PAVIA. Two months of baroque music, from today (Friday 19 April) until 19 June. A great opportunity for fans of this genre which characterized the 17th century in particular and which is offered by “Pavia Barocca”, the event now in its fourteenth edition and organized by Ghislierimusica with the support of the Municipality of Pavia.
It will begin this evening (Friday 19 April) at 9pm in the Carmine church (free entry) with “Legami Armonici”, sacred masterpieces by the Scarlatti family. A performance by the baroque orchestra of the “Claudio Abbado” civic music school and the university choir of the Ghislieri college, directed by maestro Luca Colombo. «We will go through both the great sacred vocal production with two imposing psalms by his father Alessandro, and with sonatas and instrumental symphonies by his son Domenico – explains Colombo – to conclude with two oratorios by the Roman Giacomo Carissimi: Historia Jephtae and Historia Jona, with a great participation of the choir which will also take care of the main solo parts”.
This debut event falls within the first of the two strands into which the event has been divided this year. “Contrappunti” is in fact the tranche that will accompany the first part of the event, while the second (from June) will be called “Roma” and will concern the Roman music genre. The Ghislieri University Choir opens and closes the season. Ancient collaborations are also renewed such as the one with the Il Delfino bookshop where two meetings with the artists will take place.
Various concerts also return for the city’s churches: in addition to the Carmine, also San Teodoro and the chapel of San Pio del Ghislieri. And it will also be an opportunity for the College to open the doors of some of its most beautiful rooms to the city.
Giulio Prandi, artistic director of “Pavia Barocca”, presents the novelties of the event in this way. «For the first time we present to our public a contemporary commission: the emerging composer Matteo Magistrali, also active as a tenor in Coro Ghislieri and recent winner of the Anima Mundi competition in Pisa, is called upon, in the Contrappunti cycle – explains Prandi – to draw inspiration from most primordial roots of the European musical tradition, Gregorian chant, for the creation of a contemporary sacred and spiritual repertoire, which will be presented in its first performance. And it is precisely the investment in emerging creativity that is the characteristic we are most keen to underline.”
The protagonists on stage will be the young musicians of the area, with the ensembles of the Choir and the University Ensemble of the Ghislieri College, who will be led by their teachers, Luca Colombo and Carlo De Martini, and supported by the expert musicians of the Ghislieri Choir and Orchestra. They will be joined by the very young students of the Aimart Academy in Rome, who, with their teachers, also active concert performers on the international scene, will let us explore the Roman repertoire resulting from their research.
Second meeting – of a literary nature – scheduled for Monday 6 May, at 6pm, at the Il Delfino Ubik bookshop, with Renato Cadel and Matteo Magistrali who will discuss, moderated by Prandi, the suggestion of Gregorian Chant in composition, between history and contemporaneity.
Daniela Scherrer
Tags: Pavia Barocca concert evening Carmine
