This summer too, Forlì Grande Musica returns to leave its mark on the musical life of Forlì with eight events featuring the best performers of the moment, with a constant eye on the infinite connections between sounds and words.
The Forlì Grande Musica festival takes place as always within the Emilia Romagna Festival (ERF), a long musical itinerary which has been part of the musical life of the city for 24 years and which opens this year in Forlì on 3 July and closes on 11 September, staging an impressive edition under the banner of ‘classic is contemporary’ with 56 extraordinary events and more than 600 artists involved, coming from all parts of the world. From classical to jazz, from pop to ethnic music, from musical theater to dance and world music, the festival signs a program in search of a new definition of “classical”, breaking temporal boundaries and embracing multidisciplinarity, with the aim to explore unexpected connections and bring classical music to an increasingly broad and diverse audience.
International cast, artists and high-ranking management, the coordinates of this research are clear: the inauguration, on 3 July at the San Mercuriale Abbey in Forlìis a declaration of our artistic roots, entrusted to an extraordinarily current music giant, Claudio Monteverdi, and one of his masterpieces the Vespers of the Blessed Virgin. Vespers has a fundamental place in the history of music for its incredible richness which not only has an intimate value for its moments of prayer, but also incorporates profane music into its fabric in a work clearly dedicated to a religious function. The performers are the prestigious Venice Monteverdi Academy, an ensemble that is a point of reference in the philological performance of ancient music, supported by the “Lorenzo Da Ponte” Orchestra and the Schola Gregoriana Reale Corte Armonica “Caterina Cornaro” Choir – Asolo, directed by Ernest Hoetzl.
From the monumental to the small, with Enoch Arden on July 6th at Catherine’s Rock, a piece that has marked the history of music and which, thanks to the refined text of bourgeois origin but with a strong Victorian romantic feel, brings the protagonist, a young shipwrecked sailor in love, closer to the most important figures of English romantic literature. With great theatrical sensitivity, Strauss introduced a narrative structure not present in the original poem, dividing it into two parts, like two acts of a drama: the first goes from the debut which introduces the protagonists to Annie’s marriage to Philip; the second goes from the flashback with Enoch’s shipwreck, his life on the desert island, his return, up to his death. The music accompanies, supports, underlines and punctuates the story, passing from melancholic and wintry tones with misty and rainy suggestions to nocturnal atmospheres, to the point of suggesting the sound of the sea, the smell of salt…
Played by the intense voice of Vanessa Gravina, who has always been on the scene: at 6 months the protagonist of a stroller advertisement for Carosello, at 7 years old on the radio then at 11 years old on the big screen she obtained a nomination for the Nastro d’Argento as best debuting actress . Since then she has had countless roles in the cinema, in the theater with Strehler and Liliana Cavani. She is known to everyone in the role of Adelaide di Sant’Erasmo, in Il cielo delle donne on Rai 1. She will be accompanied on the piano by Stefano Giavazzi.
The collaboration with the Chinese Government on the Silk Roads project continues. The July 27 at the Diego Fabbri Theater with the China Symphony Orchestra of Ningbo, a large international orchestra composed of 62 elements, founded in 2015 and quickly become one of the main Chinese orchestras, led here by its chief conductor Ji Yu, who is also assistant conductor of the China Philharmonic Orchestra, with the soloist Lei Chen on the pipa, a four strings often referred to as “Chinese lute”. The collaboration with this wonderful orchestra is also an opportunity to celebrate the 700th anniversary of the death of Marco Polo, who among other things was governor of the city of Ningbo, one of the oldest cities in China and an important point on the Via of maritime silk.
Thanks to the Morricone family who provided us with the score, music by Ennio Morricone taken from the successful television series Marco Polo will be performed. The program is completed with another great contemporary composer: Tan Dun, also winner of a Grammy and an Oscar. The concert is organized in collaboration with the Ljubljana Festival and the Ningbo Municipality.
On July 31st at the Rocca di Caterina, another great team but this time Italian. It is La Toscanini NEXT directed by Roger Catino, with a unique concert that evokes emotions and memories linked to the most unforgettable films and the most iconic songs in the history of rock. From the majestic sounds of Richard Strauss in “2001: A Space Odyssey”, to the medleys of musicals such as Mary Poppins, Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair, up to the timeless hits of Queen, ABBA and Metallica.
Two events follow, the result of the stable and prolonged collaboration, which began in 2000, of the Emilia Romagna Festival with the very prestigious Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, of which the Festival hosts the winners again this year. The first to perform on August 9th at the Rocca di Caterina, are the Aruna Quartet, First Prize and Gold Medal of the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition 2019, who were unable to perform at the Festival in 2020 due to the pandemic. Their 2024 repertoire is a brilliant mix of classical and contemporary, including a piece by 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Higdon and two Italian premieres by Anglo-American composers, such as Night Music by Emma O’Halloren and Tapas by Marc Mellits.
On August 26th at the Cloister of Santa Lucia, the Poiesis Quartet, winner of the First Prize at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition 2023, will perform. ensemble of exceptionally talented musicians who in a short time conquered the contemporary classical music scene. Like Aruna, they will also present a program centered on new music by overseas composers, including two pieces in their Italian premiere, Eleanor Alberga’s String Quartet No. 2 and Kevin Lau’s String Quartet No. 3.
An event is scheduled for September which is part of the path that ERF is dedicating to organs this year with the aim of highlighting the various valuable organs, ancient and modern, present in our territory. On September 2nd in the Church of Sant’Antonio Abate in Ravaldino, the internationally renowned organist Giulio Mercati will make the ancient keyboards of Alessio Verati’s organ, built in 1858 and restored in 2004, resonate with a repertoire that pays homage to European baroque music.
Forlì Grande Musica – summer 2024, ends on 4 September at the Church of the SS Trinità, with the Aïghetta Quartett, renowned Monegasque guitar ensemble of international fame, with a concert, From Classical to World Music, which crosses the history of music and different genres. In addition to three songs composed respectively by Philippe Loli, Alexandre Del Fa and Olivier Fautrat, historic members of the Aighetta, the program also includes the Two songs (Pollys Lied and Die Moritat von Mackie Messer) taken from Kurt’s famous Threepenny Opera Weill with the original arrangement by Nangialai Nashir.
With a extraordinary concert in Tredozio on August 1st, the Trio de La Toscanini Next, composed of three extraordinary young musicians, Andrea Coruzzi on accordion, Eoin Setti on sax and Martino Mora on drums, will perform in a street concert, in Via XX Settembre in front of Palazzo Fantini, in favor of the restart of Tredozio, a town affected first from the flood in Romagna and then from the earthquake in the Tuscan-Romagnolo Apennines. They will present a brilliant and engaging program composed of pieces by famous authors, ranging from classical music with jazz influences by Gershwin, to the famous tango nuevo by Piazzolla, up to the music of Richard Galliano, the man who changed the course of the history of the accordion, and to that of Iller Pattacini, composer of many waltzes, tangos, mazurkas and polkas, who was able to enhance the popular music of our territory. Entry will be free of charge and the proceeds will go towards the reconstruction of Tredozio.
Forlì Grande Musica is organized with the support of the Ministry of Culture, Emilia-Romagna Region, Municipality of Forlì, and with the support of numerous organizations and private individuals, such as Turkish Airlines, Romagna Acque, Fondazione Cassa dei Risparmi di Forlì, Andalò Gianni, AutoSica.
