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CLASSICAL
AND SACRED MUSIC
 Classical
Music
Our first
concert: on 28th July 1994 in the Courtyard of Honour of
Torrechiara Castle Maestro
Carlo Piazza conducted the Parma
Chamber Orchestra who played music by Ravel, Schumann and Mozart.
The soloist was
Enrico
Bronzi, a young musician who subsequently became first cellist
of the orchestra at La Scala, Milan and a virtuoso admired by the
greatest conductors, including Maestro Claudio Abbado. Other
memorable performers included the guitarist
Giampaolo
Bandini who offered an impressive homage to Joaquim Rodrigo accompanied
by the Parma Philharmonic Orchestra (Langhirano, Corte Campelli, 28th
July 1997), and the
Stradivarius Chamber Orchestra.
Sacred
Music
Sacred music isn’t simply a genre within the vast world of classical
music but first and foremost, the fusion of artistic expression and
religious feeling. With this in mind, we chose and contributed to
projects which deliberately blended music and faith. In 1996 we brought
the
Bratislava Chamber Choir to Langhirano’s church. The following
year it was the
Polish
Chamber Choir – Schola Cantorum Gedaniensis, conducted by Maestro
Jan Lukaszewski, who performed the oratorio by F J Haydn Last Seven
Words of Christ on the Cross during the Good Friday celebrations
of 1997. Maestro Lukaszewski returned in September 2000 with the treble
singers of the
Pueri Cantores Olivenses, this time in the stupendous parish church
of Badia Cavana.
TRADITIONAL
MUSIC – OTHER EVENTS
 Traditional
Music
Traditional music is one of our passions and we enjoy helping to distribute
the work of groups in Italy and abroad who rescue and restore folk
music. Some of our selections for the
Torrechiara Festival are a good
example of this (currently only available in Italian on the
archive pages).
Speaking
however of other events, several concerts spring to mind, the Hungarian
Kálmán
Balogh Cimbalom Band (28 July 1995 in Piazza Ferrari, Langhirano)
for instance.
We are
also proud to have been the first, on 3 September 1995, to have brought
the group
La Piva
dal Carnér to Parma's Apennine region. Their original take on
the really beautiful, early folk music from the Emilia area, the precursor
of “liscio” or simple style, brought to light this almost forgotten
repertoire. The ensemble returned on 6 July 1996 to a small, natural
amphitheatre near the Parish Church of Castrignano which, in 2002
also hosted a season of traditional music entitled “TerraIncognita”.
Other memorable
occasions were the “Christmas Concerts” of the
Ensemble
del Doppio Bordone (Mattaleto Church, 1998), the Montecastello
Choir who offered a programme of our local Apennine songs arranged
by Maestro Giacomo Monica and the treble choir
Ars Canto
G. Verdi of the Regio Theatre in Parma, conducted by Silvia Rossi
(Langhirano, Church of the Assumption, December 1999 and 2000).
Other
concerts and events
Since 1995 the arrival of spring has often coincided with an annual
treat: the Academy’s Aperitifs: a series of concerts every
Sunday morning in the beautiful, small, acoustically admirable Hall
of the Tartars (so called because of the six 17th Century portraits
which decorate the walls) in Langhirano’s Town Hall. Afterwards, the
actual aperitif: wines from the hills around Parma provided by local
producers.
However
small scale these offerings were, they maintained a high standard
and included the pleasure of discovering promising young talent. After
several years we decided to “abandon” the musical aperitifs to devote
ourselves to the concert season of Langhirano’s recently re-opened
Aurora Theatre, in collaboration with the Cultural Association “Quelli
che l’Aurora” (literally: those that are the Aurora). So the series
of concerts entitled “JazzTangoBlues” was born. The stars of the first
year were the guitarist Juan Carlos “Flaco” Biondini, the jazz singer
Stefania Rava, the bluesmen
Fabio
Treves and Paolo Bonfanti and, at the 2002 Christmas concert,
the overwhelming Gospel music of
Kay
Foster Jackson and Darrell Hill.
THE EXHIBITIONS
 From
24th December 1995 to 6th January 1996 we mounted an exhibition of
photographs of Renata Tebaldi entitled
Vissi d’Arte in the Hall of the Tartars at Langhirano
Town Hall. We were honoured that the great soprano not only attended
the official opening of the exhibition but that she stayed for a long
time afterwards to mingle in a wonderfully friendly manner with the
enormous crowd. Later, on Wednesday 7th June 2000, Renata Tebaldi
was our guest at the launch of Vincenzo Ramon Bisogni’s biography
of her. On that occasion, the S. Giovanni Basilica (Parma) was literally
crammed with passionate admirers.
In August 1997 the Hall of the Tartars in Langhirano’s Town Hall hosted
an exhibition of portraits of jazz artists by pianist and director
Andrea Dondi.
We mounted an exhibition of medieval musical instruments entitled
Early Instruments to Delight the Human Ear which was held from
29th March to 10th May in the St Nicomede Tower at
Torrechiara Castle (normally closed
to visitors). It was a great success and visitors, including scholars,
were able to listen to the sounds of instruments from the past and
attend small concerts.
CHILDREN’S
ENTERTAINMENT
We don’t believe children are a second class audience. Apart from
the numerous events during the Feast of Fools,
we presented them with the show Saltimbanchi tra i Banchi (Acrobats
in the Park, 22nd December 1995) and the German ensemble Loeffelstielchen
(15th May 1997), both of which were presented at Langhirano elementary
school.
Translation
by Sarah J Hyde -
www.thelanguage.biz
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