Imagine a house in Caprarola (ZIP code 01032), a Lazio village of farmers who love hazelnuts and the arts; imagine three children, we are at the turn of the 70s/80s: Piero, eldest son, dark, lively eyes and temperament of a ram who breaks through, Stefano, handsome and good, perhaps with a rare gift (musical ear) and Annamaria, the only female, long straight hair, probably bangs, who observes her brothers: she hates them a little, she loves them a little.
In this house the parents are busy: Claudio is an engineer who prefers to teach electrical engineering in high school, Agnese is an exceptional woman who knows how to do everything, even an elementary school teacher. And the ragout. Can you smell the scent of that ragù that mixes with tagliatelle? Piero remembers it, while he was practicing the piano, just on Sundays, when his school friends were on the pitch playing soccer. Stefano was also there in the room, soft orange lights, and he often improvised on the keyboard, because he had heard a sound, a harmony, something to repeat… Annamaria was in the garden, under the wisteria, because mother Agnese also had the magic touch for plants, and today that microscopic magnolia she looked at as a child, dreaming of playing the violin, has become a large shrub.
Caprarola, everything starts from there. From the desire of two parents unfamiliar with music but passionate about quality and harmony, who prefer to try to educate their children with musical notes, hoping to give them more to a stage than to the collection of hazelnuts. And they succeed. You don’t need to be a parent to understand the effort that Claudio and Agnese have made in the formative years of their three children. All close in age, as was the custom in the past: two energetic males, who weren’t ashamed to get into fights with those from Ronciglione who cheated on their caprolatte girls (“perhaps we also fought with Marco Mengoni, a native of that village, a few kilometers from ours”), and the last desired female, who at the age of 9 falls in love with the violinist Angelo Stefanato, in recital in the garden of Palazzo Farnese, and chooses the most difficult instrument: the violin.
Claudio and Agnese never let go. Here they are darting perpetually late on the 18 km that separate Caprarola from the music school in Viterbo (“it seemed like New York”), here they are unloading three little musicians in one go, quelling the quarrels, distributing the punishments, balancing the praises. Here they go every summer, children with them, to musical performances in the gardens of Palazzo Farnese, because it was the cardinal himself, many years ago, who chose the caprolatti as workers in Palazzo Farnese, because they had “the finest ears”. Here is Claudio correcting a piece for Piero, asking him if he really wants to switch from piano to cello, accompanying Stefano to the auditions, because that boy wins everything, and encouraging Annamaria not to give up, to crown her dream with Vivaldi’s soundtrack.
Discipline, quarrels between brothers, tiredness, work, and hours and hours of practicing, while the sun is shining outside, and “the others, mum, are playing…”
Then came the trio. “We realized we have a small orchestra in the house! And I was only 14, and the brothers weren’t even adults,” Annamaria recounts. “We played everywhere, and of course the parents came to listen to us”.
Serene, composed. Probably satisfied. “Earn? Well, I don’t remember”, adds Stefano. “I’ve started earning since I’ve been teaching”, calculates Maestro Salvatori, of the Teatro alla Scala. Today Stefano is conductor and teacher for one of the prestigious Italian theatres, he loves ballet and knows the étoiles, he teaches high school students and many others, he still loves to improvise. Anna Maria? Well, she is a professor of orchestra at the National Academy of Santa Cecilia, just as she had decided when she was 9 years old.
But not only that, of course. He also played in the orchestra of Fiesole, in the Philharmonic of Rome, was the pet of Uto Ughi, won a series of competitions of which he lost count and has a daughter, Chiara (only granddaughter of grandparents Claudio and Agnese!) aged 18, cellist.
Like Uncle Piero. Piero Salvatori is a musician but also a composer, he creates on the piano, performs on the cello. Allergic to classical studies, he met Claudio Baglioni, Gino Paoli, Ornella Vanoni, Renato Zero and many other masters of pop music, who fell in love with him. And they wanted him close by, to accompany them, with sweetness and passion: inspired, eyes closed, as if the music replaced his blood and flowed melodiously through his veins. Piero is passionate about cinema, soundtracks, great stories, deep emotions, which he wants to write on the staff.
Now he wrote this ZIP code 01032: a whirlwind in the past, a gift for Claudio and Agnese, a thought for his parents, for that trio of kids who gave up playing in the lake, for that scent of meat sauce and wisteria, and for someone who knows how to listen to a little history, from Caprarola, which has already grown up.
Listen here CAP 01032
