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Concerts, travel, recordings… A look back at the cool and new things that 2023 has brought us

By Emilia Campagna - December 28, 2023
At this time of the year, we take a look back reflecting on the highlights of 2023 in concerts, travel, and recordings.
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For many of us, this is our favourite time of year: the holidays are approaching, we’re spending time with family and friends, and the New Year is about to begin, with its promise of a fresh start. This is also the time of year when we look back on the past twelve months and take stock of our accomplishments. We do this every year too, and we do it with great pleasure, because looking back always gives us a great deal of satisfaction.

In constant renewal

Even as our passion lies in performing classical music repertoire according to historically informed practice – something deeply rooted far back in time – you know we are eager to renew ourselves. We like to play music we don’t know, discover hidden gems, visit new places, and expand our network of collaborations.

Almost each of the 2023 projects brought the thrill of “firsts”: let’s look at these moments together in the light of novelty and discovery!

Many new things at the start of the year

This wonderful 2023 started off with an orchestral project led by conductor Giovanni Antonini: do you remember? We were in Ravenna, Rovereto and Florence playing Beethoven with the excellent soloist, Dmitri Smirnov, for the Violin Concerto. Well, let’s stop there for a moment, as there are already so many new things here that my head is spinning. First of all, a conductor who is leading us for the first time, sharing his long experience to enrich our orchestra; secondly, a young virtuoso who literally electrified us; and finally, performing Beethoven (the Eighth Symphony in addition to his Violin Concerto). This meant, we got to expand our repertoire in an important way. As Giovanni Antonini explains well in the interview published on the blog, “it must be said that a remarkable technical leap was taken by Beethoven: his music was extremely difficult at the time, specifically because of its technical complexity, which often had to do with the required dynamics. Beethoven was the first composer to demand such a high degree of intensity from the orchestra, which was truly unheard of in those days. Taking on Beethoven is quite a challenge and also an opportunity for both technical and musical growth.”

Dmitry Smirnov: “Gut strings taught me a great deal”

Giovanni Antonini and Beethoven as you do not expect

An expanding network of collaborations: new opportunities for Theresians

An exciting development is our collaboration with Il Giardino Armonico as the ensemble offered to host four of our musicians on a European tour. The operation was so successful that both parties have expressed interest to continue this apprenticeship programme.

Musicians involved this year were violinists Lucas Bernardo da Silva, Guillermo Santonja Di Fonzo, Natascha Pichler, and cellist Matylda Adamus. They embarked on a European tour to perform Haydn’s The Seasons led by Giovanni Antonini at prestigious venues in Lucerne, Bonn, Bremen, Wroclaw, Antwerp, Bucharest. Three of the performances were broadcast on national radio, and the Wroclaw performance was also filmed for MezzoTV, reaching an even wider audience.

Working with Giovanni Antonini also meant expanding on our network of collaborations and benefitting from his connections. We treasure his interest in our orchestra by involving Antonini in our upcoming auditions in Paris in January where he will be part of the selection committee.

Our cellist Matylda Adamus has written a passionate account of the experience of touring with Il Giardino Armonico: we invite you to read it again!

Four Theresia members join Il Giardino Armonico on major European tour

Matylda Adamus: A wave of beauty

Not just one record: the beginning of a multi-year project with a prestigious music label

Last November our new CD featuring Kraus Overtures conducted by Claudio Astronio, was released as the first album in a series of recordings we are producing in collaboration with the CPO record company.

Future releases of Theresia on CPO are planned for 2024 featuring various seldom-performed orchestral pieces and opera rarities. In February the next album will be released featuring four symphonies by Ernst Eichner, one of the early masters of symphonic compositions, in which Theresia is conducted by Vanni Moretto. Later in the year, two opera recordings will be released: Le astuzie femminili by Domenico Cimarosa and Rossini’s L’inganno felice, both conducted by Alessandro De Marchi.

August will see the release of the world premiere recording of Traetta‘s oratorio Rex Salomon. We recorded and performed this work dating from 1765 which Traetta wrote for the female voices of the Conservatorio dell’Ospedaletto in Venice, at the Innsbrucker Festwochen under the passionate guidance of Christophe Rousset, an expert in reviving unfamiliar works. 

Christophe Rousset: music as an endless discovery

These recordings are an extraordinary opportunity to enrich the professional experience we offer to our musicians, leaving a tangible trace of our many musical projects.

CPO

Theresia starts new recording collaboration with CPO

“My love for Kraus is well-known”: Claudio Astronio about Theresia’s new album

New places to perform? Yes, please!

Even though Rovereto is a city where we have played many times and where it all began, we had never played in the wonderful Teatro Zandonai, a true jewel of 18th century architecture, perfectly in tune with our repertoire! In the same tour, Teatro Goldoni in Florence was another precious addition to our travel journal.

Truly inspiring... Teatro Zandonai in Rovereto was the venue of our first 2023 concert
Truly inspiring… Teatro Zandonai in Rovereto was the venue of our first 2023 concert

The May Wind Residency took us to familiar and beloved places such as Lodi, our adopted city, and the Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome, where we made a welcome return after a few years. Our wind players also went to Koper (Slovenia) to perform at a beautiful and historically rich venue, the Regional Museum.

Theresia Wind Ensemble’s whistle-stop spring tour

In June, Germany was a happy destination, where we took part in something totally unusual, a bicycle concert!

That sounds new: a bicycle is not exactly the first thing that springs to mind when you think of a classical music concert: but it’s probably what you think of when you imagine a get-together with friends on a beautiful day in spring, isn’t it? Well, the organisers of the Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci managed to bring music and cycling together in a series of open-air concerts along a route to which the audience members were encouraged to cycle along. Theresia’s wind quintet and a trio of trumpets and timpani were part of these inviting bicycle-concerts. Find more here.

Musikfestspiele Potsdam Sanssouci have managed to bring music and cycling together

Theresia in Potsdam: a short guide to our next musical adventure

Alexis Kossenko and the joy of sharing a passion for music

Among the 23 different locations where we performed in 2023, we want to tell you about the Penderecki Centre for Music which really stands out as a remarkable destination. This amazing project is a beautiful place, born out of a community’s love for its esteemed composer. The Penderecki Centre provided an awe-inspiring setting for five days of rehearsal, followed by our Polish tour with stops at the at the Ruins of the Victoria Theatre in Gliwice, and at the National Theatre and Opera in Warsaw. It was really inspiring to experience the genuine passion Polish audiences have for classical music: we hope to play for this wonderful audience again in future!

Our places: the Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music

These are some of the remarkable things that happened to us in 2023; it’s good to linger on memories, but know that we’re already working on upcoming projects. Follow us to find out what 2024 has in store for us!

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Meet Theresia: Guillermo Santonja di Fonzo

By Emilia Campagna - November 30, 2023
Guillermo Santonja di Fonzo is a young talented musician from Spain who plays in the ranks of Theresia's violins: his skill and dedication were recently rewarded when he was chosen, along with three other grantees, to take part in a major European tour of the famous period-instrument ensemble Il Giardino Armonico as a Theresia apprentice.
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Guillermo Santonja di Fonzo is a young talented musician from Spain who plays in the ranks of Theresia’s violins: his skill and dedication were recently rewarded when he was chosen, along with three other grantees, to take part in a major European tour of the famous period-instrument ensemble Il Giardino Armonico as a Theresia apprentice. We’re happy to introduce you to him through this enjoyable interview.

Guillermo, tell us about your musical upbringing, your training and your decision to focus on the historical instrument: how did it all come about?

I started playing the violin when I was 5 years old and went through the whole Conservatorio in Madrid with a wonderful teacher, Farid Fasla. I went to the German School in Madrid, so when the time came, it was natural for me to try to study in Germany. I ended up studying modern violin at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg with a fantastic teacher, Tanja Becker-Bender, to whom I owe so much. My interest in early music and historical performance practice was already there, mainly because my mother is a trained recorder player, so I had heard and played a lot of baroque music growing up. During my studies I gradually realised that the historically informed approach came natural to me, I felt much more at home with it. When I tried playing with gut strings for the first time, it was a moment of true epiphany. I told myself: “This is what I want to do in my life.”

What do you consider to be the most important moments in your musical and professional development?

As I mentioned, my first great musical influence was my mother. Our home was always very musical; from a very early age, we would organise house concerts where we would play baroque chamber music with my mother on the recorder and my brother on the cello. These early experiences certainly shaped my approach to music, which is an intimate one where listening to others is essential. During my studies in Hamburg, also Professor Gerhart Darmstadt, who had been a cello student of Harnoncourt and was in charge of the school’s small early music department, had a great influence on me. I attended his classes for most of my studies and always felt that he had new insights and information to share with his students. He made me discover the orchestra in a new way and gave me some performance opportunities that I will cherish forever and that were important in my development as a violinist. More recently, I took part in a summer academy (my first project with solo repertoire on gut strings) with Johannes Pramsohler of Ensemble Diderot, who generously lent me one of his baroque violins for the whole project. We performed Vivaldi’s entire Estro Armonico. If I had any doubts at all about going down the HIP route, that was the moment when I felt most clearly that it is the right path for me.

When and how did your journey with Theresia begin?

I auditioned for Theresia in July 2022, about which I had heard from a friend. I didn’t know much about the orchestra at first, but I thought it sounded great because I’ve always loved playing classical repertoire. Right from the start of my first project (an opera project with Alessandro de Marchi in Rieti and Rome, where we performed Le Astuzie femminilli by Domenico Cimarosa) I felt that I was experiencing something unique. Theresia Orchestra brings together many wonderful musicians, who happen to also be really good-hearted and hard-working people, and the musical result of our joint efforts to deliver high quality performances, as well as the time spent together on each and every project, is something I hold very dear. I think we-Theresians should be very grateful and I am proud to have been a part of it.

You recently toured with the ensemble “Il Giardino Armonico” with three other musicians of Theresia: how was that experience?

The recent tour with Il Giardino Armonico (IGA) with my colleagues and friends Lucas Bernardo da Silva, Matylda Adamus and Natascha Pichler was an unforgettable experience to conclude our learning path with Theresia through this apprentice project. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we grew up listening to the recordings of IGA and Giovanni Antonini, so to be part of the orchestra was a huge honour.

What was your favourite moment?

I am not sure I can pick just one moment, but it was very special to spend a week in Wroclaw, Matylda’s hometown, and for her to show us her favourite bars, spots and such. Also, the fact that we got standing ovations at each of our concerts made us feel that the music really resonated with the audience, which is a really rewarding feeling.

You have played at important music venues: which one impressed you the most?

In terms of venues, my favourites were definitely the first and the last: KKL Lucerne because of its beautiful location and amazing acoustics, and Bucharest because of the excitement it meant playing at the Enescu Festival in such a historical theatre as the Ateneul Român.

What are your plans now? Where do you see yourself in ten years?

I prefer not to think that far ahead; I just want to be able to continue making great music with inspiring colleagues and conductors, and to share these experiences with dear friends, among whom I hope to find many fellow Theresians along the way!

What are your passions besides music?

I really enjoy literature and cinema, not only as entertainment but also as a source of inspiration. I think it helps to connect with different emotions and develop empathy, which I think is essential for any musician. I also enjoy swimming and running, which helps me maintain a consistent level of energy to cope with my work and travel schedule.

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A wave of beauty

By theresia - November 16, 2023
Cellist Matylda Adamus reflects on the experience of touring Haydn's 'Die Jahreszeiten' with Il Giardino Armonico and working with Giovanni Antonini as an apprentice.
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Working on “Die Jahreszeiten” by Joseph Haydn with Il Giardino Armonico
by Matylda Adamus

The tour with Il Giardino Armonico was for me a very special experience and made me look at orchestral playing with completely new eyes, I have learned so much about the essence of precision, obedience, and sheer beauty. I’ll share with you the lessons and insights I gained during this musical adventure.

On 28th of August Il Giardino Armonico started rehearsing a secular oratorio ‘Die Jahreszeiten’ (The Seasons) by Joseph Haydn in the city of Wroclaw, my hometown. As the part of Theresia’s new apprentice scheme, Lucas Bernardo Da Silva, Guillermo Santonja Di Fonzo, Natascha Pichler and I joined the orchestra. After a first period of rehearsals at the National Forum of Music, we went on tour to Lucerne, Bonn, Bremen, Antwerp and Bucharest. We also performed in Wroclaw as part of the Wratislavia Cantans Festival.

Rehearsal period in Wroclaw 28.08-02.09

The initial three days of rehearsal with the orchestra took place without the singers and choir in the Red Hall of the National Forum of Music (NFM) – a modest rehearsal space smaller in size than the centre’s Main Hall but still with accommodating acoustics. From the very first chords, the orchestra sounded stunning, and I was very impressed. The sound of the group was solid and beautiful, the contrast between strings and wings was very well balanced, therefore, it was very clear from the very beginning what kind of sound I was expected to make – one that needed to be both warm and full, but also versatile and flexible.

Right from the start it was clear that working with Maestro Antonini would be an exercise in precision, detail and to the highest standards. His interpretation of The Seasons was amazing, very moving, and animated. I had to stay focused and diligent in every single phrase, bar and note. It was fascinating and a real challenge to contribute to the realisation of his interpretation, and I didn’t want to destroy the effect he was trying to create with any of my mistakes. It was very important to constantly keep my eye on the conductor, even in the most difficult passages. Thankfully, after a few days, I could remember my part better, which made it easier to glance above the score. At the end of the third day the soloists joined our rehearsals, and their singing had an astonishing effect. Almost each syllable seemed to shimmer like a perfectly polished pearl. At that moment, I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude for being part of such a beautiful project – and there was still so much more to come!

From the next day, the ‘tutti’ rehearsals started in the Main Hall. The magnificent voices of the NFM Choir joined us and the grandeur of Haydn’s ‘Die Jahreszeiten’ was now palpable. I couldn’t wait for the concert tour to start. After several days of dedicated rehearsal in the Main Hall, I found myself completely immersed in this masterpiece. Working with Giovanni Antonini is characterised by such a high level of detail and precision, I couldn’t be happier with. Every movement and its phrasing acquired a distinct and vivid character in his interpretation. As the music itself was very descriptive, I appreciated Antonini’s explicit approach. This method required vigilance and excellent listening skills, which I found it to be very inspiring.

Our days were filled with colourful depictions – a swarm of fish, bees, and a flock of birds, all magically brought to life through the brushstrokes of music. One could hear a dog’s sniffing during a hunt, a bell ringing, the whirl of a spinning wheel, the sun rising, and people dancing, drinking, and celebrating. To be part of this ever-changing musical painting felt like a dream.

The absolute genius of Haydn is spectacular in this oratorio. Take the storm in the penultimate movement of ‘The Summer’ – aren’t the quick, slurred notes just sounding like a howling wind? And the soaring ‘sforzatos’ above them seem to transform into lightning bolts, maybe even resembling daggers that rip the heart open. It feels like Haydn surpasses the expressive boundaries of his time. On the other hand, the next movement seems almost ironically proper and elegant, reassuring the listener (and the player) with the message that the storm has passed and everything is alright again.

As Thomas May mentioned in the programme booklet for our concert in Lucerne “Summer, in contrast, presents a conflicted vision of nature as reflecting the deity’s majesty — the magnificent depiction of sunrise — and at the same time as full of dangers, a reminder of our fallen state: but the climactic thunderstorm, which anticipates so much of 19th-century program music, gives way to a fresh echo of Eden amid the simple pleasures of village life. More than clever “representation,” Haydn’s musical technique here generates its own structures of tension and release.”

I particularly enjoyed playing Autumn, especially the “Landvolk und Jäger” and the Finale. It was written with such charisma and the orchestra was playing with such energy, that it felt as if we had been transported from a concert hall to the heart of a forest. The amazing choral singing gave an additional touch of folk elements to the performance (e.g. with the ascending glissandos) – which was pure bliss to me. It was as if we had been spirited away to a lively peasant party in 1801, jumping and dancing with the aroma of a freshly caught boar stew in the air.

During the lunch breaks, we were usually having soup in the bar nearby the Music Forum. It was always a nice opportunity to chat with other musicians about their professional experiences. Stepping out of the bar, we spotted the posters of the Wratislavia Cantans festival hanging around the town. Their design was really interesting, and later we even saw them at the airport, when we begin to travel during the tour.

And then suddenly, rehearsal time was over.

On tour from 03.09 – 10.09 and 18.09 – 22.09

I really enjoyed all the concerts on this tour and one particular performance stood out for me. My favourite concert was in Lucerne where I really liked the acoustic of the concert hall with its many balconies, which gave the ensemble a special colour. The sound was incredibly crisp there. Every performance we gave during this tour was refined and always a bit different in each hall. The second concert was in Bonn, there for example, we played in a completely dark church where there were light projections on the walls. At some point it all turned into a depiction of pouring wine about which I couldn’t be happier, and it fitted the music perfectly as it was linked to ‘autumn’, the third part of the oratorio in which dancing peasants celebrate the wine harvest. The following concerts in Bremen and Wroclaw were also quite fulfilling. Sometimes, it was really easy to get tired because of constant travelling and moving around. It was not my first tour that lasted more than just few days, so I was trying to fight with the tiredness with my previous methods – sightseeing the cities and visiting art museums in the free time between the rehearsals. It works every time for me, and this time I remember particularly well the gallery in Bremen where works of Böcklin, Dürer, and Pisarro revived me before the following concert. At the later part of the tour we travelled to Antwerp and Bucharest. Visiting Romania was an exciting adventure, I have never been there I was absolutely captivated by the local architecture and welcoming society.

With each concert we gave I got more and more impressed by ‘Die Jahreszeiten’. Haydn used magnificent quotations from various pieces such as his own Symphony No.94 and from Mozart’s requiem. I also couldn’t help noticing that Beethoven used many elements for his symphonies that were similar to Haydn’s vocabulary in ‘Die Jahreszeiten’.

Looking back, I am very grateful I could participate in this apprentice experience. Grateful that I could play with the musicians I was always admiring and have been my idols for a long time. Thanks to this concert tour, I have now a better understanding of what performing at the highest level is like, how it sounds, and how great orchestral playing feels.

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Four Theresia members join Il Giardino Armonico on major European tour

By Emilia Campagna - August 24, 2023
An exciting new opportunity awaits the musicians of Theresia! We are delighted to announce that, thanks to a new collaboration with Il Giardino Armonico, a group of Theresia Orchestra members will be joining the ensemble on a major European tour.
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An exciting new opportunity awaits the musicians members of Theresia!

We are delighted to announce a new collaboration with Il Giardino Armonico, one of the world’s leading period instrument ensembles. A group of Theresia Orchestra members have been invited to join Il Giardino Armonico on a major European tour: this is the centerpiece of a remarkable fellowship project designed to give young period instrument players a unique opportunity to gain professional experience on the grand stage of Europe.

The lucky four are violinists Lucas Bernardo da Silva, Guillermo Santonja Di Fonzo, and Natascha Pichler, and cellist Matylda Adamus. They embark on a tour across Europe to perform Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten under the baton of Giovanni Antonini at prestigious venues in Lucerne, Bonn, Bremen, Wroclaw, Antwerp, Bucharest. Three of the performances will be broadcast on national radio, and the Wroclaw performance will also be filmed for MezzoTV, reaching an even wider audience.

As Giovanni Antonini, founder and artistic director of Il Giardino Armonico, stated, “This fellowship project exemplifies our commitment to innovation and excellence, nurturing an environment for aspiring instrumentalists to excel and display their musicianship on an international stage. We look forward to sharing the stage with these exceptional young players and fuel their artistic growth.”

Ready to go! Violinists Lucas Bernardo da Silva, Natascha Pichler and Guillermo Santonja Di Fonzo, and cellist Matylda Adamus to join Il Giardino Armonico on major European tour

This collaboration represents a new milestone in our work to develop young talent, and it is a source of great pride to receive such recognition from an artist such as Giovanni Antonini, who conducted Theresia in a recent project with great artistic success: read the interview that was published on the blog earlier this year.

Giovanni Antonini

“This fellowship project exemplifies our commitment to innovation and excellence, nurturing an environment for aspiring instrumentalists to excel and display their musicianship on an international stage. We look forward to sharing the stage with these exceptional young players and fuel their artistic growth.”

Theresia’s artistic director, Mario Martinoli, was also very pleased: “At Theresia, we are entirely dedicated to forwarding our objective of advancing young period instrument players and couldn’t be more excited about such a valuable opportunity for our musicians to gain real-life performance experience.”

 

European Tour

Die Jahreszeiten, HobXXI:3
JOSEPH HAYDN

Il Giardino Armonico
Giovanni Antonini, Musical Direction

Anett Fritsch, Soprano
Maximilian Schmitt, Tenor
Florian Boesch, Bass

NFM Choir
Lionel Sow, artistic direction

Sun 3 September, 18:30 – Lucerne Festival, KKL Luzern
Tue 5 September, 19:30 – Beethovenfest Bonn, Kreuzkirche
Thu 7 Sept, 20:00 – Musikfest Bremen, Dom zu Verden
Sat 9 Sept, 19:00 – Wratislavia Cantans Festival, National Forum of Music Wroclaw
Tue 19 Sept, 20:00 – De Singel, Antwerp
Thu 21 Sept, 17:00 – George Enescu Festival, Romanian Atheneum Bucharest

 

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Giovanni Antonini and Beethoven as you do not expect

By Emilia Campagna - February 22, 2023
A few days away from the concert where he will conduct Theresia, we caught up with Maestro Giovanni Antonini for a well-rounded chat about his musical career and his relationship with Beethoven
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A few days ahead of the concerts in which he will conduct Theresia (in Rovereto on February 26 and in Florence the next day), we caught up with Maestro Giovanni Antonini for an insightful chat about his musical career and his relationship with Beethoven.

Giovanni Antonini, you will conduct the orchestra in an entirely Beethoven focused programme, such an iconic composer: what is your relationship with Beethoven?

I have had an ongoing connection with Beethoven since 2005 when I started a recording project of the complete Symphonies with the Kammerorchester Basel. The project lasted 10 years, so the whole work was very thoughtful and thorough. My starting point with Beethoven was similar as Theresia Orchestra’s today: the orchestra has a very extensive experience in the classical repertoire (Haydn, Mozart, but also a lot of less familiar composers) but never approached the Beethoven Symphonies. That was the situation for me as well. From a certain point of view, it was an advantage: Beethoven is perhaps the most performed composer, and over time he has been attributed even with extramusical, often political, meanings. By coming to his music after considerable experience in the earlier repertoire, I was able to approach it with freshness and a new outlook, free of bias.

It must be said that a remarkable technical leap was taken by Beethoven: his music was extremely difficult at the time, specifically because of its technical complexity, which often had to do with the required dynamics. Beethoven was the first composer to demand such a high degree of intensity from the orchestra, which was truly unheard of in those days. Taking on Beethoven is quite a challenge and also an opportunity for both technical and musical growth.

Compared to less historically informed performance approaches, what does playing on period instruments tell us about Beethoven?

Playing Beethoven according to historically informed performance practice allows us to rediscover aspects otherwise overlooked: one of these is frailty, an aspect that is hardly associated with this composer. Beethoven is the titan, the hero, in his most stereotypical depiction. But Beethoven also has another side: he explores our human dimension, of which frailty is an important aspect. And that aspect emerges powerfully from playing on original instruments, the ones that were used in his time and for which he composed.

Because of its complexity, Beethoven’s music gave an incredible boost to the technical development of instruments. Today’s string instruments have metal strings that produce a mighty sound, or we have bright and powerful woodwinds, but at the time of the creation of this music, this was not the case. Think of the flute for example: in the 1800s it was an instrument that would express sweetness, with a soft sound: then it changes and becomes powerful, but the modern flute has very little to do with the instrument Beethoven had in mind.

You will be conducting Theresia, an important step in their professional and musical training for many members of our youth orchestra: thinking of you at that age, what were the key events or encounters at the beginning of your career?

The most important encounter was with my colleagues with whom I founded the ensemble Il Giardino Armonico. Our work together has been a true musical journey: we rehearsed so much, exploring the 17th century Italian repertoire, and our joint effort paid off with great success.

A music lesson… Giardino Armonico in the early days

As far as my role models are concerned, even though I did never had the chance to engage with them directly, I owe a great deal to both Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Franz Brüggen. Harnoncourt changed the vision of Italian Baroque music and not only: I remember for example his recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, a scratchy sound that was both ancient and brand new; and then Mozart’s Symphony No. 40, where he gave great prominence to the woodwinds; on the other hand, Brüggen took the flute, which was considered a second-rate instrument, and proved to everyone that it could be a leading instrument.

How did you start conducting?

It was thanks to the work with Il Giardino Armonico: at a certain point we had the chance to perform with a larger ensemble and we needed someone to conduct, so I volunteered… and I learned to do it. It went on for years and I discovered that conducting is an expansion of musical potential: the conductor doesn’t produce any sound but builds the whole performance step by step. I had conducted Il Giardino Armonico exclusively for years, when in 1998 other orchestras started inviting me: it was the time when modern orchestras started to be interested in the historically informed practice and of course, they needed someone trained in the field.

Let’s talk about Dmitry Smirnov, the violinist who will perform as a soloist with Theresia and with whom you have already worked: what do you like about this young talent?

Smirnov is a violinist at the highest technical and musical level: a violinist of the modern school who can play anything and who, as happens to be more often the case, is also interested in performing on original instruments. He is part of a generation of musicians for whom it is not mandatory to choose between the modern instrument and the period one: indeed, as a violinist trained in the modern school, he absorbs the experience of historically informed performance like a sponge. That gives him the ability to tackle with Beethoven without adhering to stereotypical models.

Do not miss Giovanni Antonini conducting Theresia: concerts take place on February 26 in Rovereto and February 27 in Florence!

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Paolo Beschi, a life in music

By Emilia Campagna - October 27, 2022
Paolo Beschi, tutor at Montecastelli chamber music residency, speaks about his musical experience, how he fell in love with period cello and how music fullfills his life
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The new Theresia project is a chamber music residency involving a group of string and woodwind players: set in Montecastelli, the residency has a prestigious tutor, the cellist Paolo Beschi. We asked him to tell us about his experience and his relationship with music.

Maestro Paolo Beschi, you studied with Franco Rossi, cellist of the renowned Quartetto Italiano and started your musical career as a modern cellist: initially, you were also particularly active as a contemporary music performer. How did it come that you switched to the period instrument?

It is always very interesting to know how one of us musicians discovered the period instrument and fell in love with it, because these are quite always stories of enlightenment. And so it was for me, a sort of conversion, even though the path to get there was somehow unexpected. As you said, I worked a lot with an ensemble of contemporary music, and had the luck to play with soprano Cathy Berberian: she was Luciano Berios’s wife and an excellent performer of contemporary music. But she was also very active in the field of historically informed performance practice: she had the perfect voice for baroque repertoire and worked with Harnoncourt. And as an ensemble, we used to combine for example Monteverdi’s Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda and Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire. I was really young, and she was a lovely person, very keen on sharing her experience: talking a lot with her, I started to reckon that there was something that attracted me to baroque music. Then, one night I went to listen to a concert by cellist Anner Bijlsma, and that was the moment of my enlightenment, of my total conversion. It was as if in a dark room, all the windows were opened at the same time and the light came in: I couldn’t ignore that, and I started to study at Scuola Civica di Milano with Robert Gini and to take classes with Anner Bijlsma.

“I went to listen to a concert by cellist Anner Bijlsma, and it was as if in a dark room, all the windows were opened at the same time and the light came in”

In your career as a period cellist, you were very active in the chamber music field: with “La Gaia Scienza” ensemble, in duo with your wife, the pianist Federica Valli, you performed even romantic repertoire, like Brahms’ and Schubert’s Sonatas: how far one can go, speaking of historically informed practice?

There is no limit: at the moment when a composer sends their music to the world, and the music starts to be performed, then ideas, interpretations, and different approaches begin to settle: and I’ve learnt this while performing contemporary music! Obviously, the more we go back into the past, performing music some centuries old, the more this layer of sediment is deep, and you must dig more.

Cathy Berberian, CCO

“Cathy Berberian was very keen on sharing her experience: talking a lot with her, I started to reckon that there was something that attracted me to baroque music.”

You were also an enthusiastic teacher, for 40 years Professor of Cello and String Quartet at Como’s Conservatory: what aspect of teaching are you most passionate about?

Teaching chamber music, I have always loved succeeding in making something meaningful with the pupil that came to study with me, whatever their level. And manage to do that also with the less gifted, and get together to the very heart of music.

Going back to your activity as a performer, you founded “Il Giardino Armonico” in 1985: tell us more about this ensemble, which is still very active.

Yes, after almost 40 years “Il Giardino Armonico” is very stable and active: well, the activity is not so frenetic, in a sense it is a bit reduced compared to our “roaring years”, but in a way that I appreciate. The projects are more diluted in time, but always intense and super-interesting. We recently performed Cavalieri’s Rappresentazione di Anima e Corpo, actually the first opera ever written. We are in the middle of a huge project devoted to the full performance of Haydn’s Symphonies. And we have our battle horses, performing XVII and XVIII centuries music also in little ensembles.

You mentioned your “roaring years”: thinking back to that time, what do you suggest to a young musician who wants to engage in a professional career?

My advice is to aim high: not in a superficial sense, but in the sense of striving for the highest level. I founded “Il Giardino Armonico” with Giovanni Antonini, Vittorio Ghielmi and Luca Bianca, musicians with different backgrounds, a lot of ideas, and the same desire of doing the best we could. We would rehearse a lot, even without concerts to come, just to improve ourselves and enrich our repertoire. This was the strength of our beginning.

Roaring years… “We would rehearse a lot, even without concerts to come, just to improve ourselves and enrich our repertoire. This was the strength of our beginning.” – © Il Giardino Armonico

These days, you are tutoring some of Theresia’s musicians: which is the repertoire you are focusing on?

We are working on chamber music for strings and for woodwinds and strings: Mozart’s String quartet in D major K155 is the most known, then we have two pieces by Joseph Martin Kraus (a string quartet and a flute quintet) and then two almost unknown pieces: a Quartet by Louis Massonneau and an Oboe Quintet by Jiří Družecký: it will be interesting to work on such a variety of repertoire.

Beschi performing with Il Giardino Armonico in a recent shot ©festivalterrassemsombra

Music has the main role in your life: do you have other passions?

As you said, music is extremely important in my life, it almost fills it. As my wife is a musician too, music has always been part of our family life too. We have always studied and played and made projects together, and for example, when the lockdown due to Covid happened, we didn’t get bored at all staying all the time at home: we had so much to play! Also in our workplace, as my wife is a teacher in the same Conservatory I was, we did a lot of projects together: she teaches chamber music, and with my String Quartet class, I can say that every student of the Conservatory studied with one (or both) of us at some time. But yes, I have other passion: I especially love photography and walking in the mountains, two essential parts of my spare time that enrich my life.

The residency in Montecastelli will end with a concert scheduled on 29 October, don’t miss it! Info for tickets and reservations at info@ilpoggiomontecastelli.it

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