Between flesh and heaven. Ravenna Festival – this time by Pierre Paolo Pazolini on the centenary / Day

The versatility of Pazolini’s talent is reflected in the festival program, whose motto has been chosen Between flesh and heaven. Pazolini has used them to describe the contrast between body and mind, human experience, and celestial tendencies in Johann Sebastian Bach’s music (especially for his violin solo), which is central to the director’s films. Bach is played in many concerts in the Basilica of Ravenna. The venues of the festival – the UNESCO World Heritage Listed churches with beautiful mosaics that have been admired around the world for centuries – are one of the unique features of this interdisciplinary festival. Ravenna’s cultural and historical heritage is enhanced by the colors of modern art.

The program of the festival (120 events with the participation of a thousand artists) touches on the dual nature of human existence and covers academic, world and popular music (jazz, rap and progressive hand), theater, dance, cinema, literature and visual arts. Several concerts and performances can be watched live at the festival Homepage, in the archive they will be available by the end of the year.

The opening concert of the festival, recorded on June 1, can already be watched in the archives, in which the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, conducted by maestro Daniel Harding, performed a tribute to the contemporary composer Acio Korgi. Between flesh and heavenLudwig van Beethoven ‘s Overture Egmonts and Antonin Dvorak’s Seventh Symphony.

Noteworthy is the concert of the young violinist Giuseppe Giboni, winner of the 2021 Paganini Competition, recorded on June 2, in which he interpreted Pazolini’s favorite opuses – Bach’s sonatas and partitas (Pazolini had even considered learning to play the violin). Baha Brandenburg concerts can listen Ensemble Zefiro and performed by Alfredo Bernardini, an oboist and conductor (recording of a concert on June 11). The sacred and the profane are closely intertwined in the hymns of Benjamin Britten or Canticles – they were performed by soloists, including the great tenor Ian Bostridge, in a class in a touchingly beautiful concert at the Basilica of St. Apollinaria on June 9. This record can also be viewed in the digital archive of the festival.

Pazolin’s Centennial section includes a concert that will be broadcast live on June 22, a chamber music ensemble founded in Ravenna almost forty years ago. Byzantine Academy Harpsichordist and conductor Otāvio Dantone will play Bach Musical dedication. On June 27, a concert by the Budapest Festival Orchestra String Group and the Luigi Kerubini Youth Orchestra (conducted by violinist Janoš Pilcs, featured by Johann Michael Haydn, Peter Tchaikovsky and Bach) will take place. On June 28, you will be able to listen to a concert in which the founder of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Maestro Ivan Fischer, will perform (Johannes Brahms’ Third Symphony and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Symphony Suite Scheherazade).

Violinist Gidon Kremer will perform at the festival on July 3 – together with the Luigi Cherubin Youth Orchestra and conductor Christoph Eschenbach, he will perform a Violin Concerto by Mecislav Weinberg. The program of this concert also includes Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. Jazz pianist and singer Daiena Krola will perform on July 13. Dance lovers will be delighted by Morris Bezar’s ballet troupe from Lausanne (July 15) and the troupe of Israeli choreographer Hofes Schhther Hofesh Shechter II (July 19).

The Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra and Maestro Ricardo Muti will perform at the closing concert of the festival on July 21. Roman SymphonyAnatoly Ladov ‘s symphonic poem The enchanted lake and Franca List Preludes.

Information: ravennafestival.org

Festival events online: ravennafestival.live

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