A week of initiatives for the 252th anniversary of Mozart’s visit to Verona from 5 to 11 January 2022 Events in Verona
The collaboration between the Municipality of Verona, the Cariverona Foundation, the Verona Philharmonic Academy and the Arena Foundation reaches its third year, after the 2020 and ’21 celebrations to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the visit of Mozart in Verona. The homage to the Salzburg genius takes the form of a week of events open to the public in attendance from 5 to 11 January 2022 in the historical places of the city that saw him perform at a very young age.
In the eighteenth century Italy was the main destination of grand Tour through which young people, artists and writers from all over Europe faced a long and perilous journey to come into direct contact with the immense historical, artistic and cultural heritage of the beautiful country. In this fundamental journey, Verona could not be missing: here the young Mozart arrived with his father Leopold on December 27, 1769 in the first of three trips to Italy. The two cultural in contact with the cultural elite of the city and the visit culminates the 5 January 1770 with the performance of the young Mozart, not yet fourteen, in the prestigious Sala Maffeiana, hosted by the Veronese Philharmonic Academy, the first of its kind in Europe.
For the third consecutive year, Municipality of Verona, Cariverona Foundation, Verona Philharmonic Academy And Arena Foundation renew their collaboration on the occasion of the 252th anniversary of this important visit. At the first edition, held between concerts, live on a large screen and an exhibition at the Civic Library, it made rich after a proposal at the beginning of 2021 through streaming, due to the taxes from the pandemic, but always with the aim of maintaining the link with the public. In 2022, from 5 to 11 January, the same institutions together pay tribute to the genius of Mozart through a week of concerts that return to take place in the presence of the public, continuing the goal of networking the resources and skills of the various institutions at the service of the cultural and economic development of the city.
After the recital by Costantino Mastroprimiano in 2021 for the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s appointment as Chapel Master of theVerona Philharmonic Academy (5 January 1771), the traditional concert returns this year in memory of the first public performance in Italy in the Salzburg area, hosted on Friday 5 January 1770 in the Sala Maffeiana (at the time called the Sala della Conversazione) by the “Illustrissima Philharmonic Academy”, the most ancient musical association of Europe. Protagonist of the event of Wednesday January 5th at 20.30 will be the pianist Elia Cecino, a young promise of the international music scene (born in 2001), who starts from the Apollonian musicality of Mozart he will accompany the public in the evolution of the piano repertoire up to the most refined virtuosity of early Romanticism. Two masterpieces of Mozart’s tasty production open the evening, the Sonata in C major k330 and the Fantasia in D minor k397 more rarely heard, which will be followed by the challenging ones Variations series op. 54 by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, perhaps the most “classic” of the romantics. The second part of the concert will instead be dedicated to Fryderyk Chopin, the composer who in the collective imagination most of all embodies the prototype of the romantic musician; by the composer of Żelazowa Wola Elia Cecino will propose the Four Mazurkas Op. 24, I Two nocturnal op. 32 and the Polonaise in F sharp minor op. 44. The concert is free admission, with the obligation of a reinforced Green Pass, subject to availability of seats.
Friday January 7 at 8.30 pm there Church of S. Tomaso Cantuariense will host the traditional and a musical event organized by Cariverona Foundation to celebrate the historic Mozart execution of 7 January 1770 the protagonist will be The Divine Harmony, an Italian ensemble specializing in the baroque and eighteenth-century repertoire that has international collaborations and recordings to its credit. The musicians Stefano Barneschi, Anna Maddalena Ghielmi (violins), Vanni Moretto (double bass) and Lorenzo Ghielmi (organ and musical direction) will perform a program entitled Mozart in Italy and dedicated to intertwining and contamination of the sacred music of Mozart and of his time: sonatas and concertos for organ and by Sammartini, Haydn, Fioroni, Father Martini and of course from the same Salzburg (Church Sonatas k224, k241, k328 and the very rare Andante for organ k616).
There Arena di Verona Foundation, after the two inaugural symphonic concerts 2020 and 2021 and the memorable Requiem executed among the millenary sandstone stones during the Summer festival, proposes a monographic afternoon entirely dedicated to Chamber Mozart, music of rare execution and very refined workmanship, with some professors of the Arena Foundation Orchestra: Sofia Gelsomini (violin), Massimiliano Di Stefano (viola), Massimiliano Martinelli (cello), Pier Filippo Barbano (flute), Francesca Rodomonti and Francesco Scandolari (oboes), Paolo Guelfi and Domenico Faccin (bassoons), Andrea Leasi and Domenico Guglielmello (horns). The concert will be held at Philharmonic Theater Sunday 9 January at 3.30 pm and compositions for various ensembles conceived by the young Mozart between 1775 and 1781 will be performed: two Entertainment for winds k213 and k270, i quartets for strings and oboe k370 and for strings and flute k285 and the first Prelude and escape for string trio from k404a orchestrated by Bach’s homonymous pages. For the occasion, the tickets of each order and seat of the Theater will be on sale from tomorrow 22 December at the special price of 10€ online on the site arena.it, at the central box office and, two hours before the show, also at the box office in via Mutilati.
The Mozart initiatives in Verona 2022 will end Tuesday 11 January at 5.30 pm at the Conference Hall of the Palazzo della Gran Guardia: Giorgio Fossaluzza, art historian and lecturer at the University of Verona, together with Michele Magnabosco, conservative librarian of the Verona Philharmonic Academy, will hold a conference dedicated to The young Mozart in Verona and his second-hand portrait on the harpsichord. A very high definition reproduction depicting the famous painting, which the thirteen-year-old composer in the days of his stay in Italy – created by the specialized firm Haltadefinizione, Franco Cosimo Panini Editore’s tech company, and by the artisan laboratory B. Restauro of Reggio Emilia. meeting, with free admission.
Information and contacts
For access to each initiative, it is required by law to show the so-called “reinforced green pass” (obtainable after vaccination or recovery) and to wear a mask for the entire duration of the event. For more information: www.fondazionecariverona.org/mozart-a-verona/, arena.it and social channels.