Alessandro Quarta: who is the brilliant and rebellious violinist (who is a bit reminiscent of Mozart)

This article on Alessandro Quarta is published in issue 39 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until 26 September 2023

When he goes on stage and starts performing, a kind of magic happens: little by little, everything around him disappears. Away with the spectators who sit next to you, away with the scenography, the curtain, the lights. You forget where you are and, many times, even who you are, because in that moment only he exists: Alessandro Quarta, a man played by a violin. 47 years old, of which 44 were spent with a bow in his hand, a shaved head and an unkempt beard, a body adorned with metalhead chains and kind eyes, the multi-instrumentalist and composer from Salento is changing the rules of contemporary music, breaking down one taboo at a time. He began by refusing to wear a jacket and bow tie (“Do you think I sound better with a tailcoat?”) and continued by breaking down the rigidity of classical music with mixes of rock, funky, jazz and soul. Famous and celebrated abroad for his many collaborations with the greats – from Carlos Santana to Liza Minelli, from Céline Dion to Lionel Ritchie -, since 2019 he has also experienced success in Italy thanks to his participation in the Sanremo festival together with the trio Il Volo and, above all, to the artistic partnership with Roberto Bolle, for whom he recorded the song Dorian Greydanced on stages around the world in the dance gala Roberto Bolle and Friends. Now, Quarta is ready to stage the second piece dedicated to the étoile: Etherwhich will be premiered on September 30th at the Stradivari Festival in Cremona as part of one of the greatest works that the violinist has ever composed, The five elements.

Previews?
«It’s a work for images like The four Seasonswhere Vivaldi showed the falling leaf, the barking dog, the forming ice, the slipping people.”

What will you show us instead?
«The power of nature. Earth for me she is an old lady who has billions of years and stories to tell. Waterfall it is a drop in the desert, which becomes a river, a sea, a storm and then returns to a drop, in an empty glass in the hand of a thirsty child. Air it is what we do not see and do not touch, but without which we could not live. Fire it is passion and destruction. Ether it is that beauty that, lately, we forget to contemplate: a dome of stars. Then there is a sixth piece, which I am finishing composing: la Creationwhich will leave us in doubt whether everything we see was wanted by God or by chance.”

Which version do you favor?
«I am a paraculo Christian: I only believe when I need it. However, I am certainly not close to the Church. Even though I frequented churches a lot as a child.”

Was he an altar boy?
«No, I skipped school and took refuge there to play. I think in eighth grade they promoted me just because I was a child prodigy with the violin: I didn’t study, I was only interested in music.”

Since when?
“Forever. When I was one and a half years old I was lurking outside my brother’s room (Massimo, also a violinist and orchestra director, ed.), I listened to him play and imitated him with my mother’s rolling pin. At three years old they took the rolling pin away from me and put the violin in my hand. At seven I wrote my first composition for two violins and a piano: I also have a sister who is a pianist and that was the Christmas gift I gave to my parents. At 15 I should have graduated from the conservatory, seven years early.”

But?
«That spring I forgot to fill out the paperwork. I graduated the following year.”

In 2013 CNN defined it as «musical genius». When did her parents realize they had a talent at home?
“Late. They had a rotisserie, they worked a lot, they often suffered thefts and robberies. Those were very hard years in Salento. And then they already had two successful musician sons: Massimo won the Paganini (a prestigious award for violinists, ed.) and Patrizia accompanies world-famous opera singers on the piano. It’s hard to believe that even the latest arrival was as good as him.”

If not more?
«My brother always recognized it. He said to his friends: you should hear the little one in the house. But then he had his career, I had mine, we passed 12 years of age and an ocean of differences: we never really met until last year, when we played together. Now our relationship is very beautiful.”

But before?
“There was competition: in ’91 he won the Paganini, and I gave up the violin for two years.”

How come?
«To everyone I was just “Massimo Quarta’s brother”. I no longer had my own name.”

Then, what happened?
«I realized that I am not Alessandro: I am QRTLSL76, my tax code. When I realized I was unique, I said: now I’ll show you who I am, and you listen.”

Who was?
«A rebel, in life and in music».

Why in life?
“Because I got into a lot of trouble, like getting into fights in the street.”

And in music?
«Because I don’t want limits. I play Mozart as I feel it, not as some academics think it should be played. Also because, I ask them, were any of you there when he performed? If you look closely, during his concerts people went to the theater to do everything except listen: they went to meet their lover, eat, chat, even to fuck. Same thing if we talk about tango: in Argentina it was danced by naked men to seduce beautiful prostitutes. And isn’t rock born from a combination of sex and drugs? Today classical music concerts are very serious, while I put everything into my violin, love and pain: when I play it’s as if I’m experiencing an embrace and, sometimes, I even cry. This is the beauty of art: its danger.”

The price to pay for staying out of the ranks?
«Two, very salty. The first is poverty. In 2007 I left the Sinfonica Toscanini to understand what kind of musician I wanted to become, and I found myself penniless like when, at 14, I ate a Sammontana cup for lunch and dinner to pay for lessons with the best teachers in the world” .

Which?
«Abraham Stern, Pavel Vernikov and Zinaida Gilels. In the summer they taught in Portogruaro, in the winter those who had the opportunity followed them on tour for months. I could afford, every now and then, to join them in Russia. I took the train from Lecce to Munich to Bratislava to Moscow: four days of travel for two hours of violin playing.”

The second price of independence?
“Loneliness. I have always been alone, since I was a child. I have never played a game of soccer at the oratory, I have never gone to eat ice cream with my school friends. I just played. In real life I didn’t feel at ease, I felt comfortable in my imaginary world, made up of notes and invented characters: I met my first friendships, my first girls in my imagination.”

A blessing, this, or a condemnation?
«A blessing! The sentence would be to stay away from music, which is my life.”

A life from which he left a lot out, it seems to understand.
“Everything, I would say, except love.”

Have you met many?
“Two. Donatella, my ex-wife, who today is a sister to me. And Mariarita, my partner and manager: a woman I love like I didn’t know I loved.”

Ever thought about having a child?
«I tried with Donatella, but it didn’t arrive. Then she underwent surgery and, when she came out, the doctor told me: now you can. But I got stuck. I need myself too much. And, even if I’ve done some hard things, I’m not irresponsible: I know how much dedication a child requires and I don’t have that dedication to give him. And I would never want him to knock on my door one day and say: hello dad, you know, I would be your son. Then there is another thing.”

What?
«I am the eternal child. When I stop marveling and playing, it will mean that, for me, the time has come to put down the violin and leave music forever.”

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