Giulia Vazzoler

Für Elise

Stories of music and borders

A book and a solo piano album, conceived together. Für Elise is a personal memoir and, at the same time, an essay in cultural criticism: the book is published by Florestano Edizioni, the album by the AlfaMusic label.

The idea behind it is simple: to take classical music out of the museum display case and bring it back into everyday life, into the emotions and experiences of the people who listen to it today.

Giulia Vazzoler seen from behind at a white grand piano, beside a bouquet of roses

One book, one album

Two parallel paths: the pages tell the story, the piano answers.

Cover of the book Per Elisa. Storie di musica e di frontiera, Florestano Edizioni

The book

Each chapter grows out of a piece by a great composer. Each piece becomes a threshold opening onto private memories, geopolitical borders and great universal themes.

The story begins with Beethoven’s Bagatelle in A minor, the famous Für Elise, bound up with an absence that marked the author’s life. It then widens into an international chronicle of music across physical and cultural borders: from war-torn Syria and the checkpoints of the Middle East to the Gulf states, Florida and West Africa.

The music: Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy, Brahms, Satie

Buy the book ↗
Cover of the album Per Elisa, Giulia Vazzoler, solo piano

The album

The solo piano album follows the book step by step: each track matches a chapter and carries its narrative weight. The listener hears the very music that accompanied the author’s travels and reflections.

Playing of the highest standard and a deeply human story, to show classical music not as a distant museum piece but as a living language, able to build bridges across borders and across wounds.

Tracks

  1. 01Beethoven: Bagatelle No. 25 in A Minor, WoO 59 “Für Elise”
  2. 02Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 27 No. 2 “Moonlight”: I. Adagio sostenuto
  3. 03Chopin: Nocturne in E-Flat Major, Op. 9 No. 2
  4. 04Chopin: Nocturne in C-Sharp Minor, Op. posth.
  5. 05Chopin: Prelude in D-Flat Major, Op. 28 No. 15 “Raindrop”
  6. 06Debussy: Rêverie
  7. 07Debussy: Suite bergamasque, L. 75: III. Clair de lune
  8. 08Schumann: Kinderszenen, Op. 15: No. 7, Träumerei
  9. 09Satie: Gymnopédie No. 1
  10. 10Schubert / Liszt: Schwanengesang, D. 957: IV. Ständchen
  11. 11Brahms: Wiegenlied, Op. 49 No. 4
  12. 12Bach / Myra Hess: Jesus bleibet meine Freude, BWV 147