Photo: Barbara Luisi © BALU Photography
Fabio Luisi is a Grammy Award-Winning Italian Conductor
When I began CaFleureBon in 2010, it was our intention to created a scented salon that would celebrate fragrance in context of culture and the Beaux Arts. Over the past three years many of our perfume reviews reference music (for example, Mark Behnke used the musical genre known as mash-ups when describing Juliette Has A Gun's Mad Madame and former contributor and opera singer Jasia Julia Nielson reflects on the 100th birthday of Guerlain's L'Heure Bleue through Schubert’s Winterreise). Fragrance and music share a similar language. We call the perfumer's materials and essences "an organ", there are accords (chords), we refer to the creator of a fragrance as a composer and to perfume ingredients as notes. In 1850, G.W. Septimus Piesse wrote a book entitled, The Art of Perfumery and The Method of Obtaining the Odor of Plants. Piesse thought of scent in terms of musical notes and assigned individual scents to a specific music note. His book has been read by many, including Maestro Fabio Luisi, the Principal Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera and Music Director at Zurich Opernhaus who is also a perfumer.
Photo: Barbara Luisi © BALU Photography
I was introduced to Signor Luisi by Anya McCoy, the President of the Natural Perfumers Guild. Anya was "quite taken that a Maestro was debuting his line of fragrances, including natural perfumes with the Guild as an Associate Perfumer". Anya also has read Piesse's work and emailed me , "I eagerly awaited his perfume samples. They were beautiful, seamless compositions that confirmed my expectations. I don't know whether Fabio is familiar with Piesse or not, but I did see that he composed balanced, melodic perfumes. The Guild is honored to have him as a member".
It is an honor to introduce Fabio Luisi to our readers and to other olfactive artists throughout the world –Michelyn Camen, Editor In Chief
Photo: Barbara Luisi © BALU Photography
I am a professional musician, conductor, and my first experience was at age 15 or 16, (year 1974) with the classic Aramis, later I switched to N.2 (Etienne Aigner), then to Vetiver (Guerlain), to which I still come back from time to time, regretting the various reformulations (it concerns Aramis as well, unfortunately). Five years ago I started reflecting about perfumery in general, and I asked myself "why don't you try yourself"? I studied a numer of treatises and books including Jean Carles Method and began to learn and to experiment with composing fragrances with a special accent on natural substances. So I started buying essential oils (which make 80% of my scents) and experimenting. With time I realized that quality ingredients is key to composing and I searched for the finest essential oil. Concurrently, I began studying Aromatherapy, which is a very important in understanding chemical structure and therapeutical properties of the oils.
Photo: Barbara Luisi © BALU Photography
What started as a hobby has become by now an essential part of my life. I can free my mind of music, creating perfumery, but I work within similar parameters. Like music perfumery is the "art of blending", trying to obtain a perfect harmony among several parts. In music those parts are the instruments, but you have to find a balance in tone and volume, in the mixture of the different specific sounds and in the proportions. Perfumery is astonishingly alike, not only the balance in the ingredients, but also the reactions the aromatic substances show to each other are of fundamental importance.
Debussy's La Mer inspired Jeux de Vagues and Jeux de Vent. The Alpine Symphony was my muse for Invincible, the story of a man climbing a mountain, finding challenges and triumph. Creating these from music was like translating fantasy, complexity and colors into perfumes: even the switching between feelings in the music can be compared to the developing of the perfumes first in the skin – and my perfumes change a lot in the first hour – then in the mind, evoking new dimensions, sensations and memories.
Throughout my musical career I have been inspired by Leonard Bernstein, Carlos Kleiber and Sergiu Celibidache. In perfumery, I admire all professionals (because I am not!) but especially the creations of Annie Buzantian, Bertrand Duchaufour, and Edmond Roudnitska. Among the natural perfumers, I greatly appreciate Abdel Salaam, Charna Ethier and Anya McCoy.
Fabio Luisi works with mostly natural essences
Focusing on natural perfumery goes a step further. For me natural perfumery is more difficult and requires a stronger feeling for the true personality of the components and here is where I apply the "Carles Method" of blending the most, in order to learn what these very substances are capable of without the addition of synthetics. Natural perfumery is a very important part of my activity, and I see myself as an exclusively natural perfumer in the future.
–Fabio Luisi, Principal Conductor of the Metropolitan Opera, Chief Conductor of the Vienna Symphony, General Music Director of the Zurich Opera and Perfumer for FL Parfums
You can read more about Mr. Luisi 's illustrious career in music here. Our thanks to Anya McCoy for this wonderful introduction.
Thanks to Maestro Fabio Luisi we have a reader's choice draw of five 15 ml FL Parfums for two WORLDWIDE readers of the following: Jeux de Vagues, Bois de Vetiver, Peu d'Un Homme, ALL NATURAL No.7 or ALL NATURAL Roses du Jardin. The Maestro will sign the bottles. To be eligible please leave a comment about what you found fascinating about Maestro Fabio Luisi dual career as a musician and perfumer and be sure to include your choice of fragrance. Draw ends December 12, 2013.