Ravenna Festival
VIOLONCELLO BAROCCO E MISTERIOSI CARTEGGI
Backward in time on a cello: Brahms, Beethoven, Bach. What before them? Could Bach, who never left Germany, have enjoyed some excellent Italian fruits of this instrument, like those by Gabrielli from Bologna? Of course he could: his mind-boggling musical intelligence made him appreciate Frescobaldi and Vivaldi. But how did it happen? It was probably Giovanni Bononcini, Gabrielli’s fellow student in the church of San Petronio, who left traces of his friend’s work in Vienna and Berlin. From here they reached the two Bachs, father and son, in Köthen and Leipzig, maybe through some quick letter, or perhaps through the mediation of Giuseppe Torelli. The programme combines concert and entertainment, music and thought, and some fictionalized but not too far-fetched history.
