Francavilla, success for the musical meeting with the “Bellini Quartet”
Last Sunday 5 May, in the splendid setting of Palazzo Cagnone in Fracavilla di Sicilia, a musical meeting with the “Bellini Quartet”, group of musicians of high artistic depth made up of Andrea Virzì (flute), Giovanni Anastasio (violin), Vito Imperato (viola) and Benedetto Munzone (cello). The instrumentalists proposed a selection of musical compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Salzburg, 1756 – Vienna, 1791) masterfully performed by the ensemble.
The concert opened with the Quartet for flute and strings No. 2 in G major K 285a (Andante – Minuet tempo), followed by Quartet for flute and strings No. 3 in C major K 285b (Allegro – Andantino with variations), from the Quartet for flute and strings No. 4 in A major K 298 (Andantino with variations – Minuet and trio – Rondo, Allegretto grazioso) and finally the Quartet for flute and strings No. 1 in D major K 285 (Allegro – Adagio – Rondo, Allegretto).
Doing the honors was the deputy mayor and councilor for culture Gianfranco D’Aprile, who expressed words of appreciation for the relevance of the event, «an art event that intends to promote musical culture, give impetus to new initiatives in the artistic-musical field and enrich the cultural offer of the town”. Great classical music has therefore finally returned to the municipality of Alcantara with a program of the highest level, in line with local musical history and tradition.
“The Bellini Quartet, composed of the first parts of the Camerata Strumentale Siciliana, is the result of the chamber and concert maturity of its members, united by the desire to merge their individual experiences and direct them into the field of chamber music production. The four artists, teachers at the Conservatory of Catania, link their different musical personalities to this objective, the result of a consolidated international concert career, characterizing their performances with a particular interpretative intensity, in which absolute instrumental mastery and emotional involvement are always at the service of an accurate stylistic rigor. Trained in top-level academies (Lugano Conservatory of Music in Switzerland, the Accademia Chigiana in Siena and the Walter Stauffer Academy in Cremona), they have a lively chamber music activity under their belt in the most varied formations: from duos to string quartets , from the piano quintet to the string sextet”.
Andrea Virzì, graduated with top marks and honours, he subsequently specialized under the guidance of Maestro Andrea Oliva in Rome. In 2012 he obtained first place in the entrance exams at the prestigious Conservatory of Music of Lugano in Switzerland, where he perfected his skills with Maestro Mario Ancillotti for the flute and with Maestro Nicola Mazzanti for the piccolo, graduating with the judgment of “Very Good ” in “Master of Arts-Flute”. Andrea is already the winner of over fifty absolute first prizes in international and national competitions. He has performed in Italy and abroad both for prestigious musical associations and for television and radio programs, always receiving unanimous acclaim from critics and the public. He was first flute in prestigious orchestras in Italy and abroad and recently perfected himself with the famous masters Davide Marasco, Janos Balint and Sir James Galway. He held the role of first flute at the prestigious Italian Army Music Band in Rome. He is a professor of transverse flute at the Ministry of Education, University and Research.
Giovanni Anastasio, violinist from Catania, trained under the wise guidance of Maestro Vito Imperato, at the Vincenzo Bellini Conservatory of Catania, an institution where he has held the role of teacher since 1995, in which he expresses all his passion for violin teaching and constant methodological research. He has held masterclasses with North Carolina University, Duke University, Hunter College New York and Nuevo Leon University. His concert activity sees him engaged both as Konzertmeister and in various chamber groups, ranging from baroque to contemporary repertoire. He plays a Mingazzi violin.
Benedetto Munzone, graduated from the Arrigo Boito Conservatory of Parma, attended Masterclasses with André Navarra, Peter Buck and Rocco Filippini. After his academic studies he chose to dedicate himself to chamber music, collaborating, among others, with Cecilia Chailly, Boris Petrushanski, Rocco Filippini, Bruno Canino, Michael Kugel, Maxence Larrieu, Violetta Egorova, Ilia Kim, Pjeter Guralumi, Alfredo Stengel, Alirio Diaz, Severino Gazzelloni. He was first cellist of the Mantua Chamber Orchestra, of the Milan Philharmonic Academy and of the Symphonia Instrumental Group of Milan. Regular guest at the most prestigious European festivals, he has performed as a soloist and with various chamber ensembles at the Sala Verdi in Milan, the Tonhallesaal in Zurich, the Cairo Opera House, the Gasteig in Munich, the Konzerthause in Klagenfurt, the Teatro Apolo of Almeria, the Salle Fontaine Auditorium of Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux. He has recorded for RAI Cinema Fiction, Euroradio and for the record labels City Record, Classico Olufsen Records and XClassic. He has held cello and chamber music masterclasses at the Superior Conservatory of Murcia and the Superior Conservatory of Malaga. He plays a 1911 Enrico Orselli cello.
Vito Imperato, After graduating from the “Vincenzo Bellini” Conservatory in Catania, he specialized in Rome with Angelo Stefanato, Arrigo Pelliccia and Henryk Szeryng at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena and the Conservatoire de Musique in Geneva.
He held the role of first violin at the Orchestra of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, the Sicilian Symphony Orchestra, the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania, the Italian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tonhalle Symphony Orchestra in Zurich and collaborated with I Cameristi della Scala.
As a soloist he has played with the orchestra of the Bellini Theater in Catania, with the Solisti Aquilani, with the Cantelli Orchestra in Sala Verdi in Milan, with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, with the Symphony Orchestra of the State of Mexico, Witold Lutosławski Chamber Philharmonic.
He has collaborated with well-known soloists such as Alirio Diaz, Sergej Girshenko, Andràs Adorjàn, Antony Pay, Aiman Mussakhajayeva, Igor Oistrakh, in Italy, France, Switzerland, Spain, Austria, Germany, Turkey and China. Violin professor at the “Vincenzo Bellini” Conservatory of Music in Catania, he holds masterclasses in Italy and abroad. He also willingly performs with the viola, an instrument congenial to him, tackling the most significant chamber repertoire with extreme ease and extraordinary mastery. He plays a precious “Matteo Goffriller” from 1732 and a viola from the Italian school of the 19th century.
Luigi Lo Presti
