The palazzo Bove is a favourite of ours both for its location and for the variety of musical events it offers. It’s an elegant aristocratic summer villa dating back to the seventeenth century and is beautifully situated at the summit of the ancient village of San Gennaro above Collodi. The palazzo used to be the summer residence of Lucca’s archbishop Giuseppe Palma. At the end of the eighteenth century it was sold to the Scatena-Burlamacchi family and is now the residence of Count Bove. The sumptuous interior with an original eighteenth century kitchen and a frescoed private chapel was previously shown to us by the count.

The first event we attended at the Palazzo was a tango evening (see my post at https://longoio.wordpress.com/2013/08/09/intangible-tango/ ) and we have returned regularly for both vocal and instrumental concerts.

Last night we attended a premiere – not of the music, which was familiar – but of the pianist. Michele Franceschi played his first public recital. He is studying at Lucca’s famed Boccherini conservatoire. As with all debut concerts there was a certain degree of nervousness and some mistakes in the performance but this did not detract from the general opinion that Michele is, musically speaking, going places.

The three preludes and fugues from book two of Bach’s 48 clearly needed more work done on them but the final prelude (one of my favourites) reached a highly competent level.

The tempi in Beethoven’s Waldstein sonata were well chosen, especially the tricky last movement and the plethora of staccati was well emphasized.

Two Chopin studies were also carried off with some assurance. However for me the clou of the performance was Liszt’s Mephisto waltz no 1 which surely stretches any pianist’s technique to the limit and which was clearly a work close to Franceschi’s heart.

Allowances can always be made when a lad barely out his teens makes fudges over complex passages but there were very few wrong notes and, what is most important, Franceschi had a presence on the keyboard which will surely make him a name to watch in Italy’s ever burgeoning piano soloist scene.

I should also add that the ambience of the concert was superb – a formerly decrepit limonaia (orangery) has now been transformed into a beautiful performance and reception area with excellent acoustics. No doubt there will be plenty more events in this welcome addition to the lovely Palazzo Bove. Many of these will be romantic wedding ceremonies for which the Palazzo has a full license to carry out civil ceremonies from the comune of Capannori. What better place to seal the knot in this gorgeous limonaia with a dazzling baroque garden and an absolutely stunning view of Lucca and its plain spread before one!

For more information on how to tie the knot at one of the Lucchesia’s most magical locations see the palazzo’s web page at http://www.palazzobove.it/en/

The village of San Gennaro is also well worth a visit and is famous for having a statue recently attributed to Leonardo da Vinci in its parish church: one of his very few surviving sculptural works. (See my post at https://longoio2.wordpress.com/2015/04/07/crossing-over-at-villa-bove-san-gennaro/ for more on that).