It is a masterpiece created by the expert hands of Custode Marcucci, an internationally renowned luthier from Lugo who made Sant’Agata famous because his workshop was located there and next week it will become an Imola heritage site. Next Monday at 9pm, in the internal courtyard of the New Vassura-Baroncini music school in Imola, the free entry initiative A precious gift will take place, a musical moment to present the prestigious cello donated to the school. A gesture that is also a way of honoring a culture-loving parent, who was able to give that instrument a symbol of peace: in fact, it was the children of the owner, Guglielmo Garbesi, who requested the organization of the event to fulfill the wish expressed wish of the father to leave the instrument to the school. The luthier Federico Bandini who restored it will illustrate the interventions carried out to erase the signs of aging and bring the instrument back into condition to be played, as will happen during the evening thanks to some teachers from the school.
The cello dates back to the early twentieth century and bears the signature of Custode Marcucci, founder of the “Awarded Marcucci string instrument factory” in S. Agata sul Santerno. The instruments built by Marcucci, endowed with a particular liveliness and sound power, are among the best examples of Romagna violin making developed between the end of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, which saw, in addition to Marcucci, the Imola native Primo Contavalli and Nicola Useful (Nicola da Castelbolognese). The few instruments by Marcucci that have arrived intact and functioning today are used by important musicians who play in orchestras such as that of the Teatro alla Scala or the Toscanini Philharmonic Orchestra.
The cello donated to the school by Guglielmo Garbesi’s children also has great sentimental value because their father played it during the Second World War in hospitals and camps to give the soldiers moments of escape. A moment which, for the Councilor for Culture Giacomo Gambi, will be particularly significant: “This donation, together with others that have followed one another in recent years, are further testimony to the rooting of the Vassura-Baroncini school in the community, and demonstrates how it is experienced, also due to its municipal nature, as a privileged custodian of books, missing objects and instruments and therefore able not only to conserve them but also to enhance them by giving them back life and voice through their use by students and teachers of the school – he concludes Stems -. We know that donations have great value for the donors but, by attributing them to the school, they become of the entire community, for which we are deeply grateful.
