Programmes

Aria di Napoli

Music by Sacchini, Paisiello, Cimarosa, Donizetti

Naples is a universe of words and gestures. A journey through the essence of Neapolitan style, where words become music and re-emerge from music itself, ranging from original transcriptions by Paisiello and Cimarosa to the instrumental music of Sacchini and Donizetti.

BeethovenOpus18

Complete op.18 String Quartets

1770-2020. We celebrate the 250th anniversary of the of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven with the performance of his complete Opus 18.
Composed between 1798 and 1800 and printed for the first time in 1801, this set of quartets ideally represents the fulfillment of the classical era and at the same time contains track of future ferments. Therefore, this is  a milestone that fits into our historically informed performance practice: a principle that we use both for studying the scores, edited on the basis of a careful reconstruction of the sources, and for our performances. We believe that nowadays, in order to archive a deep understanding of  the eternal relevance of a work, we must first recall its original voice.

A London Symphony

Music by Haydn, Cirri, Sacchini

The London theaters and concert halls tributed great honours to Haydn and his music. The symphonies that he composed in the British capital city were such a big success that lead the impresario Salomon to repropose them to the audience in a new version adapted for strings and flute. The project that we present puts these compositions side to side with some  quartets by Haydn and by other composers that lived in London in the second half of the 18th century.

Paris 1804

Music by Cherubini,  Reicha, Dauprat

In 1804 in Paris Luigi Cherubini composed his sonatas for horn and quartett. Paris is the fil rouge that connects the three composers in the programme, who lived in the french capital city during the beginning of the 19th century.
The quintets for horn and strings by Cherubini, Reicha and Dauprat form the newborn cd Passacaille, and are performed for the first time on historical instruments together with the horn player Alessandro Denabian  www.denabian.com

Quartetti d’Italia

music by Donizetti, Nardini, Rauzzini, Giuliani, Giorgetti, Cambini, Bertoni…

The best known production of the italian composers of the 18th and 19th centuries is mainly operatic, however this was obviously not their only composition.
Our project collects the most outstanding results of our research around the string quartet compositions of the authors of our country, that rested in the shade of the big masterpieces of the time.
Rediscovering and bringing back on stage these compositions is a  major challenge for our ensemble, and it constitutes one of our most outstanding features.

Don Giovanni at the Mirror

portrait of a seducer

written and performed by Roberto Salemi
music from the Don Giovanni by Mozart

Da Ponte, Byron, Tirso de Molina, Kierkegaard, Moliere, Bernard Shaw, Rostand, Zehenter and many more have invented, transformed and recreated during the passing  of time the image of this ambiguous hero whose destiny is fatal: Don Giovanni.
While the musicians run once more through the harmonies and arias that tribute that tragic day, the servant Leporello, imagined as a survivor, uses the words of the poets to reach once more the soul of his master, now in hell. The music is an original 18th century version for string quartet of the Mozart opera, that is located in the Pitti Collection, the music library of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany.
Trailer

Francesco Benucci, star of the Opera Buffa in Vienna

Music by Mozart, Salieri, Paisiello, Cimarosa, Martin y Soler

The glorious career of Francesco Benucci, Mozart’s favourite basso buffo, starts in Italy, more precisely in Livorno, his hometown, and touches the major centers of the operatic production of the italian peninsula, till 1783, when he was called in Vienna.
In 1795 he moved to Florence, where he kept on with his music activity and he stayed till the end of his life. In the Fondo Pitti, the music library of the Grand Dukes now located at the Conservatory of Florence, we have found original transcriptions for quartet of the best known operas of the time. Therefore, we have extracted the transcriptions of the most famous arias that Benucci sung.
With the support of a narrator we recall the life and successes of one of the most important protagonists of the operatic world of the second half of the 18th century.

Repertoire

JUAN CRISOSTOMO DE ARRIAGA (1806 – 1826)

  • Quartet n°1 in D minor

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN (1770 – 1827)

  • Quartet op.18 – n°1 in F major
  • Quartet op. 18 – n°2 in G major
  • Quartet op. 18 – n°3 in D major
  • Quartet op.18 – n°4 in C minor
  • Quartet op.18 – n°5 in A major
  • Quartet op.18 – n°6 in B flat major

FERDINANDO BERTONI (1725 – 1813)

  • Quartet n°1 in B flat major

LUIGI BOCCHERINI (1743 – 1805)

  • Quartet op. 2 n°1 in C minor
  • Quintet for 2 violins, viola, cello e doubleness op. 39/1 G.377
  • Quintet for flute and strings n°2 in G minor

GAETANO BRUNETTI (1744 – 1798)

  • Quintet for bassoon and string quartet n. 6 op. 2

NORBERT BURGMULLER (1810 – 1836)

  • Quartet n°4 op.14 in A minor

GIUSEPPE CAMBINI (1746 – 1825)

  • Quartet op. 29 – n°5 in G major

JOSE’ AVELINO CANONGIA (1784 – 1842)

  • Clarinet Concerto n°1 in G minor

LUIGI CHERUBINI (1760 – 1842)

  • Sonatas for horn and strings n°1 & n°2 in F major

GIOVANNI BATTISTA CIRRI (1724 – 1808)

  • Quartet op. 13 – n°6 in E minor
  • Sextett for flute and strings in D major

LOUIS FRANCOIS DAUPRAT (1781 – 1868)

  • Horn Quintet op. 6 n°3 in E flat major

GAETANO DONIZETTI (1797 – 1848)

  • Quartet n°13 in A major
  • Quartet n°15 in F major
  • Quartet n°17 in D major

TOMMASO GIORDANI (1730 – 1806)

  • Quartet op. 8 – n°4 in A major

FRANCESCO GIULIANI (1760 – 1820)

  • Quartet n°2 in G major
  • Quartet n°3 in G minor

CHARLES-LOUIS HANSSENS (1802 – 1871)

  • Quartet in C minor

FRANZ JOSEPH HAYDN (1732 – 1809)

  • Quartet op. 20 – n°5 in F minor
  • Quartet op. 33 – n°5 in G major
  • Quartet op. 55 – n°1 in A major
  • Sinfonia n°104 “London” in D major vers. Salomon for string quartet and flute

JOSEPH MARTIN KRAUS (1756 – 1792)

  • Quartet op.1 n°6 in G major

VINCENZO MANFREDINI (1737 – 1799)

  • Complete Six String Quartets

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756 – 1791)

  • Quartet kv 157 in C minor
  • Quartet kv 421 in D minor
  • “Don Giovanni” string quartet vers.

PIETRO NARDINI (1722 – 1793)

  • Complete Six String Quartets

GIOVANNI PAISIELLO (1740 – 1816)

  • “La Passione di N. S. Gesù Cristo” string quartet vers. by G. F. Mosel

AMILCARE PONCHIELLI (1834 – 1886)

  • Quartet in E major

VENANZIO RAUZZINI (1746 – 1810)

  • Quartet n°6 in C major

ANTONIN REICHA (1770 – 1836)

  • Horn Quintet in E major

ANTONIO SACCHINI (1730 – 1786)

  • Quartet n°5 in G major
  • Quartet n°6 in A major

FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797 – 1828)

  • 5 Minuettos e 6 Trios D. 89
  • 5 German Dances with Coda e 7 Trios D. 90
  • Octet D. 803 in F major

JOHAN BAPTISTE VANHAL (1739 – 1813)

  • Complete Six Quartets for oboe and strings

CARL MARIA VON WEBER (1786 – 1826)

  • Clarinet Quintet op.34 in B flat major

PAVEL WRANITZKY (1756 – 1808)

  • Quartet op. 26  n°1 in B flat major