Eleven ‘cellists in Giovanni Gnocchi’s class in the beautiful San Michele Arcangelo hidden away in an angle of Sermoneta the hilltop town overlooking Latina and the beautiful gardens of Ninfa.
It was here that a teenage Jaqueline Du Pré came in the 60’s to the festival that Menuhin had founded with Szigeti in the castle of the Caetani-Howard family. Now in it’s 62 year the long tradition of serious music making continues every year under the eagle eye of Elisa Cerocchi who has inherited this important mission from her father Riccardo who founded the Campus Internazionale di Musica.
This year Giovanni Gnocchi shared his mastery with generosity and paternal warmth with cellist’s from talented teenagers to young musicians already in the profession.
Movements from three Bach Suites to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Pablo Casals , the first cellist to perform the suites of this Universal Genius in public . Creating a technique that could do justice to such sublime music. And it is this that is the backbone for all serious cellists and it was to Samuele Notar Francesco , Allegra Britton and Marco Mauro Moruzzi that this important celebration was entrusted . From the rhythmic drive , architectural shape and noble sounds of Samuele and Allegra to the refined playing of great authority of Marco.https://youtu.be/iTAfVa0uO70?si=-u7VuT8YRDytjrC7
Solo cello too with the third Sonata of Hindemith played by a deeply committed Luca Palummo . Playing not only by heart but with a heart beating strongly and a sense of colour and character of passionate disturbing intensity.
Elene Lamartora playing from Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante that I have only heard before from the hands of Rostropovich , but that this very young cellist already plays with golden rich sounds of impressive authority. Alexandra Ducariu adding the complex orchestral sounds with mastery at the piano.
It was the same musical mastery that Alexandra shared with Mia Perulli’s burning intensity and poetic sensibility of Shostakovich ‘s Sonata op 40 and Andrea Castellani’s beauty and nobility of Beethoven’s Sonata op 5 n 2 . Alexandra throwing off Beethoven’s notes with brilliance as her partner played with dynamic drive and her same infectious rhythmic energy.
No class could be complete without Dvorak’s noble concerto op 104 and there were two remarkably professional performances from Jacopo Sommariva and Mattia Geracitano . A solidity and weight from Jacopo of imposing authority which was mirrored by the poetic sensibility of Mattia.
I remember Jaqueline Du Pré and Daniel Barenboim playing this work in the Royal Albert Hall in London as a response to the Russian invasion of Prague. Barenboim had been threatened with assassination if he went ahead with such a protest but no one but he knew of the threat and it was the noble voice of Dvorak that quelled all evil in the end.
https://youtu.be/U_yxtaeFuEQ?si=wXLcys-YsNvb0kR_
Schumann and Brahms were entrusted to the poetic intensity and poignant beauty of Matthieu Hassid and Tobias Ingrosso together in true duo playing of rare sensibility with Alexandra Ducariu.
On Sunday Giovanni Gnocchi, Andrea Lucchesini and Marco Rizzi will share the platform with their masterclass students with music making between equals. It is a magic moment when music will reign as it has done for over half a century in this beautiful hill top town filling the surrounding hills with the sound of music.
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 