02 · Research

My research

Bringing unheard music to life

How does a pianist approach a work that has never been heard—one with no recordings and no established performance tradition?

Without interpretative models, teaching traditions or shared conventions to rely on, the performer must find an individual path, bringing historical research, musical analysis, philology and artistic experimentation into dialogue.

My project explores the relationship between musical philology and piano performance. It asks how editorial decisions, close study of the sources and musical analysis shape an interpretation—and, in turn, how the act of performance can generate new knowledge about the score. Interpretation is understood not simply as the outcome of research, but as a research method in its own right.

At the centre of the project are the unpublished piano manuscripts of the Italian composer Guido Alberto Fano (1875–1961). Although he played a significant role in the renewal of Italian instrumental music between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, much of his piano music remains unpublished and has never become established in the concert repertoire. With no established performance tradition, these works offer an ideal setting in which to observe how a performer builds musical meaning directly from primary sources.

The project draws on Practice as Research and artistic research, combining archival research, philological study, critical editing, musical analysis and reflective work at the piano. The manuscript sources are examined, compared and critically transcribed, while analytical and editorial ideas are continually tested through performance.

The process is documented through reflective journals, audio and video recordings of working sessions, and autoethnographic writing. The development of each interpretative decision therefore becomes part of both the research record and its findings.

Public performances, lecture-recitals and the first recordings of the selected works are not simply ways of sharing the research: they are research outcomes in their own right. They provide opportunities to test and refine interpretative ideas through dialogue with audiences and the scholarly community.

Ultimately, the project aims to develop a method that can be applied to other unpublished historical repertoires. It shows how philological research and artistic practice can enrich one another, giving rise to interpretations that are firmly grounded in the sources yet remain vivid, personal and original.