Coincidenze

Program

Beste Özçelebi
27

Livia Malossi
Un dì si venne a me Malinconia

Daria Scia
Su spiri d’oro

Benjamin Britten
Simple Symphony, op. 4
Boisterous Bourrée
Playful Pizzicato
Sentimental Saraband
Frolicsome Finale

Narrating voice
Giovanni Drago
Scuola Ronconi del Piccolo Teatro di Milano

Project in collaboration with
Piccolo Teatro di Milano
Accademia Chigiana
Festival Impuls
Festival Gaudeamus

Orchestra Filarmonica Vittorio Calamani

Director
Hossein Pishkar

Program notes
The first three pieces of this program were requested by the Festival della Piana del Cavaliere on texts by Dante Alighieri and Leonardo Sciascia to mark the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death and the 100th anniversary of Sciascia’s birth.
This work was carried out in coproduction with the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, the Festival Impulse in Berlin and the Festival Gaudeamus in Utrecht, which selected three female composers to whom they entrusted these works.

Dante Alighieri
Ne li occhi porta la mia donna Amore
(Vita nuova, cap. XXI)

Ne li occhi porta la mia donna Amore,
per che si fa gentil ciò ch’ella mira;
ov’ella passa, ogn’om ver lei si gira,
e cui saluta fa tremar lo core,
sì che, bassando il viso, tutto smore,
e d’ogni suo difetto allor sospira:
fugge dinanzi a lei superbia ed ira.
Aiutatemi, donne, farle onore.
Ogne dolcezza, ogne pensero umile
nasce nel core a chi parlar la sente,
ond’è laudato chi prima la vide.
Quel ch’ella par quando un poco sorride,
non si pò dicer né tenere a mente,
sì è novo miracolo e gentile.

Un dì si venne a me Malinconia (Rime, LXXII)

Un dì si venne a me Malinconia
e disse: “Io voglio un poco stare teco”;
e parve a me ch’ella menasse seco
Dolore e Ira per sua compagnia.
E io le dissi: “Partiti, va via”;
ed ella mi rispose come un greco:
e ragionando a grande agio meco,
guardai e vidi Amore, che venia
vestito di novo d’un drappo nero,
e nel suo capo portava un cappello;
e certo lacrimava pur di vero.
Ed eo li dissi: “Che hai, cattivello?”.
Ed el rispose: “Eo ho guai e pensero,
ché nostra donna mor, dolce fratello”.

Leonardo Sciascia
In memoria (La Sicilia, il suo cuore)

L’inverno lungo improvviso si estenua
nel maggio sciroccoso: una gelida
nitida favola che ti porta, al suo finire,
la morte – così come i papaveri
accendono ora una fiorita di sangue.
E le prime rose son presso le tue mani esangui,
le prime rose sbocciate in questa valle
di zolfo e d’ulivi, lungo i morti binari,
vicino ad acque gialle di fango
che i greci dissero d’oro. E noi d’oro
diciamo la tua vita, la nostra
che ci rimane – mentre le rondini
tramano coi loro voli la sera,
questa mia triste sera che è tua.

Tratto da Dalle parti degli infedeli

Ma perché meravigliarci della causalità
della casualità, di tutti gli assortimenti,
i ritorni, le ripetizioni, le coincidenze,
le speculari rispondenze tra realtà
e fantasia, le indefettibili circolarità
di cui è fitta la vita e ogni vita:
se rappresentano – ormai lo sappiamo –
il solo ordine possibile?”

Simple Symphony op. 4
Simple Symphony op. 4 is one of the best-known pieces by the English composer Benjamin Britten. Composed in 1934, when the composer was only twenty years old, it brings together eight themes from some earlier works and assembles them organically within a larger composition. The result is a fresh and delightful piece, which wisely balances the liveliness and irreverence typical of Britten’s youth and his taste for timbral mixtures, which will be the main feature of his later compositions.

The term “simple” refers to the clarity of the structure of the composition, which is also highlighted by the precise references that accompany the headings of the four movements, and certainly not to the ease of performance. A sort of connection between the historical forms of the symphony and the suite, the Simple Symphony was so well appreciated by the public and the critics right from its first public performance by an orchestra of amateurs in Norwich on 6 March 1934, conducted by the composer himself, that the piece found a permanent place in the concert programs of all the string orchestras in the world.

The Boisterous Bourrée is written in sonata form and is based on two themes taken from a piano suite of 1926 and a song of 1923. After four energetic “strappate” by the strings, two motifs intertwine in lively counterpoint: a descending scale of quavers (violins) and a ascending theme in semiquavers (cellos). The second theme, introduced by an obstinate pastoral rhythm, is a gentle, relaxed melody. An episode in pizzicato takes up and elaborates on the two previous motifs, then an orchestral crescendo leads to the Animato, in which the rhythm of the first theme is combined with the melody of the second theme. Afterwards, the discourse calms down and leads to a repeat of the first theme and a brief concluding coda.

The Playful Pizzicato, which is based on a Scherzo for piano from 1924 and a song from the same year, opens with a sort of continuous motion of sparkling quavers that flow happily from one section of the orchestra to the other, like a happy, carefree dance of elves. In the central Trio, the violas and basses set a heavy, regular rhythm, while the first and second violins display a motif with a purely countryside character. This is followed by a regular reprise of the first part and a brief concluding coda.

The next movement is the Sentimental Saraband, the main theme of which is taken from the third Suite for piano of 1925 and has almost the appearance of a sorrowful chorale performed by the entire orchestra. The second theme is taken from a piano waltz of 1923 and with its tender and delicate aspect contrasts strongly with the first theme. A dramatic reprise of the main theme, strong and with full orchestra, precedes an episode that breaks up the previous choral writing with wide steps in octave and ascending scales of quavers. The Coda, all in pianissimo, features the waltz theme for the last time.

The Frolicsome Finale features a rhythmic and vibrant first theme from the ninth piano sonata of 1926. The second theme is taken from a song of 1925. A development episode with a restless character precedes the regular reprise of the two themes and the coda Più presto.

Hossein Pishkar – Direttore musicale Orchestra Filarmonica Vittorio Calamani

German by adoption, the young Iranian conductor Hossein Pishkar has entered a new and significant phase when in 2017 he won the prestigious Deutscher Dirigentenpreis in an international competition staged in cooperation with Cologne’s leading musical institutions and Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). In the same year he also won the Ernst-von-Schuch-Preis, presented annually in collaboration with the Dirigentenforum.
He has also given performances with the Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini, Staatskapelle Halle, Staatsorchester Stuttgart and WDR-Sinfonieorchester. Pishkar also conducted Verdi’s Rigoletto, directed by Cristina Mazzavillani Muti, at the Ravenna Festival 2018.
As an assistant he worked with François–Xavier Roth in May 2019, in the production of Philippe Manoury’sLab.Oratorium with the Gürzenich-Orchester and as second conductor he took over performances at the philharmonic halls in Cologne and Paris, as well as at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Hossein Pishkar was an assistant of Sylvain Cambreling at the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie for Berg’s Lulu Suite and Rebecca Saunders’ violin concerto Still. In the season 2015-16 season he assisted Daniel Raiskin, the former Chief Conductor of the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie in Koblenz.
Hossein Pishkar has received further tuition in masterclasses with Riccardo Muti (2017, Aida in Ravenna in the context of the Italian Opera Academy) and Sir Bernard Haitink (2016, Lucerne Festival Orchestra). Since 2015 he has participated in Germany’s prestigious Dirigentenforum programme, taking classes with John Carewe, Marko Letonja, Nicolás Pasquet, Mark Stringer and Johannes Schlaefli.
Before moving to Düsseldorf in 2012 to study conducting with Rüdiger Bohn at the Robert Schumann Hochschule, Hossein Pishkar studied composition and piano in Teheran, where he was born in 1988. In Iran he has conducted the Teheran Youth Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Teheran Music School. He began playing traditional Persian music as a young child and has won many prizes as a player of the tar, the fretted stringed instrument of Persian culture.
Since 2019 he has embraced the project of starting a new orchestra, the Vittorio Calamani Philharmonic Orchestra, of which he is the musical conductor.

The Vittorio Calamani Philharmonic Orchestra had its debut on 14th August 2019, under the guidance of the young and talented Iranian conductor Maestro Hossein, performed a wonderful symphonic concert in Piazza XX Settembre in Configni. This event, which saw performances of Sinfonia 89 of Haydn and the Sinfonia 4 by Schumann, represented by the end of the third edition of the Festival Piana del Cavaliere and the beginning of the musical and artistic activity of the OFVC, drawing a record number of more than 400 people, with public and critical acclaim. The orchestra was born off the back of the success of the Associazione Festival della Piana del Cavalier, and during it’s third year the focus of an orchestral project.
The Under 35 Philharmonic Orchestra was formed through regular auditions held in May 2019 and is composed of professional musicians.
The purpose of the orchestra, like that of the festival, is to return to investing in culture and music. The OFVC, although it is formed by young talents, does not rank among the youth orchestras but rather as a fully-fledged Philharmonic. The Orchestra wants to qualify as the bearer of a positive contribution to the regional and Italian cultural heritage. Among the goals there is certainly that of giving the opportunity to professional musicians to improve in the orchestral field and at the same time to achieve in the working field.
The orchestra came to life thanks to its founder, Mr. Stefano Calamani who first, together with his company Aisico Srl and the artistic director Anna Leonardi, believed strongly in this project.