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Musical enchantment in Cremona14 September – 12 October, 2014 - brochure & full programm here The Museo del Violino will bring melody to Cremona this autumn with the STRADIVARIfestival, exactly one year on from the opening of the museum. The event has been given a complete overhaul: now lasting 17 days, it will feature 40 events with over 40 hours of music, ranging from classical to jazz, tango to crossover, and including work by contemporary composers. Over 60 international musicians will be performing in the Giovanni Arvedi Auditorium and other venues around the city..
With 16 concerts in the programm, this festival, entirely dedicated to bowed and plucked string instruments, is unique in the world. Through different musical genres, it will bring tradition and innovation together in Cremona, the world capital of traditional violin craftsmanship, named an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. The festival’s stars include Pavel Vernikov, Viktoria Mullova, Richard Galliano, Regina Carter, Natalia Gutman, Sonig Tchakerian, Salvatore Accardo, Avi Avital, Luigi Attademo, the Quartetto di Cremona, the Stradivari Quartett, the Quartetto Matamoe, the Duo Leonore and many more... In addition to concerts, the STRADIVARIfestival also offers a rich programme of talks, listening guides, workshops and exhibitions where visitors can meet the musicians, get to know the string instruments and learn about the master violin makers who constructed them. The best contemporary instruments and some of the world’s most precious antique instruments will be played in Cremona during the festival, some of which have been made available by the Museo del Violino and the Museo Civico’s Carlo Alberto Carutti Collection... The Museo del Violino will be revealing the secrets of Italian violinmaking with three exhibitions, curated by Virginia Villa and Fausto Cacciatori, that trace its recent history. Running from 14 September to 12 October, they include “Cremona, 1937”, an exhibition about 20th-century violin craftsmanship; “Italian Violin Makers of the 21st Century”, a major review that reflects the eclectic vivacity of a tradition that is still very much alive; and “Homage to Four Maestros”, dedicated to four great contemporary craftsmen, Francesco Bissolotti, Giancarlo Guicciardi, Gio Batta Morassi and Renato Scrollavezza, whom the public will have a chance to meet during a face-to-face on Saturday 27 September, “Violin Craftsmanship: Life Stories”.. Other Saturday mornings will also feature talks on “The Economic Value of the Violin” (4 October) and “National Violin-Making Competitions” (11 October)..
The STRADIVARIfestival will open with a preview concert on Sunday 14 September, the Museo del Violino’s first birthday. In just one year, the museum has already welcomed over 50,000 visitors from Italy and abroad. Pavel Vernikov and the Trio Tchaikovsky will be performing music by Dmitri Shostakovich and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The festival will then officially get underway on Saturday 27 September with the concert Stradivarius in Rio: Viktoria Mullova will play a crossover between Bach and Brazilian music on the 1723 Stradivari Julius Falk.. Saturday evenings will be devoted to a classical repertoire with stars like Natalia Gutman, accompanied by Sviatoslav Moroz and Dimitri Hoffmann (4 October) and Salvatore Accardo with Laura Gorna and the Orchestra da Camera Italiana (11 October).. A number of these concerts will be preceded by “Artists and their Instruments”, discussions moderated by journalists and musicologists, during which the guest soloists will describe their relationship with their instrument and, together with expert violin makers, chat with the audience.. Thursdays and Fridays will be dedicated to other musical styles. The Giovanni Arvedi Auditorium will echo with the notes of tango, rock and jazz, with Richard Galliano, Guido Rimonda and the Camerata Ducale (2 October), Regina Carter (3 October) and Sonig Tchakerian (9 October)..
On Sundays, the museum’s auditorium will host a cycle of matinées (11 am), with three international quartets: the Quartetto di Cremona (28 September), the Stradivari Quartett (5 October) and the Quartetto Matamoe (12 October).. This year, the STRADIVARIfestival will also feature activities for younger visitors. Sunday afternoons (5 pm) will be for families, with three shows designed to introduce children to music and the violin: Discover Music with Oca Rina: Journey Through Time on the Notes of Magical Violins (28 September), How Many Stories Can a Violin Have? (5 October) and Happy Birthday Charlot (12 October), a workshop that will culminate in a performance in which the children will take to the auditorium’s stage.. The Violin Bar will also be in action every day between Monday to Friday, offering a unique opportunity to visit the Museo del Violino and, with a single ticket, enjoy a light lunch in the museum courtyard and in the afternoon (4 pm) listen to an hour of music, performed outdoors by students from Cremona’s Monteverdi Musical Studies Institute..
More al-fresco music, also with the students from the Monteverdi Institute, is programmed for the two Sunday events (28 September and 12 October at 1 pm) in Piazza Stradivari: a tribute to Cremona’s great violin maker, with an hour of music in the shadow of his statute.. The relationship between art and music will be explored during two events at the Museo Civico “Ala Ponzone”, featuring Luigi Attademo’s guitar (Saturday 4 October), preceded by a talk by Mina Gregori on Art and Music, and Avi Avital’s mandolin (Saturday 11 October), following Eva Cantarella’s reflections on the myth of Orpheus.. The STRADIVARIfestival represents a valuable opportunity to promote the musical merits of the city of Cremona, creating a virtuous network linking together the Museo del Violino, the Teatro Ponichielli, the Monteverdi Institute and the International Violin-Making School, whose students will feature in a concert at the Museo Civico (8 October). The concert will be preceded by the awarding of prizes dedicated to Sergio Renzi and Flavio Smerieri, two important awards that support research and study relating to violin craftsmanship. |
