The mandolin tradition endures a chronic delay, compared to the necessity to consolidate new technical and musical achievements, almost self-satisfying for the long time perceived cultural debt that places this instrument on the fragile border between amateurism and professionalism.
In quite recent times the establishment of mandolin chairs in the Italian Conservatories and Music High School has offered a propulsive thrust for all the chain of the mandolin sector such as repertoire, concerts, contests and manufacture. And exactly on the wave of this favourable conjunction Salvatore Della Vecchia’s compositional style finds its inspiration. Through the emulation of some of his celebrated predecessors like Calace, Munier and Ranieri, he dusts off the old and established combination between the composer and concert performer.
In “Onyricon” the aesthetic poise of compositional form and content, virtuosism and lyricism coexist in a perfect harmony, feeding one another. The technical endowment of the performer who wants to approach the piece is put to the test by its high level of complexity.
As a sort of compendium, all the main techniques of the instrument (tremolos and arpeggios on three and four chords, tremolos with accompaniment, the extensions of the left hand) are skilfully used and put at the service of a masterful and functional polyphony, that reaches one of the highest peaks of the solo instrument repertoire for the quality of its musical proposal, while not representing a unicum of the instrument literature.
I therefore wish for this composition to be full-fledged included among the masterpieces of contemporary solo literature and be understood for its intrinsic value in the concert repertoires of the great solo mandolin players.
(Michele De Martino)

Author: Salvatore Della Vecchia (*1986)

Editor: Carla Senese, Riccardo Del Prete

Publication Date: 12/18/2021

Pages: pp. 8

Size: 230x310 mm

Binding: Saddle stitching

ISMN: 979-0-2153-2718-4

Code: MAN 28

Salvatore Della Vecchia (born in 1986) is a polyhedric Neapolitan artist of our days. He was a pupil of M° G. Panariello, with whom he studied Composition, but he is also a virtuoso mandolinist with an international concert career.
He is passionate about cinema and he worked in 2016, both as arranger and performer, on the creation of the soundtrack of the film Noi eravamo directed by Leonardo Tiberi.
Graduated in both Composition and Mandolin with full marks and honors at the Conservatory of Naples “San Pietro a Majella”, he is among the winners of prestigious competitions such as: III International Competition for Mandolin “Raffaele Calace” (2006) and National Prize of the Arts (2010), and his concert activity have seen him engaged as a soloist with orchestras on international stages such as the Xian Symphony Orchestra (China) and the Montpellier National Orchestra.
He was a member of the Neapolis Ensemble, with which he performed in many prestigious theaters around the world and recorded three discs. Since 2013 he is first mandolin of the Melis Mandolin Quartet, with which he has performed at the 44th Festival Internacional de Plectro de La Rioja in Spain and at the Festival Internacional Mandolines de Lunel in France, who has chosen his image to represent the poster of the 11th edition.
He regularly holds masterclasses in the main international Mandolin circuits. Among the various musical formations established over the years, the Motus Mandolin Quartet, with which he records the album Calace, music for mandolin quartet (Brillant Classics, 2017), taking care of its arrangements and transcriptions, has become very popular. There are numerous recordings for artists and labels of international importance and his activity as composer, arranger and orchestrator constantly leads him to important collaborations with musical groups on the European scene.
His compositions are performed and recorded by well-known concert players and orchestras, and some of these has been chosen as compulsory pieces for national competitions (CFM - Confédération Musicale de France) and in the ministerial programs for the study of the Mandolin (Conservatoire National de Région Marseille).
Since 2015 he has been a member of the Italian Orchestra led by Renzo Arbore, participating in numerous tours in Italy and abroad as well as in the recording of important television and radio programs and events.