Mercoledi Musicale

Its been awhile since I created a Mercoledi Muscicale, which was at one point a weekly post and its been a long while since I've posted anything on the operas or concerts that I've seen in the past few months. Its not that music hasn't been happening or is no longer a part of my life. It is very much - concerts, operas and various goings-on around Rome and Italy are all part of daily life for me here. Music took us as far away as Salzburg and Vienna this year and will be part of our upcoming holiday in Sicily. Its just that for some reason, which I'm sure my therapist could eventually ferret out, I haven't been moved to share many of those experiences or a piece that I've discovered and enjoyed.

While I was in Siena this weekend I wandered into the Palazzo Chigi Saracini, once the home of one of the most powerful families in Italy it now is the centre of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, founded by the remarkable Guido Chigi Saracini. In their bookstore I found an album by one of my favourite groups Accordone. I wrote about two of their concerts at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival in 2008 and 2009. I have most of their CDs but Fra Diavolo was one that I was pretty certain wasn't in my collection as it was only recorded late in 2009. It turns out that is an expanded version of their Via Toledo programme which I had heard and bought that first year.  However there are enough new items in it to make it a worthy addition to their catalogue.

But it also reminded me of that magic moment back in 2009 when Marco Beasley and Elisabetta de Mircovich filled the stilled space of the Mozarteum Grand Hall with the lovely melody of La Bella Noeva,  a traditional serenata from the Liguria region of Northern Italy.  I was able to find a version of it from a concert in Brussels in 2006 with Beasley, de Mircovich, Claudia Caffagni and Helicon.  It allowed me to relive one of the more magical moments of my music going in the past four years.

I thought I'd share it with you.

04 maggio - San Ciriaco di Gerusalemme