Album Notes

PRESS REVIEWS:

"A beautifull interpretation."
(Gurdjieff International Review)


"Hidden Sources is an excellent CD. The all production is superb and Alessandra Celletti plays like piano magician".
(Thomas Tamvakos - Archive of Greek Classical Composers)


"Beautiful and inspiring!"
(Charles T. Tart - Institute of Transpersonal Psychology]


"Hidden Sources contains the most representative and best selection of the Gurdjieff / de Hartmann music I've heard on a single CD. Alessandra Celletti's interpretations are as sensitive and as idiosyncratic as Glen Gould's. Her playing and selection are exceptional."
(J. Walter Driscoll - author of "Gurdjieff: an annotated bibliography" (1985)/"Gurdjieff: a reading Guide" (1999)


"Every note carves a profile, designs a curve, each key reveals a mountain, a cheekbone, a perfume, a spiritual landscape. Sacred dances for sceptical travellers of knowledge. Immense."
(Marco Boccitto - Il Manifesto - Italy)


"Alessandra Celletti gives magical performances of joint works by G. I. Gurdjieff and TH. De Hartmann."
(John Pitt - New Classics - UK)


"This music is both simple and extraordinarily subtle; and Alessandra Celletti's touch reflects these same qualities."
(Jacob Needleman- San Francisco State University)



GEORGE IVANOVITCH GURDJIEFF

Gurdjieff was one of the most important spiritual teachers of the XX century. He was born in 1866 in Alexandropolis, on the border between Armenia and Turkey. During his youth he sings regularly in the choir of the Russian Orthodox Church in Kars. Together with a group of friends, he takes part in various expeditions to Asia in search of ancient knowledge and tradition. During his visits to religious groups in remote monasteries, he was given the opportunity of learning more about psychology, sacred music and ritual dance. Twenty years later, in 1912, Gurdjieff returns to Europe, enriched by a new teaching: a non-religious path toward the interior evolution of man. A complete teaching that bridged the esoteric knoweledge of the East and scientific methodology of the West. Various generations of disciples gathered around his doctrine and his beliefs found strong echo in the work of René Daumal, P.D. Ouspensky, Frank Lloyd Wright, Peter Brook, Keith Jarrett, Robert Fripp, Jerzy Grotoswsky, and T. De Hartmann himself. Gurdjieff died on the 29th of October 1949 in Paris.


THOMAS DE HARTMANN

Born in Ucraina in 1886 from a family of German origin, De Hartmann studies harmony and composition with Anton Arensky and Aleksandr Taneev. At the age of 18, in 1903, De Hartmann graduated from the college of music of St. Petersburg. In Munich, where he moves to study orchestra conduction, he meets Vassily Kandinsky with whom he begins an intense exchange of thought. Back in St. Petersburg, in 1916 he meets Gurdjieff, who will exercise great influence on his life.

The two authors composed approximately 300 pieces inspired by the reminiscence of sacred music and traditional oriental melodies between July 1925 and May 1927 in Paris, where Gurdjieff established his institute. This collection represent a partial florilegium but significant of the heterogeneity in taste and in preparation of the two authors.

ALESSANDRA CELLETTI

Alessandra Celletti was born in Rome, June 6th 1966. After graduating from the Santa Cecilia conservatory in Rome, she completed a specialisation course with the Maestro Vera Gobbi Belcredi. In 1994 she came to the attention of the Italian music scene with her own independent release: an album dedicated to the music of Debussy, Ravel and Satie.
Alongside live performances she has written compositions for electronic music, contributing to multimedia projects. Since 1998 she has collaborated with KHA Records, recording three albums dedicated to the music of Gurdjieff and De Hartmann (Hidden Sources - 1998), Erik Satie (Esotérik Satie - 2000) and Scott Joplin (Black Baby - 2002)


KHA RECORDS

KHA Records is an Italian independent company based in Rome since 1998 with the aim of building up a quality catalogue and paying special attention to contemporary repertoire and performances.