Multiplicity. The 21st edition of "Afternoon among the Muses"

"Who are we,
who is each one of us
if not a combination
of experiences,
information,
books we have read,
things imagined?"

Italo Calvino

In the fifth of his Six Memos for the Next Millennium, under multiplicity Italo Calvino proposes to interpret the contemporary novel as an encyclopaedia, a method of knowledge and above all as a network of connections. In many of the novels he examines he notices a similar approach which, while taking very close account of the infinite relations of which reality comprises, recognises the futility of every aspiration to understand everything.

Precision, accuracy and respect for the rules are also fundamental aspects of music. In the western tradition, music has long been associated with scientific and mathematical thought and has developed harmonious and formal rules which, though they have continuously evolved, have rarely betrayed. At the same time music is (has been) capable of interpreting and reflecting, with its every-evolving creativity, the intrinsic je ne sais quoi of rational language.

MULTIPLICITY is therefore the keyword of Afternoon among the Muses 2022-2023, the 21st concert season of the Ensemble Musagète for Gallerie d’Italia – Vicenza.

The eight concerts, held in the Salone d’Apollo of Palazzo Leoni Montanari from 16 October until 26 March, include pieces that express a multiplicity of styles, forms, functions, instruments and timbres.

The season begins on Sunday 16 October at 17:00 with Septet op. 20 by Ludwig van Beethoven, one of the composer’s most popular works during his lifetime. The subsequent programmes range from the Baroque music of Bach, both father and son, to the 20th century work of Zemlinsky, Poulenc and Ligeti, taking in the Viennese Classicism of Haydn and Mozart and the European Romanticism of Brahms, Dvořák and Borodin on the way.

There is also once again a commission for a modern-day composer, Paolo Furlani (1964), who will be contributing a site-specific project. His new composition, Niobe or reversal of fortune, which will be performed for the first time on 5 March 2023, is in fact inspired by the legendary character of the same name who appears on one of the tapestry decorations in the Salone d’Apollo.

 

PROGRAMME

SUNDAY 16 OCTOBER 2022, 17:00
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
Septet in E-flat major op. 20

SUNDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2022, 17:00
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Serenade No. 2 in A major for chamber orchestra, op. 16
(arr. by Luigi Marasca for piano and wind quintet)
Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
Sextet op. 100

SUNDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2022, 17:00
Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Quartet no. 41 in G major, op. 33 no. 5, Hob:III:41
Alexander Borodin (1833-1887)
Quartet no. 2 in D-major

SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2022, 17:00
Wolfgang A. Mozart (1756-1791)
Serenade No. 10 for winds in B-flat major “Gran Partita”, K 361
(arr. by Christian Friedrich Gottlieb Schwencke
for oboe, violin, viola, cello and piano)

SUNDAY 22 JANUARY 2023, 17:00
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714-1788)
Concerto in D-minor for flutes and harps, H 484.1
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Ouverture no. 2 in B-minor for flute and orchestra, BWV 1067

SUNDAY 12 FEBRUARY 2023, 17:00
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Sonata no. 1 in F-minor, op. 120 no. 1
Alexander von Zemlinsky (1871-1942)
Trio in D-minor for clarinet, cello and piano, op. 3

SUNDAY 5 MARCH 2023, 17:00
Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904)
Serenata in D-minor op. 44 (arr. by Jesper Jekert for wind quintet)
György Ligeti (1923-2006)
Six Bagatelles
Paolo Furlani (1964)
Niobe or reversal of fortune
2022-23 Commission

SUNDAY 26 MARCH 2023, 17:00
Franz Schubert (1797-1828)
Trio in E-flat major “Notturno”, op. 148, D. 897
Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904)
Quintet no. 2 in A-major, op. 81