in Italian] Here, you have both triplets
and couplets.

Your right hand doesn't have to worry
about your left hand.

-[soft piano music playing]
-[in English] Yes. Flavio…

[plays redundant melody]

And no.

[soft piano music playing]

Yeah.

As a young musician,
when you are studying,

when you are building
your professionality,

when you are building
your knowledge and skills…

uh, there is a moment when you feel,
"That's my life, that's my job."

[man] But then what you experience
in the years later,

it's something totally different.

We don't choose the music,

the music chooses us.

And that's why you feel in a cage.

That's why you feel you can't escape,

you can't stop either thinking,
or practising, or listening.

It's a wonderful prison.

It's a golden prison, yes.

But still, you know, doors are closed,

and nobody has got the key.

[soft piano music playing]

[dark piano music playing]

[Flavio, in English]
My first experience with music

comes from when I was
about five years old.

I had a very old, rusty keyboard.

Apparently, I used to hear the music
from the advertising or television,

or my dad's whistling,

and I could play that on the keyboard.

So I reproduced the Pasta Barilla tune

and, uh,
other famous little children's songs.

And so my parents said,

"Oh, well, maybe he wants to do piano,
let's do some lessons."

-[audience applauding]
-[indistinct chattering]

[muffled singing]

[Flavio] In a way, I never believed
I was that good,

but, you know, it made me feel good
about myself.

[muffled singing continues]

[piano playing]

[Flavio] I've never really done
the thing of saying,

"You know, dad, you know, mum,
I want to be a pianist.

I knew I liked piano but I didn't know
what I was going to do with it.

That's why I have an IT degree.

It's something practical."

But I didn't want to end up saying,
"I wish I had done piano"

or "I wondered what would have happened
if I did piano."

[dramatic piano music playing]

[Flavio] I came to New Zealand
because it's a little bit like a bet.

Like, betting into seeing

if dedicating 100 percent to the music

could bring something.

[Flavio] Studying piano performance
at the University of Auckland

was incredibly hard,

because when I started, I was 26,

and I was probably one of the oldest.

There is all these young students

of 20 and 18 and 17

and they all had far better repertoire
than I had

and their accuracy
was ten times better than mine.

It made me feel like, you know,
I can't do this.

Here you have a 26-year-old boy
that wants to play the piano,

but he has so much to work on

because of his life.

One of the difficulties
about training to be a pianist

is that you're not playing with others
all the time.

You're not like the orchestral musicians
go into the orchestra

and they're told what to do.

A pianist has to start
in his own room by himself,

practising for hours and hours by himself,

and that takes a certain kind of person.

[Flavio plays fast piano music]

This concerto is pretty difficult.

It's full of treacherous moments

where the pianist has to
not just play beautiful melodies,

but they also have to negotiate
huge leaps and jumps.

Rachmaninoff himself
was an amazing pianist.

[woman] I think he had this
amazing facility and an enormous hand.

So maybe some of these passages
weren't so hard for him,

but for the mere mortals of this world,

it does present quite a number
of challenges.

[dark piano music playing]

Rachmaninoff was a terribly
nervous musician.

He worried about his, uh, abilities
as a pianist.

Near the beginning
of his composing career,

he had the opportunity to write
a symphony, his first symphony.

It was generally regarded
as a terrible failure.

And his natural
depressive personality took over,

and there were several years, I think,
where he didn't write any music.

He actually sought counselling

in order to get out of this sort of morass
that he was in.

He was so inspired by this kind
of counselling that he received,

uh, that he immediately set about
writing this piano concerto.

[music continues]

It was an incredible success,
an outrageous success actually,

and that was practically the basis
of his career from then on,

both as a pianist and as a composer.

[piano playing]

Every piano is different,

so you have to learn how to touch

and how to make that instrument sound
even if you don't know him.

To be a pilot,
you have to know all the bolts

and little technicality of the machine.

But in the moment,
when you are actually piloting

and when you're actually flying the plane,

all those technicalities,
they shouldn't be thought of.

They become background.

[Flavio] And what matters is flying.

[classical piano music playing]

Another thing I have to be very focused on

is that I'm not playing alone,
I'm playing with an orchestra.

So the orchestra will be doing things,
will be slowing down,

will be may be doing things right
or wrong or…

[Flavio] But I have to know
what they are doing.

And the best way to practice that

is actually to have a second piano
to play the orchestra.

Well, tonight is the performance
where I can try a little bit

with this type of tension,

try to see how can I manage the focus,
how can I manage the concerto,

how can I organize
the journey of the piece,

and then, um, work in the next 20 days

on the things that perhaps
I need to make better

or fix for the performance
with the orchestra.

[indistinct chattering]

I'm not shaking. Well, not too much.

Maybe a tiny… You can see here.

But, uh… Yeah, maybe a little bit.

But… Yeah, but I'm nervous.

[audience applauding]

[soft piano music playing]

[music continues]

[tempo increases]

[music rises]

[music stops]

[indistinct chattering]

[in Italian] Listen to the recording,
and if you like,

we'll have a couple of chats,

not so much about what's already done,
but about what you change

-for when you play with the orchestra.
-[in Italian] Of course.

I can say 200 things that
you could work on, but this won't work.

Because thinking about it
obviously creates pressure.

You have to accept this result.

But we have to make it better
in the time that remains.

[dramatic piano music playing]

[Flavio, in English]
Of course I've had many doubts.

That's very hard to deal with.

Why would I want to become a musician?

What it is to be a musician?
What am I doing?

Is it to prove something?

Is it my own ego journey?

Is it because it really has a value
for other people?

I mean, these are questions
that are there all the time.

I wonder a lot about the role
of what I do with the music.

You want to do it,
but you don't really have an idea why.

It's just something
that you're driven to do.

[music continues]

[music stops]

[piano playing]

[woman speaking in Italian]

[indistinct chattering]

[sizzling]

[sizzling]

[woman speaking in Italian]

[man speaking in Italian]

[sizzling]

[rattling]

[speaking in Italian]

[woman mumbles in Italian]

[both speaking in Italian]

[man and woman speaking in Italian]

[sizzling]

[piano music rises]

[speaking in Italian]

[indistinct chattering]

[applause]

[indistinct chattering continues]

[woman, in Italian]
I've known Flavio since he was born.

And I always had the impression
even when he was three or four,

uh, that he had an artistic temperament.

[in Italian] Flavio is very stubborn,

very single-minded.

[laughter]

[in Italian] Outgoing. Stubborn.

Knows his mind.

-[speaking in Italian]
-[woman chuckles]

[in Italian] He's an artist.
He's very sweet-natured.

[in Italian] He understands
that if he wants to achieve something…

uh, he has to go after it

and not get distracted by other things.

[man] That's Flavio.

[mumbles]

[vacuum whirring]

[Flavio, in English] With my dad,
I have two descriptions, I would say.

One is who he is now

and one who he was when I was growing up.

He was in the army and he was commanding

and I suppose he had lots of pressure.

[woman yells]

[people speaking in Italian]

My mum is outgoing and a bit crazy

and very happy and loving no matter what.

[Flavio] But my dad is more sturdy.

In a way, I like--
I mean, I want to say the nice things.

He's a very correct man.

He wants to be correct all the time.

[man speaking in Italian]

[laughter]

[classical piano music playing]

[music stops]

[in Italian] When he was young,

he would never share his thoughts with us.

He wouldn't tell us what was on his mind.
He kept things to himself.

[indistinct chattering]

[man] My brother, I think things
were difficult for him when he was 18.

Then I thought things over
and then I understood.

Yes, it would have been difficult.

[plays soft piano music]

[man, in Italian] This sensitivity,
maybe I didn't notice it

because I was away a lot with work.

Also, the principle of following the rules

is important to me.

Rules about work and such,
they have to be respected.

So this sensitivity, I didn't notice it.

[indistinct chattering]

Being gay in Italy is not very, uh, easy.

It's a very conservative country. In a…

In a province, it's very hard.

Um, visibility is non-existent.

Um, people prefer--

There is no way to have
some role model of relationships

because there is not such a thing.

The only thing I could experience in Italy
was like a parallel life, in a way,

of not being who you are easily enough

because there is nothing that tells you
that you can be with someone,

and be happy.

[in Italian] It was a struggle for me
in the beginning,

but then I got over it.

But for Luigi, it was a bit harder.

[indistinct chattering]

[in Italian] On his part,
he didn't show it

and he never talked to me about it.

[in Italian] I think it was difficult

as in all situations…

uh, where the parents believe one thing

and then they understand
that it's different.

[indistinct chattering]

[Flavio, in English] My dad didn't know,
but I wanted to show him

who I was as a person.

And I-- Every time we had a trip
in the car,

we would talk about things,
about politics,

about life in general, about views,
about, um…

uh, values.

And you know, just to say,
"Hey, Dad, this is me.

You know, I'm this person."

But after a while,
my mum and my dad talked,

and then my dad said,
"I don't accept this at all."

My dad then basically,
every night, would say,

"Oh, when he leaves, I'll delete him
from the status of family.

He's not my son anymore."
And stuff like that.

Italian drama.

[fast piano music playing]

I decided I wanted to go somewhere
outside of Italy.

And so he came to me
and he gave me 200 Euros,

and he said,
"Okay, this is 200 Euros for you.

You go take the plane,
but you know you're not coming back."

[piano music continues]

So I said, "Well, you know,
I think you have…

been a coward for not talking to me
all this time,

that… um…

I have showed you so much about who I am…

um, that it shouldn't matter
who I am with in bed,

because what forms me as a man,
as a person,

is all these things that I've tried
so hard to prove that I'm worth,

to be whatever, loved or whatever…
[chuckles] …accepted."

And then when I was in the car, actually,
I received this text from my dad,

which I kept until I lost the phone
at some point,

and the text said, "Maybe you are right.

Maybe I was a coward.

And let me know how the flight goes
and when you land."

[woman speaking in Italian]

[continues speaking in Italian]

[all speaking in Italian]

[in Italian] Who is this from?

[woman] That looks great!
It's from Flavio.

Oh, lovely!

-[speaking in Italian]
-[both chuckle]

[woman] To dad, from the boys.

[fast piano music playing]

His greatest challenge will be
to achieve his goal and to do it well.

Because with him,
perhaps because of his character,

things must be done,
but they must be done well.

[music continues]

He doesn't do things superficially.

He would probably prefer not to do
something at all rather than do it badly.

[music continues]

[sizzling]

[indistinct chattering]

Having faith in yourself
is the biggest obstacle

that you have to overcome.

I say "you" because we all have
to overcome it,

but especially him.

He has been dreaming for so long
about this concerto, uh…

so I think he will be very emotional

and he'll have to overcome this emotion.

[music continues]

[music stops]

[Flavio, in English]
A few years ago, Filippo Arlia,

director of the Orchestra
Filarmonica della Calabria,

he heard about me,
we exchanged some contacts,

and we talked a little bit about music.

He offered for me to come back as a…

as a soloist with an orchestra,
playing the Rachmaninoff concerto.

[distant classical music playing]

[orchestra playing instruments]

It's going to be Flavio's first time
with an orchestra.

[trumpet playing]

He doesn't know the feeling,
he doesn't know the problem,

he doesn't know, for example,
that inside an orchestra,

there are noises.

The noises of the bow on the strings…

You know, there are noises.

And they are all little things
that might distract you.

Following a conductor
or being followed by a conductor,

they are all items inside a performance
with the orchestra

that requires different behavior,

and naturally, Flavio doesn't know.

-[in Italian] The pianist, Flavio Villani.
-[in Italian] Greetings.

[applause]

[indistinct chattering]

["Piano Concerto No. 2" playing]

[violins playing]

[in Italian] Play, everyone!

Louder!

[music rises]

[music fading]

[in Italian] Rachmaninoff is an unusual
composer in the sense

that you have to understand his work
before you can play it.

But this is very hard because inside

there is the fugue of Bach,
the music of Beethoven.

There's a bit of everything.

[music continues]

[music rises]

So you have to know how to bring together

the virtuosity of the piano
with the orchestra

especially the progression of the brass
with the softness,

the sweetness of the strings.

[conductor] A conductor and a pianist
have to really get on

and give their utmost
when you perform a work like this.

[music continues]

[Flavio, in English] This concerto
is filled with melody.

It's like he put, in this piece,
all his soul singing…

as loud as he could
in its many different ways and shapes.

[music continues]

[Flavio] There is a lot of redemption
in the-in the sound,

in the way it's shaped,

and the way it goes
from very dramatic moments

to the most beautiful melodies.

[music continues]

I just have an experience
within the piece,

uh, that I try to make my own
in the way I shape it.

But the way I shape it
is not just with a story.

It's more with feeling,

with the way you pull,
and the way you want to hold back,

or the way you want
to really let go of yourself,

which is something
I'm learning a lot more lately.

Because with such a piece,
you have to let yourself go.

[music continues]

[music continues]

[leaves rustling]

[wind howling]

[dramatic music playing]

[Flavio] In a way,
I always sought out affirmation.

I look for that everywhere,

for affirmation, all the time.

I want to be told I'm, you know, okay.

There is always going
to be somebody better,

there is always going
to be somebody different.

And there are too many recordings

of Rachmaninoff second concerto
in the world.

So why would I say
I have something to add?

I don't say that at all.

I just propose my own journey.

[music stops]

[indistinct chattering]

[Flavio] It's something
you look forward to so much in life,

and you think you'll never reach,

and you think this is going to be
too hard, and you listen to it

when you're, you know, a teenager and say,

"Oh, wow, my God, all those notes,

and all that expression,
and all that power,

I will never be able to do it,
not in a lifetime."

[various instruments playing]

[Flavio] And then, actually, you get
to the day when maybe you can do it.

You start practicing a little bit and…

"Oh, yeah, I could probably manage that."

And then that's, in a way,
a statement to yourself,

you know, to tell yourself
that you're on the right path.

[audience applauding]

[Flavio] Why is music so important for me?

It's because of the state
it gives to my mind.

In a way,
it's the only moment where I can…

feel absolutely still.

The moment you play,
you are true to yourself.

I think that's… that's the reason.

["Piano Concerto No. 2" playing]

[music continues]

[music continues]

[music continues]

[music continues]

[music continues]

[music continues]

[music continues]

[music rises]

[music continues]

[music continues]

[music rises]

[music continues]

[music continues]

-[music stops]
-[applause]

[indistinct chattering]

[woman laughing]

-[indistinct chattering]
-Wow.

[fireworks crackling]

[hisses]

[man] Whoo!

[indistinct chattering]

[Flavio speaking in Italian]

[cork pops]

[indistinct chattering continues]

Cheers! Cheers!

[speaking in Italian]

[Flavio, in English]
It's like the three movements,

there are three different stages.

The first movement for me
has the most heroic part of it all.

It's just so desperate.

It feels desperate in the body.

And what happens after it,

it's all a cleansing of that desperation.

Like climbing something

and-and almost saying
you're not able to reach it.

But then you reach it and…
and you cleanse yourself

from all the pain that you might have had
in the journey.

And for me, that moment is purifying.

[closing theme playing]