Lucca Summer Festival announces a big double bill for the evening of July 26 with Norah Jones and Marcus Miller.
Norah Jones, one of the most influential American pop jazz singers, winner of several Grammy Awards, returns to Lucca after six years for her third appearance at the Festival. During the new tour the songwriter will play songs from her latest album ‘Day Breaks’ and items from her repertoire accompanied by exceptional musicians like Brian Blade on drums and Chris Thomas on bass.
Marcus Miller has developed a strong relationship with Lucca Summer Festival, where he was also protagonist in an extraordinary jam session with Pino Daniele in 2013, and, therefore, could not return to present his new album ‘Laid Black’, out this spring.
Miles Davis’ bass player opens the evening accompanied by a band formed by the best young talents of the international jazz-funky scene.
ORCHESTRA OF THE NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY CONDUCTED BY MICHAEL MUCCI
On Tuesday, February 20th at 9 pm there’s a great concert at the Teatro Alfieri in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana organized by “Il Baluardo”, the vocal group from Lucca. The New England Conservatory (NEC) will perform. This is a school of music recognized and appreciated all over the world for its professionalism. It’s based in Boston and is the reference school of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, one of the finest orchestras in the world. This is a unique opportunity to hear one of the most renowned youth orchestras.
Conducted by Michael Mucci, the orchestra will perform pieces by Rossini, Sousa and Colgrass.
Artistic direction is by Elio Antichi with free entry for an unmissable opportunity.
What with the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchan and their combined ice Hockey team, the Koreans are very much in the news. In Italy, too, Koreans (or at least South Koreans) have received a special focus. They were present in Viareggio’s Carnival where I met them during one of the float parades.
I officiated at a Korean wedding for Lisa Redgrave of ‘Hitched in Italy’ at
Korea was also present at last Saturday’s ‘Baluardo’ concert with their chorus master Elio Antichi.
Founded in 1989, ‘Il Baluardo’ has participated in over five hundred concerts. They have performed in the UK, Germany, France, Switzerland and Spain and have established ties with other Italian and foreign choirs. In 2016 ‘Il Baluardo’ even performed at Fornoli:
‘Il Baluardo’ repertoire consists of traditional Tuscan folk-songs which they perform in a cappella style. They also sing folk-songs from other regions of Italy and several European countries. In addition ‘Il Baluardo’ performs items like French renaissance chansons and contemporary pieces.
The concert took place in the austere beauty of San Salvatore, a church dating back to 1009 and situated in Lucca’s square of the same name, (known to locals as ‘piazza della pupporona’ – square of the big boobed lady – after the well-endowed statue there).
The concert’s first half featured the choir in a characteristic repertoire which included a moving evening hymn to our Apuan Mountains. They also sang ‘Jeongseon Arirang’, a 600-year-old folk-song sung as the unofficial national anthem for both Koreas in the Olympic Games.
Here is a performance of ‘arirang’ by the members of Seo-Do Traditional Songs Institute with the Korean National Classical Orchestra.
Where, even in the middle of winter days, flowers bloom.
The second half featured the delightful trio of Lee Eunji (violin), Lee Kungmin (viola) and Yulee Kang (vocals). These three Korean girls have just completed musical masters at Lucca and, judging by their performance, will have a very successful career in the music world. As a ‘thank you for the Baluardo’s performance of ‘Arirang’ Yulee Kang replied with a terrific rendering of ‘O Sole mio’ bringing the house down.
It was a very convivial concert and fully proved the power of music in bringing different cultures together. As I have argued in my post at
Ps Il Baluardo’ is always on the look-out for new recruits. If you are looking for a choir which includes a very wide repertoire comprising classical, folk and pop then this is the place for you!
PPS ‘Il Baluardo’ means bulwark and refers to Lucca’s walls in which lovely city the choir is based. At least we have a well-defined origin for that word!
Lucchesia’s rich heritage must include its remarkable legacy of organs. While the UK suffered a terrible devastation of this king of instruments as a result of the reformation and the civil war, our area, in common with other parts of Italy, preserves instruments dating back to at least the seventeenth century.
In fact, the reputedly oldest organ in Europe is the one that used to be in Florence cathedral until 1966. This instrument can now be seen (dismantled) in the refurbished Museo dell’Opera Del duomo nearby. It conserves parts built by Matteo da Prato in 1448. This is the same time that the choir stalls by Donatello and Robbia, now also in the museum, were erected.
One of the oldest organs in the diocese of Lucca is that at Pieve Santo Stefano. Built by Onofrio Zeffirini it dates back to 1551.
(The UK’s oldest organ, incidentally, is that in St Botolph, Aldgate, and London – the church where Daniel Defoe got married. Built by Renatus Harris, it dates back to the start of the eighteenth century).
Like the UK there was a revival of organ building in Italy in the nineteenth century. One of the greatest of organ builders were the combined firm of Nicomede Agati e Filippo Tronci from Pistoia, surely the capital of Tuscan organ-building and home to the Tronci foundation – now concentrating largely on bell-casting and percussion instruments. (See their web site at http://www.fondazioneluigitronci.org/).
The organ at the convent of San Francesco at Borgo a Mozzano (now a retirement home run by the local Misericordia) is a fine Agati-Tronci instrument dating back to 1893. It has been expanded, especially in the foot-pedal department, and is capable of handling Bachian repertoire (which so many old Italian organs are unable to do). The organ needed considerable maintenance and friend Enrico Barsanti carried out this work. It’s important to distinguish in Italian ‘organaro’ (organ builder and restorer) and ‘organista’ (organist). Enrico is both (see his facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/search/posts/?q=enrico%20barsanti ).
The concert given at the convent two days ago was thus not only proof of Barsanti’s excellent ‘organaro’ skills (he had to remove, re-adjust and replace over eight hundred pipes) but also of his ‘organista’ ones. The concert included a flautist, trumpeter, soprano and bass.
This was the programme.
I’d never heard the Bach piece before. It’s a very early work dating back to around 1705 when Bach was in Lubeck where he met his great predecessor Buxtehude. A grand virtuosistic piece with two fugues of very different character divided by fantasia-like sections it certainly makes an organist sweat. Barsanti, however, carried it off adequately and showed the large sound range the restored instrument is capable of.
The other pieces were of a more ‘popular’ nature. The Albinoni is, of course, not by Albinoni at all but by 20th century musicologist Remo Giazotto. The Handel is actually a transcription of ‘Ombra Mai fu’ from his opera ‘Xerxes’ fitted with words of a religious nature.
Although all soloists were good I thought the trumpeter Andrea Battistoni excelled.
The programme concluded with Lefébure-Wely’s ‘Bolero’. A fun piece, it was designed for the new symphonically inclined Cavaillé-Coll French organs. The fact that it could be played very decently on the refurbished organ of the convent shows that Barsanti did an outstanding job on the instrument.
It’s important to note that until the 1970’s there was little interest in restoring Lucca’s great organ heritage. Changed liturgical practise and the fact that an electronic keyboard was much cheaper than any money spent on the ancient instruments meant that many of them were in danger of falling into utter decrepitude and, if they were restored, they were restored unskilfully. This situation has happily changed now. For example, Borgo a Mozzano’s parish church organ, which dates back to the seventeenth century, is due to be fully restored next year, again by Enrico Barsanti.
Samuele Maffucci (L) and Enrico Barsanti (R)
After the concert came the ‘rinfresco’ which was generously presented with characteristic Italian ‘gusto’.
San Francesco’s Agati-Tronci will surely be a very valuable asset to Borgo a Mozzano’s flourishing musical scene especially when it enhances an already charming location:
Rome’s Piazza del Popolo must surely be one of the most effective entrances to the historic centre of any world capital city. Its ovoid shape, reminiscent of saint Peter’s square, its combination of urban landscape and the Pincio hill, its treasure house of a church, Santa Maria del Popolo with Raphael and Caravaggio among the artists who contributed to its beautification, the two smaller domed Santa Maria churches dividing the three main straight roads into the heart of Rome, the obelisk in the piazza’s centre and the now-traffic-free area makes the piazza del Popolo (named, incidentally from poplar trees and not necessarily from ‘people’.) absolutely unforgettable.
The three streets leading off the piazza are Via di Ripetta which leads to the majestic altar of Augustus I’ve described in my post at https://longoio3.com/?s=ara+pacis, the Corso, Rome’s high street, which once was used for horse racing during the carnival so vividly musically depicted in Berlioz’ piece from his opera ‘Benvenuto Cellini’, and the Via del Babuino which leads to the Spanish steps. (Why Spanish? It’s because they lead to the Spanish embassy to the Holy See).
Again, we are at another supremely iconic Roman piazza. Here is where Peck took a blossoming Hepburn on a Vespa (without crash helmet…). Here is the centre of the ‘foreign quarter’, especially of the English, as Babington’s tea rooms proclaim. Here is the last view John Keats sadly ever saw in his life from the house which is now an immaculately kept memorial both to England’s most sensuous poet and to its most lyrical – Shelley.
The Spanish steps are a poignant mixture of joy and sadness and are always full of the youth from the four corners of the world. But beware of using these steps for doing anything else than photographing and embracing each other. Rome has now (rightly) a strong policy against eating and drinking on its many delightful steps.
Last time I was at the Spanish steps I tripped over and twisted my ankle descending them. This time round I climbed up this gorgeous ascent to be greeted by another of the eternal city’s timeless views bathed in brilliant late sunshine.
From the pretty church on top there’s the start of a fourth street running inexorably rectilinearly, despite the presence of one of Rome’s legendary hills (the Quirinal) in its centre – so it’s almost a roller-coaster ride. (PS Rome’s seven hills are the Aventine, Caelian, Capitoline, Esquiline, Palatine, Quirinal, and Viminal but NOT the Janiculum).
The via Sistina leads into the Via delle quattro fontane with, at its crossing with the via del Quirinale (the home of Italy’s president and whose exquisite gardens are only open once a year – must try to be there at least once in my life), the genially eccentric baroque architect Borromini’s miniature masterpiece San Carlo alle quattro fontane (AKA San Carlino). The quattro fontane are delightful. Two represent the Tiber and its tributary the Anio. Two represent the goddesses Diana and Juno. Unfortunately, San Carlino was closed so I must leave its mathematically complex interior to another time.
Where did the Via delle Quattro fontane take me? Why, to one of Rome’s four great basilicas (and, in my opinion, the most beautiful), Santa Maria Maggiore! Outside the basilica seems a later baroque masterpiece but all those scrolls and pediments are used to enclose a casket of exquisite beauty – a rare example of what a fifth century early Christian church looks like.
And why should I reach the basilica by 8 pm in a quickly falling Roman dusk. And why should there be around so many ‘top’ (as the Italians call VIPs), including ambassadors and Rome’s mayor? Why of course: to hear my old university’s choir of King’s College Cambridge sing in a concert as part of the sixteenth international festival of music and sacred art.
This was the programme the choir sang:
It would be superfluous to say that it sang excellently. In particular, the English pieces were superlatively resonant in the astonishingly good acoustics of Santa Maria Maggiore.
As an encore the choir sang (unsurprisingly, particularly since we are in Rome) Allegri’s Miserere in a somewhat abbreviated version, but still including the stratospheric soprano ‘volatura’ (which some say was added later).
I was stunned by the setting. Used to hearing this archetypal Anglican tradition choir in the choir stalls of their usual regal setting I was amazed at how effective the sound was in the setting of an ancient Christian basilica with wonderful mosaics in the apse. Perhaps it was also due to the fact that both King’s College Chapel and Santa Maria Maggiore have a strong rectangular shape. Kings chapel is 289 feet long, 39 feet wide and 80 feet tall and Santa Maria Maggiore is 302 feet long, 98 feet wide (but this includes the aisles, lacking in King’s) and the height of its magnificent coffered ceiling is not much less than that of Kings.
In all their finery the crema della crema of Roman society was there. They seemed quite dumbfounded by the incredibly high standards of English church singing as distinct from their own and the choir received a standing ovation before it finally filed out as normally as ever.
Unfortunately it was strictly forbidden to record or take pictures but I managed towards the end to slip these in without flash of course. Undoubtedly, however, there will be many official photographs readily available.
I regret to say that not much has happened to make the average basilican church choirs of Rome rise much higher than the remark I heard from a BBC radio 3 producer of an excellent series in the 1980’s called the ‘Octave of the nativity’ when he was unable to use as an example of the Mass as it might have been conducted in the Sistine Chapel, Rome, in 1613 the present Sistine chapel choir since it was considered ‘unworthy of being recorded. That was 31 December 1984 and not much seems to have changed in that direction.
Of course, period instrumental interpretation of Italian music by Italians like Fabio Biondi and our own Carlo Ipata has all but superseded many tamer English versions of such a repertoire but I can think of very few decent Italian church choirs, although nearby Lucca Cathedral’s Coro delle cappella di Santa Cecilia directed by Luca Bacci and smaller specialist groups such as the highly versatile ‘Stereotipi’ based in our valley of the Serchio are excellent – to say nothing of Egisto Matteucci’s outstanding ‘Polifonica Lucchese’.
If, however, you want to hear Palestrina as he should be heard you’ll have a much better impression in King’s College Chapel rather than the Sistine chapel itself – unless, of course you were lucky enough to be at Santa Maria Maggiore, Rome on the 15th of September this year!
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.
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, m Continue reading →
Tuscany abounds with fabulous settings for concerts. Sometimes these locations may be ancient abbeys or baroque palace gardens. Sometimes they may be in the natural amphitheatre of mountains such as the rifugio Rossi just below the Pania Della Croce in the Apuan Alps.
Pieve a Elici is one such wonderful location. The ancient Romanesque church dedicated to Saint Pantaleon (one of the fourteen mediaeval helpers against the Black Death) is situated on one of the last outcrops of the Apuans and commands a stunning view over Lake Massaciuccoli and the Tyrhennian Sea.
The church dates back to the eleventh century and the reason why it’s called ‘a Elici’ derives from the ‘leccio’, or ilex trees that abound in the area. The interior consists of a nave and two aisles and a single apse; the campanile was originally a watch-tower.
The pieve contains some lovely artworks. There’s a marble triptych by Ticcomani, a local fifteenth century sculptor who also carved the holy water stoup. The fresco of the Virgin and child is of the fourteenth century.
The site was originally occupied by a castle, of which traces remain, and in the courtyard separating the parish priest’s lodging and the church there’s a square well dating back to Roman times by which I gained a useful viewing point for the evening’s event.
The Pieve is placed on a large lawn and is not surrounded by any houses. This is because a pieve acted as a hub for all the surrounding villages and would be the only religious building where baptisms could take place. Its location, therefore, would be free from association with any particular settlement.
We’ve visited the pieve on previous occasions for the lovely chamber music concerts organised by the Associazione Musicale Lucchese under the aegis of Egisto Matteucci.
In 2015 the Cremona quartet played Schubert and Mozart: see
Pieve a Elici has, indeed, become part of our annual calendar of unmissable music events.
This year we were treated to one of the twentieth century’s chamber music masterpieces, Messiaen’s ‘Quartet for the End of Time’, composed in a concentration camp near Gorlitz ,Silesia in 1940. It’s a work I’ve played countless times on my old vinyl recording with artistes Michel Béroff, Gervase de Peyer, Erich Gruenberg and William Pleeth . In fact, I’m hearing that recording at this moment and it is still a very valid performance.
There are various apocryphal stories about the quartet and here I want to put some facts straight.
There were just 300 people at the first performance, not 5000.
The ‘louanges’ (lauds) were already composed in the 1930’s.
The instruments were not that decrepit and the cello did have all its strings, not just three as often stated. It’s true, however that the piano keys stuck from time to time. (May it be appropriate to have an authentic – or historically informed – performance of this work with such a piano perhaps?)
A camp assistant, Carl-Albert Brüll, who supplied Messiaen with score-writing paper and without whose help the first performance would certainly never have taken place, was indeed rebuffed by Messiaen when he visited the composer after the war. (Perhaps Messiaen didn’t want to be reminded of the terrible hardships of the concentration camp?). Much later, however, Messiaen repented of his behaviour and sent an invitation to Brüll. Unfortunately it arrived the day after Brüll had been mown down by a car and killed (in 1989).
Gorlitz concentration camp exists in a few mouldering bits of concrete. It was never an extermination camp but used for prisoners-of-war including Brits and even Italians. It is now a European Union cultural centre with regular art exhibitions.
Gorlitz itself is a very beautiful town mercifully saved from the ravages of war. Indeed, it’s often used for costume-drama film settings. Despite the fact that Gorlitz was divided by the Oder-Neisse line after 1945 into Polish and German areas it is now, thanks to both countries being part of the Schengen agreement, able to be visited without national barriers,
One thing is certain, however: the first performance was well-publicised in the camp and was a great success which it has remained ever since.
In the performance we attended the players were as follows:
Mario Brunello (cello), Marco Rizzi (violin), Gabriele Nirabassi (clarinet) and Andrea Lucchesini (piano).
As in the original first performance the concert took place in the open air. This was not because of lack of accommodation (although the audience was very extensive) but because, with the ‘Lucifer’ African bubble giving Italy temperatures ten degrees above normal for this time of year, the Pieve’s interior would have been unbearably hot.
I reminded myself that the original performance took place in a temperature of minus 15 centigrade in the freezing Silesian winter.
The Elici performance was excellent, although the acoustics did suffer a little as a result of the outside location. For example, in the ‘louanges’ the pulsating piano chords did tend to swamp the clear lines of the solo string players. In the movements where all the instruments play together, however, the balance was good.
The clarinettist had a strange habit of suddenly getting off his chair. At first I thought he was going to walk off but then I realised that Nirabassi was moving around – jazz-like – to extract the most effective sound dynamics from his instrument.
The performance was introduced by writer and radio presenter Gabriella Caramore who gave the audience a long (for non-Italian listeners, unbearably over-long..) reflection on the apocalypse. As Messiaen quoted from the Bible:
And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire … and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth…. And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever … that there should be time no longer: But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished…
Here are the sections of this mind-expanding work.
Liturgie De Cristal
Vocalise, Pour L’Ange Qui Annonce La Fin Du Temps
Abîme Des Oiseaux
Intermède
Louange À L’Eternité De Jésus
Danse De La Fureur, Pour Les Sept Trompettes
Fouillis D’Arcs-En-Ciel, Pour L’Ange Qui Annonce La Fin Du Temps
Louange À L’Immortalité De Jésus
It’s significant that this is one of the first works in which Messiaen uses bird-song. He was also an expert ornithologist and extensively studied avian sounds. We were lucky enough to be part of the audience when the composer’s opera Saint Francoise d’Assisi was performed in a non-staged setting at the Royal Festival Hall in 1988 for the composer’s birthday with the great man himself present.
Since Saint Francis famously preached to the birds the opera gave Messiaen every opportunity to display his instrumental talent in bird song imitation. Frankly I still think it was a bit of a cheek for Saint Francis to have preached to the birds. Birds have a lot more to teach us in my opinion and I expressed my feelings about this in the following poem:
SAINT FRANCIS
Preaching to the birds
you showed a strange, surpassing presumption,
uncommonly modest man.
What in creation could you teach them
they did not know already?
Singing lessons were out:
there are more perfect notes in the sky
than in all our chants and manuscripts,
sonatas, cantatas, songs of the earth.
Clearly, flying lessons too seemed out of place
when hospitals are filled with
once-hand-gliding paraplegics
descended from Icarus.
And finding one’s direction in life
when we still don’t know our own home
and albatross can locate the nesting space
among a billion square miles
year in year out
with instinct’s love-infinity;
when avian gyroscopic navigation
– live reckoning –
adds on the index yet another
computer-unsolved enigma.
And what of the discovering of worlds,
revelation of new lands
and smell of alien flowers?
Geese flew the Americas so many spans before
a Genoese sea-captain
and the Antarctic has been tern’s summer hideaway
since the Triassic and dinosaur cousins.
So what did you tell them?
Of the praise of God and his works,
of his love for the creatures of the air
(for the flesh of man is not
the flesh of birds)
when a pelican’s upbringing is a parable of gospel-light?
When the finger-cast seed grows into the greatest of herbs
that rooks might lodge in its branches.
When petrels are breaths of God’s providence:
The birds have their nests but the son of man…
Nowhere to lay down your head?
Is that it? Some sort of pre-memorial regret,
some little envious demon
spoiling hard rock cushion
among crucified trees
in the forests of your night?
And then … and then
are not two sparrows sold for a farthing
and none are forgotten before God,
neither shall one fall without His knowledge?
Despite your dispensation of the family wealth
naked in towered city square
before ermine and gold,
the council chamber
and your discarded courtesan
did you not insanely fear you’d be forgotten
or that you would fall and He
would not notice it?
For wheresoever the carcass is
there will the eagles be gathered together.
PS There are further concerts in this unmissable season at Pieve a Elici. They are listed on the site at:
Yehudi Menuhin said of her “she has a wonderful talent with a lively temperament, virtuosic brilliance and a very high professional level.”
Maria Solozobova is indeed a great violinist who has achieved fame throughout the world. Born in Moscow and now living in Switzerland (where she is leader of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande) she issued her debut album in 2007 to great acclaim. On her beautifully toned Nicolò Gagliano violin, dated 1728, Maria gave us an enthralling solo violin recital outside Giacomo Puccini’s ancestral home in the delightful village of Celle di Pescaglia last July 29th.
(Maria and the Puccini Museum at Celle, run by the ‘Lucchesi’ nel Mondo Association)
Maria warmed us up (if that could be the right word in these balmy summer evenings) with J. S Bach’s solo violin sonata no 1.
She then proceeded to what must be her showpiece: the devilishly difficult variations on “Nel cor più non mi sento” from Paisiello’s 1788 opera ‘L’amor contrastato, ossia La molinara’.
Here is Solozobova’s recording of it taken from a concert in Zurich. What technique and what passion!
More Paganini and an Ysaye sonata followed:
(Recognize the tune? Rachmaninov used it in his Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini!)
If one is thinking that a solo violin recital before Puccini’s house is somewhat unusual then you’re right. Normally concerts before this beautiful setting tend to consist of operatic arias. However, it should be remembered that Paganini has a strong connection with Lucca’s music scene. His first job was with Napoleon’s sister Elisa Baciocchi, princess of Lucca and Piombino (to whom he gave music lessons and perhaps something a little more).
It was a totally unforgettable, fabulous evening!
To conclude here’s a photo I took of the lovely Maria Solozobova standing by the bed in which Giacomo Puccini was born in 1858 (the one in Puccini’s birth-house in Lucca is a copy).
What an extraordinary combination: the Ealing Symphony orchestra from the leafy west London suburb in Lucca’s magnificent baroque church of Santa Maria Corteorlandini and playing that solace-giving life-enhancing, absolutely gorgeous, Rachmaninov second symphony and Elgar too!
Thanks to the energy of Elio Antichi, tenor, impresario, all-round musician, founder and director of Lucca’s famed Baluardi choir for almost thirty years, organiser of the international orchestra season, now in its sixteenth year, and great encourager of youth music this combination flowered into an extraordinary synthesis of sound and architecture.
First, the church: Santa Maria Corteorlandini – or Santa Maria Nera as it is called by the Lucchesi because of the dark statue of the Madonna placed in a side chapel, an exact copy of the Holy House of Loreto, and to distinguish it from Santa Maria Bianca, otherwise known as Santa Maria Fuorisportam. This is my favourite of all Lucca’s hundred churches and it is close to the heart of Antichi too.
Not only is the interior spectacular but the acoustics are absolutely amazing!
The Ealing Symphony orchestra, now going for over ninety years, is one of the UK top amateur orchestras but don’t be put off by that tag ‘amateur’. Its playing is fully professional and does credit to the high standards of British orchestral performances.
As for Rachmaninov, famously described by Stravinsky as ‘six foot six of Russian gloom’, there is nothing gloomy about his second symphony. Dreamy it certainly is and energizing too. Premiered in 1908 the symphony had to be a make-or-break work after the disaster of the composer’s first symphony (largely due to the conductor Glazunov being drunk in charge of an orchestra) which cast Rachmaninov into a depression which was only alleviated by his visit to a hypnotherapist.
I don’t quite know which version of the symphony John Gibbons, the conductor of the Ealing orchestra since 1994, used: the original score was lost for many years, only found in 2004 and sold for over a million pounds. However, the performance did full justice to whatever score was used. What was most extraordinary was how the three-aisled church of Santa Maria Nera accommodated the sound of the excellent brass section of the orchestra. Indeed, the total balance was perfect and each instrumental section was distinctly heard – something often difficult in the usually over-reverberating acoustics of some Luccan churches (San Michele in Foro, in particular…).
After a slightly underwhelming start the slow third movement built up to a pinnacle of pure beauty and redemption. I felt the frescoed Saints of the church’s vaults coming alive in joy at the sound. If any one’s heart isn’t melted by this lovely music then I fear they are not human!
(Part of Rachmaninov’s Symphony no 2)
The Rachmaninov took up the second half of the concert. And what about the first half? Elgar’s passionate ‘In the south (Alassio)’ encapsulated the colours and sensations of Italy from a glorious sunrise to the tramp of Roman legions to the evening shepherd’s song and, as befits an English orchestra, the Ealing Band played it to perfection. Doreen Carwithen’s (William Alwyn’s wife who died just 14 years ago) Bishop Rock Overture was an excellent piece of characteristic 1950’s film music and reminded me that she also wrote the score for the official film of Her Majesty’s coronation.
J. S. Bach’s concerto for two violins saw a much scaled down orchestra (from over fifty to under ten players, in fact) as befits music from the Baroque era. Here was truly a sound that was closest to the architecture of Santa Maria Nera. The E.S.O. showed they could easily tackle the different aesthetics of eighteenth century music with complete conviction and with two superlative soloists (who were the leaders of the strings).
It’s not often one gets a dollop of Elgar in Lucca (Despite Colombini’s efforts) and it was most welcome. To add Bach and Rachmaninov to this dish provided a musical feast which will keep me from going hungry until….well, the next concert in this brilliant season.
For further details of the cornucopia of music events in Lucca throughout the summer (indeed, throughout the rest of the year) do look at the page I edit in English in LuccaMusica’s web page at
Apart from Elio Antichi’s untiring efforts, thanks are also due to the William Alwyn foundation, Luccan generosity and the Santa Maria Nera community for this wonderful free concert.
(The opening of Elgar’s tone poem ‘In the South (Alassio)’
PS If you want to live another day to hear concerts at this lovely church don’t linger outside the front door (usually closed anyway). There’s this notice to consider:
The Bargaopera Festival is presenting a series of concerts centrered on the work of Mendelssohn starting on Sunday, July 30 at 9.30 pm, with pianist Roberto, who will perform at the Teatro dei Differenti
Born in Latina and winner of the Salzburg Mozart Prize, Roberto Prosseda regularly plays with some of the most important orchestras in the world: London Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Moscow State Philharmonic, Santa Cecilia, Scala Philharmonic, Brussels Philharmonic, Residentie Orkest , Netherlands Symphony, Berliner Symphoniker. He has recently gained international recognition following his Decca recordings dedicated to Mendelssohn’s piano. He is the winner of numerous awards, including the CHOC of Le Monde de la Musique-Classica, Diapason d’Or, Best of the Month of Classic FM, Leipziger Volkszeitung’s “Best of the 2012”, “Supersonic” presented by ‘Pizzicato’ magazine (1/2013), the ICMA nomination (International Classical Music Awards).
Pianist Axel Tirolese recital on Friday 4th of August, Teatro dei Differenti, at 9.30 pm.
BAROQUE VIOLIN AND THEORBO DUO
On Monday 31 July at 6.30 pm in the Volta dei Menchi (where Via Giannetti meets Via di Borgo) there’s the first baroque music event.
Nina Przewozniak, Francesco Olivero – baroque violin and theorbo
RECITAL BY HARPSICHORDIST PABLO VARELA
On Thursday 3 August at 6.30 pm in the Volta dei Menchi (where Via Giannetti meets Via di Borgo) there’s second baroque music concert with harpsichord Pablo Varela.
RICCARDO DONI HARPSICHORD RECITAL
On Friday, August 4th at 6.30 pm in the Volta dei Menchi (where Via Giannetti meets Via di Borgo) there’s the third baroque music concert with harpsichord Riccardo Doni.
LISTENING COMPARISONS IN PIAZZA ANGELIO
On Tuesday, August 1, at 6.30 pm, Angelio Square (historic centre of Barga) there’s the first night of listening comparisons with the recital of Luigi Attademo, guitar.
On Tuesday, August 1st, at 11 pm, Angelio Square (historic centre of Barga) there’s the second evening of listening comparisons with performances entitled “Mendelssohn” by Antonio Bido and “Da Grande Suonerò Mozart” by Stefano Missio.
HI-FI SHORT FILMS
On Wednesday, August 2, at 6.30 pm, Angelio Square (historic centre of Barga) there’s the third evening of listening comparisons with Francesco Olivero and “Cortometraggi in alta fedeltà” (Hi-fi short films) produced in collaboration with HI FI Natali.
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (original Daguerrotype 1845)
