From time to time, the great works of world literature tend to return to a place of prominence where they should always remain. 2021 was the 700th anniversary of the death of Dante Alighieri and many projects have revived our memory of The Divine Comedy. One of them, related to the musical world, has crystallised in the composition of a work for piano by Sira Hernández that is as astonishing as it is evocative.

 

The Three Impressions of The Divine Comedy are not intended to be a portrait of Dante’s work but rather a journey through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. A journey inspired by what the reading of the text awoke in the artist and which are conveyed, at first glance, through the exploration and implication of values such as compassion, hope and light, respectively, in the three stages of the experience. The work was premièred on 25 March 2021, the year of the seventh centenary of the death of Dante and coinciding with the World Day dedicated to him at the National Library of Spain. According to experts, Dante began his journey through the scenes of The Divine Comedy on 25 March. Several Italian figures from the world of culture have been involved in these events, a fitting addition to this occasion given the important musical training received by Sira Hernández in Turin. It is therefore an invitation to remember this event every 25 March, almost at the start of “every springtime”, as is reflected in the title of an interesting contemporary novel. Dante and Sira Hernández make a perfect poetic match with the significance of this season. “In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself astray in a dark wood” lies behind us at the beginning of The Divine Comedy, and now the light shining with that “love which moves the sun and other stars”, the words with which the work comes to an end, can be glimpsed.

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Extract from the text written by Juan Ángel Vela del Campo, for the booklet of the CD 'Tre Impressioni Sulla Divina Commedia"