In three decades, Ravenna has become the Italian Salzburg: two festivals (one in summer – this year started on June 1st and extends until July 21st) and one in autumn (October 31st – November 4th), great performers from all over the world , interdisciplinary (the autumn festival is dedicated to opera).
The Ravenna festivals are themed. After three years dedicated to the canticles of the Divine Comedy, for the 700th anniversary of Dante, the festival underway this summer has as fil rouge the centenary of the birth of Pier Paolo Pasolini: it is a fii rouge to be understood in a very broad way because, next to shows (music, prose, cinema) related to the great writer, there is vast space for the symphony (with masters such as Muti, Eschembach, Pilz, Fisher, Harding) as well as for a trip to Lourdes and Loreto in the usual “ways of friendship”, for the baroque and for dance.
Having to choose from such a rich menu, yours chroniqueur decided to spend three days at the festival to attend the debut of a drama by Eugenio Sideri with a clear Pasolinan imprint at the Teatro Alghieri and two music concerts of the twentieth century and baroque respectively in the magnificent Byzantine setting of the Basilica of Sant’Apolinnare in Classe.
Let’s go first to Caleri (term from the Romagna dialect which means Trails). On 10 June (debut and only performance at the festival) the Alighieri Theater was full also because the company (Nove Teatro) and the author are well known locally. The great success and thunderous applause were largely taken for granted. The drama takes place in 2004 and has two intertwined themes (both of Pasolini’s matrix): the intergenerational clash and the inability of the left to understand the problems of the new generations. Strongly political work that could improve in the filming (some cuts would do well in the first act, and some performers should act louder).
The two concerts in Sant’Apollinare in Classe are of the highest level. The first (June 9) hinges on a gem by Britten (i Canticles) performed by exceptional interpreters; the second (11 June), to a well-known music (Bach’s Branderburgh concerts) performed by a group created about thirty years ago (Ensemble Zefiro) which is reaping successes in Italy and abroad; its founders, teachers at the Conservatories of Music in Amsterdam, Salzburg, Barcelona, Mantua, Verona, Milan, are appreciated soloists of famous orchestras and are considered among the most valid performers in the field of ancient music; they also make use of the collaboration of the best instrumentalists in Europe.
THE Canticles (Songs) constitute a real preciousness in Britten’s vast production. There are numerous record versions but in Italy they are rarely performed live for two reasons: a) difficulty in finding performers; b) the brevity of the complete execution and the need, therefore, to combine them with other works. They were not conceived as an integral cycle of religious inspiration but as five miniatures (taken from sacred books) composed between 1947 and 1974 having as essential reference the special tenor stamp of Peter Pears. The texts are not only ancient but also by contemporary authors such as Edith Stilwell and TS Elliot.
At the Ravenna Festival the first of these knots was solved by calling Ian Bostridge (the tenor who today has the voice most similar to that of Pears) and his close-knit team, flanked by Julius Drake on the piano, Antonella De Falco on the harp and Federico Horn fantozzi. The second node was solved by preceding the execution of Canticles by Britten from that of Bach’s five short spiritual passages and four Songs by Purcell – compositions from which Britten drew inspiration for his miniatures. In addition, the splendid Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in classe was chosen as the venue for the concert, which was also crowded with foreign audiences for the occasion.
One final consideration: Britten didn’t draw on Scriptures for the lyrics of his songs, which resemble sing more than a hymns of church in scale and structure, but an intense religious spirit pervades them all. The works contain a mood of spiritual elevation intense enough to require realization in an ambitious musical structure. Between the five Canticles the fourth stands out “The Journey of the Magi”, op. 86, was written in 1971 for countertenor, tenor And baritonewith text based on the poem by TS Eliot “Journey of the Magi”.
Highlights the three voices in their differences. From that refined velvet of Bostridge’s voice, delicate and enveloping and with a wide and soft phrasing, to the colors of Borgioni’s to the texture of that of the young countertenor Alexander Chance, a name that we will hear often in the future.
THE Brandenburg concerts by Johann Sebastian Bach do not require presentation as they are known, performed and engraved. Bach adopted the wording in for these works French from Concerts avec plusieurs instruments. Bach’s manuscript was probably never executed in the Margrave’s seat, but archived alongside 77 other works later distributed among the five heirs. It was only in 1850 (year of the centenary of the court death, both due to particular difficulties of the score; this is evident from the lesser care with which Bach’s manuscript) that the work was finally made public for the types of the Peters publisher of Leipzig. Bach was aware of the fact that these compositions would not be performed, both due to the lack of staff. Interestingly, ai Brandenburgers Pasolini drew on the soundtrack of some of his films qsuch “Accattone” (1961), “The Gospel according to Matthew” (1964), “Inspections in Palestine for the Gospel according to Matthew” (1963-64), “Notes for a film on India” (1968), “Sequenza del flower of paper “(1968) and the much debated” Salò or the 120 days of Sodom “(1975).
The salient aspect of the concert (crowded in every order of seats) was the performance in the splendid Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe (whose acoustics are perfect) by a complex created about thirty years ago (Ensemble Zefiro) which is reaping successes in Italy and abroad. Its founders, teachers at the Conservatories of Music in Amsterdam, Salzburg, Barcelona, Mantua, Verona, Milan, are appreciated soloists of famous orchestras and are considered among the most valid performers in the field of ancient music; they also make use of the collaboration of the best instrumentalists in Europe. It is a well-fed ensemble that can tackle scores that, as in the case of Brandenburgersrequire complexes of different sizes.
Above all, the six concerts were not performed in the usual canonical order. We began with the first, joyful, in F major which requires a nourished staff. And it ended with the second, also in F major and also for a relatively large ensemble, in which the winds stand out. The others were presented in this order: concerto No. 6 in B flat with an “adagio” full of melancholy; Concerto No. 4 in G major with almost echoes of the French style; Concerto No. 5 in D major of which theensemble he emphasized the cheerful aspect and the harpsichordist offered proof of true mastery; concerto No. 3 in G major in which the strings dominated.
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