Our places: Malborghetto

By Emilia Campagna - May 31, 2018

Per la prima volta Theresia sarà orchestra in residence a Malborghetto
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Diciannove chilometri e ti ritrovi in Austria, ventidue e superi il confine con la Slovenia: Udine, capoluogo di provincia, dista invece più di 80 chilometri. Malborghetto è proprio quello che si dice un posto di frontiera, a un passo dai confini segnati dalle montagne – e dalle guerre. E’ un luogo affascinante in cui trascorrere una residenza di una settimana, il tempo che Theresia spenderà nella preparazione dei due concerti in programma per il Festival Risonanze. I nostri musicisti, provenienti da 15 paesi diversi, si troveranno a studiare assieme nel cuore dell’Europa, dove si parlano comunemente tre diverse lingue: l’italiano, l’austriaco e lo sloveno, più il dialetto friulano.

Malborghetto si trova nel cuore delle Alpi-Friulane, nell’estremo nord-est dell’Italia; assieme a Valbruna e alle altre frazioni raggiuge a stento i 1000 abitanti, ma due volte l’anno fa il pieno di turisti. D’inverno gli sciatori, d’estate gli escursionisti e gli scalatori che la usano come base. E come dargli torto? il colpo d’occhio delle montagne attorno a Malborghetto è davvero notevole.

Valbruna

Malborghetto esiste fin dall’Alto Medioevo: si chiamava però diversamente, Buonborghetto, ed apparteneva al Vescovo di Bamberga. Pare che le continue contese con Venezia le fecero cambiare nome… Rimase sotto l’impero Asburgico fino al 1919, quando fu annessa all’Italia. Il legame con il passato asburgico è però ancora molto vivo. Merito anche di una servitù concessa agli abitanti della zona dall’Imperatrice Maria Teresa (in vigore ancor oggi) che consente l’utilizzo gratuito dei preziosi boschi di abete rosso di risonanza.

La residenza di Theresia si svolgerà in quello che è considerato l’edificio di maggior pregio della zona, il Palazzo Veneziano, costruito nel XVI secolo e così chiamato per gli elementi architettonici di stampo italiano.

Oggi il palazzo è sede di un Museo Etnografico che ospita testimonianze sulla vita quotidiana tradizionale nella Val Canale, sulla storia del Palazzo stesso, ma ha anche sale dedicate alle attività estrattive, alla Foresta, alla geologia, alla paleontologia ed alla preistoria. Posto esattamente al centro del paese, il Palazzo Veneziano ospita anche numerose iniziative culturali. E per una settimana anche le prove di Theresia rientreranno nell’attività espositiva del Museo: il pubblico potrà assistere al lavoro dell’orchestra diretta da Claudio Astronio ogni giorno dall’1 al 7 giugno dalle 10 alle 13 e dalle 15 alle 18.

Il concerto di Theresia Youth Orchestra, in programma l’8 giugno, si terrà nella Chiesa della Visitazione di Maria Vergine e Sant’Antonio: a due passi dal Municipio, è una bella costruzione che ha subito nei secoli numerosi rimaneggiamenti. Accanto al portale del Duecento si conservano affreschi del XV secolo e un altare settecentesco; è stata in gran parte ricostruita nell’800 e il campanile è stato interamente rifatto dopo la Seconda Guerra Mondiale.

Back to Kraus! (and Mozart)

By theresia - May 10, 2018

In our next concerts we'll perform both music by Kraus, one of our favourite composers, and by Mozart
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In our next concerts, we’ll perform music both by Kraus, one of our favourite composers, and by Mozart

Theresia’s fans know it: we love Joseph Martin Kraus, and we have a special chemistry with this composer. His music is surprising, his life is fascinating. Plus, there’s one particular oddity that makes him a bit more special: Kraus was born the very same year as Mozart (1756) and died just one year later (1792). This is the reason why he is called “the Swedish Mozart”, or “the Mozart from Odenwald”. Yet, his music is not as worldwide renowned as Mozart’s. One may think this is partly because he spent almost his entire professional life in Stockholm, as Kapellmeister of the King of Sweden.

Kraus was born in Miltenberg am Main, Germany. His parents wanted him to become a lawyer, and he matriculated as a student of law at the University of Mainz in 1773. But he managed to change his destiny, moving to the University of Erfurt, where he could study music too. Anyway, he continued to be a law student, eventually in Gottingen, where he came into contact with new “Sturm und Drang” ideas, which influenced both his writing and his music.

Encounters can determine our fate, and so it was with Kraus too: in Gottingen, he had become friendly with a Swedish fellow student, Carl Stridsberg. He persuaded Kraus to accompany him to Stockholm to apply for a position at the court of King Gustav III. After three years of misery, King Gustav III eventually noticed him: Kraus wrote the music for the opera “Proserpin”, which was successfully premiered at Ulriksdal Palace on 6 June 1781, before the King and the royal household. Kraus was appointed vice-Kapellmeister of the Royal Swedish Opera and director of the Royal Academy of Music.

It was the long-awaited breakthrough. Dizzy with the success, Kraus wrote to his parents:

“Immediately after the music ended, the king talked to me for more than a quarter of an hour … it had simply given him so much satisfaction. Yesterday I was engaged by him. Of course, I was not granted any great title, but quite simple that of Kapellmeister. What is worth much more to me than 600 guilders is the favour I have been granted, which is that I am to undertake a journey to Germany, France and Italy at the King’s expense.”

Gustav III sent Kraus on a Grand Tour of Europe that lasted five years, to learn all he could about Theater abroad. On this trip, Kraus met Christoph Willibald Gluck, Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, Padre Martini and Joseph Haydn. In 1773 Kraus was in Vienna, where he wrote the C minor Symphony VB 142: the minor key and the mood of Symphony VB 142 seem to be reminiscent of Haydn’s Sturm und Drang period around 1770. It is believed that Kraus wrote this Symphony for Haydn. And we know for sure that Haydn had a very high opinion of the work; as a matter of fact, many years after Kraus’s death, Haydn remarked to a common friend, Swedish diplomat Fredrik Samuel Silverstolpe:

“The symphony he wrote here in Vienna especially for me will be regarded as a masterpiece for centuries to come; believe me, there are few people who can compose something like that.”

What else happened in Vienna? Somewhere else in this blog we wrote about the mystery of the meeting of Kraus and Mozart: nobody really knows if they actually met. Yet, we can imagine it, and, moreover, we can enjoy a sort of virtual and contemporary encounter playing their composition.

Theresia will perform Kraus’ Symphony in c minor VB 142 and Chaconne from “Aeneas i Cartago” VB 23 together with Mozart’s Overture from “Le Nozze di Figaro” KV 492 and Symphony n. 35 in D major “Haffner” KV 504. Theresia will perform under Claudio Astronio’s baton on the 8th June in Malborghetto and the 9th June in Udine, as a guest of the “Risonanze” Festival.