Theresia Wind Ensemble’s whistle-stop spring tour

By Emilia Campagna - April 28, 2023

Ready for a nice spring trip? The season is blooming, the weather is mild, and we are sure our musicians will be overjoyed for the three-stage tour that will take Theresia Wind Ensemble from Lodi to Rome to end in Koper (Slovienia).
‍

Ready for a nice spring city trip? The season is in bloom, the weather is mild, and we are pretty sure our wind musicians are excited to embark on are excited to embark on a three-stop tour which takes the Theresia Wind Ensemble to Lodi, Rome and finishes in Koper (Slovenia).

Theresia Wind Ensemble’s tour venues

Starting from 1st May, the wind players of Theresia Orchestra will meet in Lodi, home of the iCons Foundation and regular starting point of many of orchestra’s residencies. Five full rehearsal days studying music by Krommer, Mozart and Rossini under the guidance of Alfredo Bernardini, will culminate in a concert on Friday 5 May at 9:00pm at the Aula Magna of the Liceo Verri as part of the concert season of Lodi’s Teatro alle Vigne.

The next day, we’ll travel to Rome! Part of the afternoon and evening may be used to enjoy the beauty of the Eternal City, as the capital of Italy is often called. No doubt there are plenty of opportunities to savour blissful moments in Rome, strolling along the Tiber, enjoying legendary ice creams, being enchanted by majestic monuments, Baroque fountains and lush gardens.

Without pushing it too far, the wind players will perform the next day at the Quirinale Palace, the residence of the President of Italy. The concert of Sunday 7 May, 11.50 am will be broadcast live (!) on Rai Radio 3 as part of the weekly concert series from the Quirinale organised by Italy’s national broadcaster.

The concert series “I concerti della Rai al Quirinale” started in 2001 and for over twenty years, every Sunday (with rare exceptions) has made it possible to listen to great chamber music thanks to live radio broadcasting on Rai Radio 3 and all other stations in the Euroradio network of the European Broadcasting Union. Performing at the Quirinale is a great honour and a great opportunities for Theresia to connect live with our remote audience. However, this is not the first time for us at the Quirinale: the orchestra also performed at the Quirinale in 2015. If you want, you can take a little trip back in time and listen to our previous concert following this link!

The entrance to Quirinale Palace: the free concert ticket also includes a visit to the prestigious location

The spring tour of Theresia Wind Ensemble will end in Koper, a lovely, friendly city we’ve visited before. The wind players will perform on Monday 8 May, at 7.30 pm in a beautiful and historically rich venue, the Regional Museum. This concert will be broadcast and streamed live too (this time by RTV Slovenia) about which we are absolutely thrilled!

Another stunning location…. The Regional Museum of Koper (Capodistria, Slovenia)

What’s on the music stand?

This wind academy will focus on Harmoniemusik: this term originally identified an ensemble derived from the military band and composed of five to fifteen musicians. The name is due to the fact that in the early days of classicism, in the orchestral context, the wind instruments had the task of supporting the harmony of the pieces, instead of the now increasingly obsolete basso continuo. With the technical improvement of wind instruments and the increasing technical skill of the players, this formation gained partial independence, thanks in part to a vast repertoire of compositions dedicated to it.

Wind ensembles became particularly sought after in certain contexts, such as outdoor concerts (Serenades or Nocturnes) or during short marches and parades. They became increasingly popular and widespread, as evidenced by the presence of an large, specially composed repertoire and transcriptions from operas, ballets and symphonies.

Franz Krommer’s Partita op. 71, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Divertimento K388, and Wenzel Sedlak’s transcription of the most famous parts of Gioacchino Rossini’s Barbiere di Siviglia will be the musical program. Enjoy!

Ecos Festival: music and sustainability in the heart of Spain

By Emilia Campagna - August 24, 2022

Our wind ensemble will be at Ecos Festival, a dynamic project set in Spain, where music and sustainability meet. Let's find more in this interview with Ecos Festival's artistic director, Jorge Losada
‍

For the first time, Theresia will perform in Alhama (Murcia region, Spain) as part of Ecos Festival. That is an honour for us, as Ecos Festival is among Europe’s most dynamic and interesting artistic projects. We have spoken about this musical initiative with its Artistic Director, Jorge Losana: a baroque singer (he mostly performs with the vocal ensemble La Cantoria), he’s from Murcia himself, and he was the soul of the project from its very beginning.

When and how did Ecos Festival start?

“In 2016, with a group of colleagues musicians from the University, we wanted to rehearse Monteverdi and needed a place where to do it. We met in Aledo, rehearsed for ten days, experimenting with a different way of doing things: we involved local people, and invited them to listen to our performances. They were very welcoming, and the outcome was really nice: so, the idea to make a treasure of this experience came naturally. The next year, thanks to the support of Sierra Espuña and six different villages that had decided to support forms of sustainable and natural tourism, we were able to make a series of concerts in some of the most emblematic places of the area.”

You started with early music: did you stick to the original artistic project during these years?

“Yes, we went on hosting chamber music and little ensemble who perform according to the historically informed practice. What we really focused on are young musicians: we tend to organize residencies, like the one Theresia is involved in, with workshops and situations where musicians can share their experience and learn from their peers and other guests.”

Which kind of audience do you have? Do you have a specific target?

“Audience mainly consists of local people, tourists, and English and German people who live on the coast. We have “professional concerts” which are meant to be for a general audience and “familiar concerts” especially designed for families and children.”

Ecos Festival is set in Murcia, and it appears to be closely related to the area: how is this part of Spain?

“Murcia is a small region between Alicante and Granada, always famous for the seaside, the good weather, the food and very different climate and landscape from other parts of Spain. People find especially exotic some semi desert-like landscapes and the singular forest from Sierra Espuña, which has geology caves and lakes. With its Castles and historical place, it is a very fascinating area, with the sea only one hour and a half far away.”

Together with the artistic value of the concerts, sustainability is one of the missions of Ecos Festival: how do you pursue it?

“Firstly, we chose to focus on chamber music because we perform in small venues and when it comes to the audience a limited number of people is definitely more sustainable. Then, apart from the implementation of ecological habits (we have no plastic going around, and we encourage the use of electric cars) we also organize three conferences involving ensembles and other festivals where participants can discuss and share ideas about how to deal with sustainability diversity and demographic challenge. In short, we try to be sustainable as we can, to give conscience to our audience, and we also try to develop new ideas.”

Theresia will be at Ecos Festival with its wind ensemble, prepared by tutor Javier Zafra. Two concerts are scheduled on 26th August at 9 pm and 11 pm at Patio del Museo Arqueológico de Los Baños: Theresia wind ensemble will perform an all-Mozart program (Divertimento in F major K. 213, Divertimento in F major K. 253, and Divertimento in B flat major K. 270). The day after at 10.30 am the ensemble will perform in a family concert.

These concerts end our summer concert season. But autumn is just around the corner, and we have some good news in store, so stay tuned!

Theresia Wind Academy

By Emilia Campagna - May 3, 2022

Next concerts of Theresia wind ensemble remind us the importance of playing chamber music
‍

What is that makes special an orchestra like Theresia and defines it as a true classical orchestra? Two things, in fact: playing according to the historical informed performance principles, and playing the classical repertoire, i.e. music composed between 1750 and 1815. These two boxes we can definitely tick, and speaking of repertoire, we are never tired of exploring it, always deepening our knowledge and awareness of the incredible richness of classical music.

And actually, there is a third one: performing chamber music. Aside from being a powerful opportunity to improve technical aspects and widen the repertoire, chamber training facilitates mutual musical knowledge among ensemble members, with benefits for the quality of the work of the entire orchestra.

Our wind ensemble for example is at the centre of a chamber music residency twice a year. This is the case of the next project, which will take place from 2nd to 9th May in Lodi, with concerts in Lodi, Trieste, Capodistria, Turin.

The musical program is usually devoted to wind chamber music of the Viennese style, and so it is this time. Under the guidance of oboist Alfredo Bernardini, eight selected members of the orchestra will rehearse and perform music by Mozart, Beethoven and Krommer.

Franz Krommer was one of the most long-lived composers of the classical era: his 72-year lifespan began in 1759, half a year after the death of George Frideric Handel, and ended in 1831, nearly four years after that of Ludwig van Beethoven. His output was prolific, with at least three hundred published compositions, including much sonorous, idiomatic and at times powerful music for wind ensemble, for which he is best known today. Theresia wind ensemble will perform his Partita in B-flat major.

As for Mozart, we looked for something not obvious: our wind ensemble will perform an arrangement by Johann Nepomuk Wendt of Die Entführung aus dem Serail. The selection includes seven highlights of the opera, starting with the Ouverture.

The musical program will end with Beethoven’s E-flat major Octet, op. 103: it was composed in 1792 in Bonn, intended for Prince-Elector Maximilian Franz’s excellent Tafelmusik ensemble. Beethoven was so satisfied with his own musical invention that three years later he transcribed it for string quintet. The Octet itself remained unpublished until the death of the composer.

Musicians involved in this new project are Laura Hoeven (Austria) and Paulina Gómez Ortega (Colombia) – oboe; Claudia Pallaver (Italy) and Jonathan Van der Beek (Belgium) – horn; Luís Tasso Athayde Santos (Australia) and Angel Alvarez (Cuba) – bassoon; Franziska Hoffmann (Germany) and Simon Pibal (Austria) – clarinet.

Fondazione Cariplo contributed to this residency as part of the project “Alla scoperta degli strumenti a fiato dell’Orchestra Theresia” (“Discovering the wind instruments of Theresia Orchestra”).