Palazzo Mauro De André |
08 June 2023 | at 9:00 PM
Martha Argerichpiano Mischa Maisky cello
Ludwig van Beethoven
Cello sonata in G minor No. 2, Op. 5
Claude Debussy
Cello sonata in D minor
Frédéric Chopin
Cello sonata in G minor, Op. 65
Still vibrant after more than 45 years, the formidable duo of Mischa Maisky and Martha Argerich is notable for its technical and expressive interplay, the direct musical consequences of fond personal friendship and instinctive compatibility. “Playing with him is the most natural thing in the world”, confesses the Argentinian pianist, who now tackles three sonatas for cello and piano spanning as many centuries: from Beethoven’s late XVIII-century Sonata no. 2 – a pioneering example of a genre that had no predecessors in Haydn or Mozart – to one of the rare chamber works by Chopin, who wrote mainly for the piano, and finally to Debussy’s Sonata, another unique work with its nocturnal, almost lunar atmosphere, anticipating the XX century with harmonic colouring prevailing over design.
Palazzo Mauro De André |
from 12 June to 31 December 2023
Laurie Anderson: Let X = X with Sexmob
Laurie Anderson voice
Steven Bernstein trumpet
Briggan Kraus sax
Tony Scherr bass
Kenny Wollesen drum
Doug Weiselman clarinet
Italian exclusive
Not only is Laurie Anderson one of the least easily pigeonholed musicians of all time, but, as an artist, she pushes the boundaries of all the expressive media she tackles, revealing their unfathomable potential and implementing new solutions and combinations. From sound poetry to video-scenic experimentation, from Fluxus performances to hit parades (O Superman was the least predictable hit of the 1980s), for this new adventure Laurie Anderson will play material old and new strarting from her debut albumBig Science (1982), a successful minimalist synthesis of Steve Reich and Robert Ashley. Its clever combination of avant-garde theatre and pop music soon became a milestone in a dazzling musical experience, concocted with a group of great veterans of New York’s downtown scene.
special guests Niccolò Fabi, Giovanni Sollima and others
Talking about raves and classical music sounds like a contradiction in terms, but when it comes to the eclectic conductor and multi-instrumentalist Enrico Melozzi, anything is possible. At the head of a mega-group made up of his own Orchestra Notturna Clandestina (a symphonic group featuring exceptional international soloists from a variety of musical backgrounds), some classical ensembles selected through a public call, and special guest Niccolò Fabi, whom he recently accompanied in a concert at the Arena di Verona, Melozzi, known to Ravenna Festival audiences as the leader of the 100 Cellos, will be hosting a long “classical rave”, an all-night marathon from dusk to dawn, with the aim of popularising Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, who are perhaps not too far removed from the tastes of the young.
Chiostro del Museo Nazionale |
12 July 2023 | at 7:30 PM
On the centenary of the birth of Giovanni Testori (1923-1993) Sandro Lombardi reads Testori
Mater Strangosciàs, 7.30 pm
Gli angeli dello sterminio, 9.30 pm with the participation of Francesca Ciocchetti
A “strange sweetness”, as Walter Siti puts it, animates the torrent of confused, dialectal, mangled, sibilant but necessary words that the late Testori seems to have wished to bequeath not only to posterity but also to Sandro Lombardi himself, who probably owes the most convincing achievements of his long career to the dense and versatile pen of the Milanese genius. An actor of unusual intensity, Lombardi does not smooth over literary roughness and is used to plunging into emotional depths where others fear to tread. Twenty years later, he returns to Testori, the witness to the end, the poet of the Milanese apocalypse, the devotee of a stranguished Madonna, and dedicates an “unbridled ode to life” to those who have known torment.
As the title suggests, the concept of “circularity” is the inspiration for a new production by Classica Orchestra Afrobeat, the histrionic chamber ensemble conducted by Marco Zanotti, joined for this debut by the Mutoid Waste Company, a collective born in England in the 1980s but long since settled in Mutonia, near Santarcangelo di Romagna. Thus, with a group that combines the Baroque with the contemporary, and proposing scenarios with a strong visual and sonic impact, they will attempt a representation of our near future, when humanity will finally look upwards to a more dignified and sustainable life. To provoke an in-depth reflection on coexistence in an environment where time and life are not straight lines, but endless, spiralling Circles.
parabola spirituale per cinque voci soliste, tre attrici, coro misto e ensemble strumentale
Basilica di San Vitale |
from 16 June to 31 December 2023
Stabant Matres
a spiritual parable for five voices, three actresses, mixed choir, and ensemble
music Paolo Marzocchi libretto Guido Barbieri
Maria Valentina Coladonato soprano Tamar Manuela Rasori soprano* Rahab Simona Mastropasqua mezzo* Betsabea Clara La Licata soprano* Rut Benedetta Gaggioli soprano*
Actresses of the Scuola di Teatro di Bologna “Alessandra Galante Garrone”
conductor Paolo Marzocchi
Coro Ecce Novum choirmaster Silvia Biasini LaCorelli Ensemble
*female voices of the Master in canto “Musica Vocale e Teatro Musicale del ’900 e contemporaneo” of the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi di Ravenna
commissioned by Ravenna Festival premiere
The Gospel of Matthew begins with the genealogy of Jesus Christ, in which the names of four women stand out in the line that links him to King David: Tamar, the wife of Judah; Rahab, who married Salmon and was the mother of Boaz; Ruth, the wife of Boaz and the mother of Obed, who became the father of Jesse and the grandfather of King David; and Bathsheba, who married David and became the mother of Solomon. To this list of women who never met the Saviour, another name must be added: Mary.
A new, completely original production combines song, drama and music to evoke these ancient mothers, who were not Jewish and who, with the exception of Bathsheba, came from the lowest classes of society and were sometimes prostitutes. Biblical commentators have no doubts: Christ is the descendant of the chosen people of Israel, but through matrilineal descent he represents all humanity, without distinction of wealth, affiliation or identity.
Kristjan Järvi, Stefano Bollani
Filarmonica Toscanini
Palazzo Mauro De André |
from 1 to 31 July 2023
Filarmonica Toscanini Kristjan Järvi conductor Stefano Bollani piano
John Adams Doctor Atomic Symphony
Stefano Bollani & Kristjan Järvi 50/50
for piano and orchestra Premiere
Stefano Bollani
Concerto azzurro
for piano and orchestra
When Charles Schulz had Lucy van Pelt say, “I thought about it a lot and came to the conclusion that making the sky blue was a good idea,” he was unaware that he had provided a title for Stefano Bollani’s Concerto azzurro, a tribute to the colour of the sky, but also to the fifth or throat chakra, associated with self-expression and creative communication. Kristjan Järvi will be on stage with the eclectic pianist: it was Järvi himself who commissioned Bollani in 2017 to write this work, pleasantly suspended between composition and improvisation, between classical and jazz. Instead, the Doctor Atomic Symphony, in its Italian premiere, looks to a different kind of sky. Adapted from John Adams’ opera, the composer’s take on the story of the creation of the atomic bomb, it combines continuous pulsating beats and fierce rhythmic waves charged with energy.
Teatro Alighieri |
From 25 June to 31 December 2023
The best of English choirs The King’s Singers Songbirds
from Schubert to The Beatles
Patrick Dunachie countertenor
Edward Button countertenor
Julian Gregory tenor
Christopher Bruerton baritone
Nick Ashby baritone
Jonathan Howard bass
Christine McVie, lead singer of Fleetwood Mac, revealed that Songbird came to her in just half an hour in the middle of the night, in 1976. As she had nothing to record it on, she had to stay up all night playing it until she managed to get it onto tape the next day.
The King’s Singers, an all-male choir founded in Cambridge in 1968 by singers trained at King’s College, dedicate their programme to the ephemeral beauty of bird flight and song. Rooted in the prestigious English tradition of a cappella singing, they offer a journey through a repertoire inspired by birdsong, ranging from the early XIX century to popular music. They have no instruments to enrich their tonal, dynamic and harmonic palette: the sounds and rhythms of two centuries of music are entrusted to their voices alone.
Hossein Pishkar, Leonidas Kavakos
Dedicated to the Iranian women and those who died for freedom in their country
Teatro Alighieri |
from 18 June to 18 July 2023
Dedicated to the Iranian women and those who died for freedom in their country Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini Hossein Pishkar conductor Leonidas Kavakos violin
Witold Lutosławski
Musique funèbre for string orchestra (in memory of Béla Bartók)
Benjamin Britten
Sinfonia da Requiem Op. 20
Johannes Brahms
Violin Concerto in D major Op. 77
Dazzling light and deep darkness alternate in a programme that sees the return of Leonidas Kavakos with the Brahms Violin Concerto, a masterpiece of irrepressible melodic exuberance whose luminous vision of the world is dramatically counterbalanced by two rarely performed twentieth-century works, now dedicated to the plight of Iranian women: Witold Lutosławski’s Funeral Music, composed in 1954 in memory of Béla Bartók, and Benjamin Britten’s Requiem Symphony, submitted in 1940 for the Japanese government’s competition to mark the 2,600thanniversary of the founding of the empire. Rejected as inappropriate, the work was a revelation in New York, where it launched the theatrical career of the greatest English composer of the 20thcentury.
Milano Marittima, Arena dello Stadio dei Pini |
from 18 June to 30 June 2023
Il Trebbo in musica 2.3
Qualche estate fa Life, poetry and music of Franco Califano
with Claudia Gerini and Solis String Quartet
script and text Stefano Valanzuolo songs by Franco Califano rearranged by Antonio Di Francia direction Massimiliano Vado
production IMARTS – International Music and Arts
with the contribution of Cooperativa Bagnini Cervia
The artistic story of Franco Califano has always been deliberately intertwined with his human story, so much so that his personality has often overshadowed the author of so many hits. Qualche estate fa is now attempting to rebalance these two dimensions, using some of his hits as the starting point for the narrative of the author’s life. In order to avoid the temptation of reproducing the stereotype of the womaniser, and to prevent a risky comparison with the original, the narrative is presented from the female point of view. Thus, nine scenes are narrated by different women, mostly fictional characters, who tell stories related to the reality of Califano, the man and the artist.
Each scene culminates in a song, making music the caption of the story.
