Roma Tre Orchestra at Palazzo Chigi Ariccia -Mozart home sweet home
The magnificent Bernini Palazzo Chigi in Ariccia was the scene of an all Mozart concert with the Roma Tre Orchestra under Filippo Manci with two young solists Ivos Margoni and Matteo Rocchi.
It is a collaboration between the Giovanna Manci Accademia Sfaccendati ,the Campus Musicale di Latina and the Roma Tre University.
Valerio Vicari with the 20 year old violin soloist Ivos Margoni
The orchestra was founded in 2005 and is the first University orchestra to be created to make great music more accessable to young people whilst giving young musicians a chance to excel.
The Roma Tre Music under the artistic direction of the dynamic and very knowledgeable artistic director Valerio Vicari has a season of music that fills a 22 page catalogue!
A series of concerts that gives the opportunity to so many young solists as well as their orchestra to perform in their three principal halls:Teatro Palladium,Teatro Torlonia and the Great Hall of the University.
They have now found a collaboration with the Campus Musicale in Latina which has for the past sixty years held summer masterclasses in Sermoneta.Created by Menuhin and Szigeti in the 60’s in the Caetani Castle overlooking the valley that leads down to Latina.
It has recently opened its archive to the public with precious scores of Goffredo Petrassi ,Barbara Giuranna and many other illustrious composers who have bequeathed their works to the Campus.
Giovanna Manci with conductor brother Filippo
Giovanna Manci has with her husband Giacomo organised concerts in Ariccia and elsewhere for the past 5o years from 1969- 2019.
So the circle is complete with the Orchestra provided by the University.The two soloists by the Campus di Latina and the splendid hall in Ariccia by the Accademia Degli Sfaccendati.
Ariccia is well known in the Castelli regione above Rome for its roast suckling pig and and a famous bridge that was a favourite lovers leap!
Palazzo Chigi in Ariccia
The Castelli regione though was also on the Grand Tour in the 18th and 19th Century with illustrious visitors that included Franz Liszt and Mozart who would visit the sumptuous villas and magnificent gardens in the hills above Rome.
As Giovanna Manci said in her opening welcoming address it may very well be that we are playing a Mozart programme in the same hall where Mozart had performed.
Italy in the words of Rostropovich really is the ‘Museum of the World’ and the more one delves the deeper one can go!
I have known Giovanna for over forty years from when her father,our bank manager, asked my wife if I would audition his daughter who he thought had a nice voice.It was one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard and I was fast on the telephone to ask Michael Aspinall (who at the time was writing the embellishments for Monserrat Caballe and Joan Sutherland as well as imitating them on stage) if he would teach her.Of course he brought the voice to fruition and she gave many fine performances some even with me at the piano!
She now dedicates herself to helping young musicians find a platform in the many venues that her husband Giacomo has created over the years.
Filippo still the little boy that I remember
Filippo was a little boy who had just started to play the organ and for me had remained as I remembered him.
So I was very surprised and taken aback when I saw him conduct so expertly two very complex works by Mozart.
Filippo is a ‘natural‘he moves and directs in a way that after acquiring the necessary technique cannot be taught.
He feels and moves with the music as though it was in his bones.Not only that but the little A major Symphony K 201 was played with a style,charm and lightness that is so hard to achieve.
I was told he had worked hard with the orchestra but hats of to them all that they had succeeded so beautifully.
The second work in this ‘All Saints’ concert was the sublime Sinfonia Concertante K.364 with the two young soloists Ivos Margoni,violin and Matteo Rocchi,viola.
Ivos Margoni and Matteo Rocchi
Matteo Rocchi moved so naturally with the music but sometimes played with too much romantic rubato.Ivos Margoni was remarkable for his rock solid playing and with experience he too will move and use his whole body to express the music.
Both technically superb with Ivos hardly glancing at the score and Matteo moving so musically too.
The playful Presto finale was thrown off with great ease and charm .Filippo always ready to follow and out charm them in a conversation that was quite scintillating.The sublime Andante was helped by the sumptuously expressive playing of the orchestra.
The first movement played with all the opening fanfare that Mozart demands with Allegro Maestoso.
A real ovation for these two young musicians and it was very good to see that all the members of the orchestra were justly listed in the programme too.
A suite by Handel from our two solists
A ovation for all and in particular for the two young virtuosi who put the music to one side to play an encore of a Handel Suite in a transcription of Holvorsen (thank you Valerio for that information).
A virtuoso transcription which allowed our two young solists to let their hair down and treat us to a truly virtuoso exhibition all the more astonishing as it was a complete suite from memory!
A good look around the remarkable museum in the Palace and the propect next time of walking around the historic gardens.
And after the concert, suckling pig sandwich and a glass of Castelli wine was a must before leaving this atmospheric town perched in the hills above Rome.
I was happy to relistened to the remarkable concert of Martha Argerich trasmitted live on the car radio from S Cecilia in Rome.
Who knows – Filippo is waiting in the wings all he needs is a nudge and a wink from Pappano !
Tonight he conducts the Mozart Requiem in memory of Karajan in the great Basilica of St Anselmo on the Aventine Hill in Rome.
The little boy has certainly grown up!
Roma Tre Orchestra
The beautiful Bernini Church in the square opposite the Chigi Palace
Wonderful ensemble of orchestra and solists
The museum in the Chigi Palace
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 