(By Elisabetta Stefanelli)
Riccardo Muti led the Luigi Cherubini
Youth Orchestra, along with musicians from the Armenian
Philharmonic Orchestra and the Armenian State Chamber Choir, on
July 4 , in a concert that renewed ties dating back to the Roman
and Byzantine times, when Ravenna hosted a flourishing Armenian
community.
The concert was staged as part of the Ravenna Festival's The
Roads of Friendship project, which, since 1997, has featured
visits to cities that have played an important role in ancient
and contemporary history.
The concert that refastened the bond between the two cultures -
20 years after the Ravenna Festival's first journey to Armenia
- was greeted with 15 minutes of applause at the Yerevan Opera
Theatre
Armenian President Armen Sarkissian wanted to seal that bond by
awarding the maestro and Cristina Mazzavillani Muti an important
honour named, as coincidence would have it, after Friendship.
But, as always, it was the music that primarily did the talking
with a programme that, starting from the sacred music of Haydn,
Mozart, and Schubert, reflected the pained spirituality of this
country, the first to embrace Christianity over 1700 years ago.
It concluded majestically with the world premiere of Purgatorio,
a work commissioned by the Ravenna Festival from Tigran
Mansurian, the greatest living Armenian composer, for the 700th
anniversary of Dante's death.
The voices belonged to tenor Giovanni Sala, and Armenians Nina
Minasyan and Gurgen Baveyan, soprano and baritone respectively;
the choir was led by Robert Mlkeyan, while Davide Cavalli was on
the organ.
In addition to the festival's traditional public and private
supporters, the concert was made possible by the support of the
Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International
Cooperation and the collaboration with the Italian Embassy in
Yerevan and the Centre for the Studies on Armenian Culture of
Venice.
"We still remember the emotional silence, the intense feeling in
the Arts and Sports Palace in Yerevan in the summer of 2001,
when we performed an all-Verdi programme," recalled Riccardo
Muti.
"Today, 20 years after that concert, we are back in the hard,
ancient land between the West and the East.
"We build another bridge of brotherhood, a sign of hope, as we
still believe that music overcomes misunderstandings and
differences of culture, language, and religion.
"Music makes it easy to understand each other because music is
everyone's language, it's universal like Dante's poetry, which
we wish to celebrate together with the Armenian people, who know
it and love it.
"Because we can find ourselves and find others in beauty, in
poetry, in the arts; find again the warmth of an embrace and
peace."
It was on the summit of Mount Ararat, which tradition says was
the resting place of Noah's Ark, that life resumed after the
flood; within sight of the ancient mountain, which the Armenians
consider holy, the Ravenna Festival renewed the message of
brotherhood and hope in the future of The Roads of Friendship, a
project started in 1997 when the Festival answered the call from
Sarajevo.
Muti has led Italian choirs and orchestras in a series of shows
since that iconic concert in the 'martyred' Bosnian city, joined
on each occasion by local musicians.
Among the unforgettable events were concerts in Beirut,
Jerusalem, Moscow, New York after 9/11, Nairobi, Redipuglia,
Tehran, Kiev, and, in 2020, at the Paestum archaeological site,
which is twinned with Palmyra in Syria, to recall the plight of
the Syrian people.
The 700th anniversary of Dante's death offered the occasion to
return to Yerevan with the new composition by Tigran Mansurian,
inspired by the second part of the Divine Comedy.
It is one of three works inspired by Dante's masterpiece.
The first, Giovanni Sollima's Six études on the Inferno
premiered on June 10, while Valentin Silvestrov's O Luce Eterna
will be presented in the Basilica of Sant'Apollinare in Classe
on July 9.
"I have always kept an Armenian translation of the Divine Comedy
on my desk," said Tigran Mansurian, whose highly delicate,
crystalline style is often inspired by sacred music as well as
by traditional and folk music.
"So I was happy to be asked to create a new composition on the
Commedia but I also felt great responsibility with respect to
Dante and Maestro Muti.
"I started this work three times and finally I completed the
fourth draft.
"I also had to reduce the number of performers due to
complications linked to the pandemic and I was glad for the
chance to rewrite the work for the baritone, chamber choir,
string and percussion orchestra.
"I consider this version to be the final one and the one that
best matches my musical world in relation to the Dante universe.
"I am convinced that this concert, together with the Roads of
Friendship show of 20 years ago, will go down as one of the most
meaningful and memorable events of the cultural life of Armenia
of the last few decades."
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