Stefano Bollani is just 14 years old when he watches the movie Jesus Christ Superstar for the first time, and the experience is overwhelming: he falls in love with the music, with the story, with the atmosphere, with the scenes and quickly learns all the lyrics, but he does not dare, at the time, to play the music.
After 50 years from the release of the original recording “Jesus Christ Superstar”, Stefano Bollani decides to create his personal version of the masterpiece by Andrew LIoyd Webber & Tim Rice, with the approval of the English composer himself.
“Piano Variations on Jesus Christ Superstar” is a totally unpublished and entirely instrumental version for piano solo, but it treasures something as precious as the original does, in the words of Bollani: “I chose the piano solo form because the love story is between the rock opera and me. And a love story thrives if it remains intimate.”
One should not expect, though, a mere piano solo transcription. Stefano Bollani, grateful for the exceptional approval he received from Andrew Lloyd Webber to interpret his cult opera, has freely, and always respectfully, given his improvisational twist to the original motifs and to the songs following his creative flicker and his musical spirit, shaped on the many musical traditions, the many genres and personalities that influenced, forged and consolidated what is now considered to be his musical language. -© Mauro Diazzi
