Events archive
Dark impulses and their psychology in music: Salome
Thursday 21th November at 19:00 CEST
Theater is not meant to show only noble, moral and heroic characters and plots: on the other hand, it has been used as an incredible psychological tool to explore the darkest sides of human nature.
Opera is no exception: through the power of music several composers have been able to express the reasons of cruelty to a shocking and enlightening degree.
The greatest of such works is by far one of the most impressive operas ever written: “Salome”
by Richard Strauss.
We will explore it together!
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 20€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
Europe and America in music
Thursday 24th October at 19:00 CEST
You would expect that the young American culture has little or nothing to do with the classical music tradition of Europe, and that the United States are in this field only in the shoes of the importer.
This is actually quite true, having the US built up their orchestras and opera theaters following the European model, but through a deeper look can actually find small, but charming influences that America had on certain composers and phases of of the history of music, not even mentioning the actual American composers.
During this talk we are going to discover and analyze those influences and the American-flavoured European music, as well European-flavoured American music.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 20€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
Franz Schubert and his multi-faced Romantic
Thursday 26th September at 19:00
A composer of warm and intense humanity, whose music speaks of intimacy and depth.
For a very long time the fate of his life, so full of misunderstanding and rejection, has been repeated over and over and only recently the power of his art is receiving full recognition.
His music has been regarded just as pleasing and melodic, while to a deeper look it is daring and innovative: a truly multi-faced composer that embodies the sunset of an era and the rise of a new one.
It will be a joy to discover the many shades of his art, its many meanings and creating a portrait of a composer that manages to touch our heart like few others.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 20€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
Composers’ fame: when, and why?
THURSDAY 13th June 2024 at 19:00 CET
Fame, success, career.
There are many, many composers judged as truly great by History.
Everyone of them has a story: when did they get their well-deserved recognition?
Did it arrive early, giving them the perspective of a triumphal career? Or did they savour it as the result of patience and many years of hard work? Was it even awarded to them during their lifetime?
During this talk/game we are going to tell the stories of plenty of great names and listen to the music that earned them fame… is it the same we cherish the most nowadays? Only one way to find out!
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 20€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
The Undervalued
Wednesday 15th May 2024 at 19:00 CET
Those artists who stand the test of Time are for sure great and worthy of being remembered, studied and loved.
Still, history is not always entirely fair and many truly great composers do not get the recognition they deserve.
This talk is starting a new series that I will develop through the next years, dedicated to all those composers that for the most various reasons are somewhat neglected, despite deserving our greatest praise.
We are going to start this time with one of the most criminally underrated ones.
Who? Join in and find out!
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 20€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
Myths of modern times: Don Juan and Manfred
Wednesday 17th April 2024 at 19:00 CET
When talking about mythical characters, our mind goes immediately to ancient times: it is right and natural, since the culture of ancient civilizations produced great, complex and fascinating mythologies.
However, in times closer to us, great literary works gave birth to some characters that quickly became legendary and prime expressions of ideas, hidden streams, dreams and nightmares of Europe.
Without really any exception, these heroes inspired musicians to create powerful compositions that could embody the spiritual nature of their essence.
During this talk we will explore and discover the world of music that two of them originated: the legendary womanizer Don Juan and the tormented byronic Manfred.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 20€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
Claude Debussy, evening and new dawn
Wednesday 13th March 2024 at 19:00 CET
Transitional moments have a very enthralling charm: that moment when a closure makes the recent past feel distant, but the future has not yet fully come, something surpassed lingers in the very same air that vibrates with the energy of an impending future.
An entire generation of composers felt this during their youth in the very end of the XIX century and Claude Debussy is a shining star among them, the star that more than all the others was pointing towards their future.
Our task in this talk will be to build up a convincing picture of the most flickery music ever written, getting familiar with the incredibly unique charms that will always keep it fresh and modern.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 20€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
Music of mourning
Wednesday 14th February 2024 at 19:00 CET
In Aristotle’s words, music can be a “balsam for the soul”.
This is true for those who listen to it, but sometimes also for the composers behind it: many great ones pured into their creations the emotional turmoils of their lives and used their art as a therapeutic tool for themselves.
It will be no surprise then to see that the most devastating sorrow a person can experience, the loss of a loved one, stimulated the creation of masterpieces of mourning.
In this talk we are going to discover some of those pieces written by composers to cope with a personal loss: the music that stems out of this is heart-tearing, fragile, tragic, delicatly beautiful and a true balsam for all of us.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 20€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
The evolution of conducting and playing
Wednesday 17th January 2024 at 19:00 CET
The world of musical performance is very obvious for any professional musician and alas, from the inside often seen as dull. On the other hand, To the fresh eye belonging to the audience it is magical, interesting and very much unknown.
Did the way of playing the music of all those great composers change through the last 100 years? If so, how? And Why? Does comparing a 70-years-old recording to a brand new one make any sense?
During this out-of-ordinary musical talk we are going to answer all these questions and many more, all gravitating around the world of that necessary and critical link between the composers and us: the musical performance.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 20€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
”L’Enfance du Christ” by H.Berlioz
Wednesday 13th December 2023 at 19:00 CET
A lot of music has been written to celebrate Christmas: this festivity without music would become immediately dull and lose a lot of its charm.
It is pretty courious to notice that when talking about great composers, we can find much less Christmas music then expected: the vast majority of them actually ignored this celebration, artistically speaking.
There are few exceptions though, and together we are going to discover a truly beautiful and not very famous one, “L’enfance du Christ” by Hector Berlioz.
In there, we are going to find that innocent and sweet mood of the most reknown Christmas music combined with the artistry of a greatly original and unpredictable composer.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 20€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
Music and censorship in the Soviet Union
Wednesday 15th November 2023 at 19:00 CET
Between 1930 and 1940 Joseph Stalin tightened his grip on power within the newborn Soviet Union, making his position firmly in command of the gigantic Eurasian country/empire.
Depite being a pragmatic, not artistically-inclined leader, Stalin understood the importance of culture and of course music in the massified society he was in charge of.
The result was the ideological birth of the idea of “soviet” or “proletarian” music and consequently a stong control over the works composed within the Union.
How fared the greatest Soviet composers under this imperious censorship? What effects did this situation have on their music and their lives?
We are going to answer these questions during our journey through most troubled years of the XX century.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 20€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
Mozart’s “Bach revelation”
Wednesday 18th October 2023 at 19:00 CET
Sometimes during the life of a great artist there are moments that have the power to change everything.
From the perspective of such an intelligent, reactive and curious composer as Mozart was, the unexpected contact with the music by Johann Sebastian Bach has been this kind of revelation.
This spark was engeneered by a hidden hero of the history of music, a character that behind the scenes moved a lot of threads of the artistic path of titans as Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven.
A man that deserves all our attention and praise.
During our talk we are going to get to know this unsung hero, as well as the depth of the influence that Bach’s music had on Mozart (seemingly) opposite style.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 20€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
”Thus Spoke Zarathustra” by R. Strauss
Wednesday 20th September 2023 at 19:00 CET
The last blossoms of the dying movement of Romanticism are all but weak or decadent.
Even though the march towards the modern era is relentless and unstoppable, the last twenty years of the XIX century gave bith to one of the greatest myths of Europe: the prophet-philosopher Zarathustra, that in the visionary novel by F. Nietzsche is harbringer of unsettling questions and liberating truths.
Just a few years later, in the very sunset of the century, a young composer, inspired by the power of Nietzsche’s work, creates an immense tone poem that expresses his own view of Zarathustra’s ideas.
Our brave task is to dive deep into this wonderful musical enigma and shed light on the misterious might of this late Romantc masterpiece.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 20€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
Music and Freedom
Thursday 15th June 2023 at 19:00 CET
Few ideas have been, and are, as important as Freedom within culture and arts.
What is so interesting about it is that is has a surprisingly amount of meanings when spacing between very diverse situations and environments.
This is even more true in an historical perspective, since throughout the ages and the changes society had to endure we can see a whole bunch of ways to define freedom. This of course happens also within the musical field.
It can be surprising as well as charming to know how different being free could mean for Mozart in comparison with Bach, and again for both of them in comparison for Beethoven. And so on.
We are going to embark on a quest to discover all these differences and how they made into the music many great masters produced.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 15€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
The history of British music
Wednesday 17th May 2023 at 19:00 CET
Anyone in touch with the arts and the culture of Europe, expecially within the literary field, has for sure wondered why the British world is so little mentioned in the history of music: the country of Shakespeare, Blake, Coleridge and many other great artists has produced not so much music in comparison with other European cultural powerhouses.
However, within the niche of British music we can find a little group of first-tier stars, that surely deserve to be discovered and explored.
The aim of our time together will be to unveil the greatest names of this underappreciated musical tradition and get to understand their greatness.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 15€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
The identity of the 20th century in music
Wednesday 19th April 2023 at 19:00 CET
Who has not been puzzled at least once when in contact with art of the XX century?
The impression that this very troubled era is divided from the previous Romanticism by an irreparable fracture is pretty much there in everyone’s mind.
Still, if we look deeply into it, the very erratic, chaotic music of the Modern Period shows cohesive traits that can reveal powerful truths.
Our time together will be dedicated to follow this trail that binds such different styles ideas, in order to build up a greater vision that embraces and unites the many musical masterpieces of this very controversial century.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 15€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
Travels though Italy and the Easter Week
Wednesday 22nd March 2023 at 19:00 CET
Traveling through Italy has been for centuries a must do within the education of gentlemen, artists and intellectuals of any kind.
Most of them arranged their trips in order to be in Rome during the celebration of the Holy Week of Easter, so that they could witness to the wonders of the “Ufficium Tenebrarum” (Rite of Darkness), crowned by the experience of one of the most legendary and breath-taking pieces of music ever written.
What is it? What is the origin of such mythic fame?
And more: what has all this to do with the stories of the Italian travels as well as the Roman experiences of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Felix Mendelssohn?
We are going to find out together, alongside the music by these two great composers that was born out of these unforgettable weeks.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 15€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
The three national Romanticisms and their diversity
Wednesday 22nd February 2023 at 19:00 CET
The XIX Century is known as the age of Romanticism.
Still, we should definitely say Romanticisms: we can spot in Europe not one, but three great musical Romanticisms, traditions bound to the national poles of Italy, France and Germany.
Despite some shared features, these three romantic visions show also noticeable differences and express in their own ways the diversity of the national character of the three musical powerhouses of Europe.
Our task will be the research, the definition and the understanding of these three Romanticisms, as well as tasting together their sweetest fruits.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 15€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
The Missa Solemnis by Beethoven
ONLINE: Wednesday 25th January 2023 at 19:00 CET
FACE-TO-FACE: Tuesday 24th January 2023 at 19:00, Franzensbrückenstrasse 8/1/11, 1020 Vienna
One of the greatest musical traditions of Europe, the latin mass; one of the greatest masses ever composed, the Missa Solemnis by Beethoven.
This work, alongside the Ninth Symphony, crowns Beethoven’s creative path in the field of symphonic-choral music: it has to be a masterpiece.
Still, in some ways it can be seen as the archetype of the genre of the mass and its succession of emotionally and religiously well-determined moments, even though its sheer dimensions make it impossible a performance within the frame of a church rite.
Our quest will be a deep dive into this sublime music and the sacred genre it represents and incarnates.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 15€/person for the online version and 20€ for the face-to-face evening. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
Roots and flowers of film music
ONLINE: Wednesday 14th December 2022 at 19:00 CET
FACE-TO-FACE: Tuesday 13th December 2022 at 19:00, Franzensbrückenstrasse 8/1/11, 1020 Vienna
It is more than a century that a large quantity of music is composed in order to become part of a larger work, a movie.
As strange as it can sound, the idea of a type of movie-like music is in its origin and development way older than the invention of the camera itself.
It was born following some aesthetic pronciples that later would make it perfect to be used alongside the projection of images on the screen, and that are behind the composition of a lot of very high-quality music written later for that specific purpose.
Our quest will be the discovery of this musical vision before, during and after the actual birth of cinema as a seventh form of art, learning its traits and tasting its beauties.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 15€/person for the online version and 20€ for the face-to-face evening. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
Prophetic composers: music from the future
ONLINE: Wednesday 16th November 2022 at 19:00 CET
FACE-TO-FACE: Tuesday 15th November 2022 at 19:00, Franzensbrückenstrasse 8/1/11, 1020 Vienna
Every artist is an expression of his time.
This is the reason why in order to fully understand the works of great composers we have to dive deep into their environment: the history, the ideology, the society they experienced as well as their connection with the artistic past and present.
Still, there are some extraordinary works that cannot be explained this way: they seem to come from the future, born out of composers who somehow anticipated what was going to become the norm only decades afterwards.
Our quest in this event will be of jumping among these puzzling musical prophecies and enjoy mind-blowing examples of unmatched artistic prenscience.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 15€/person for the online version and 20€ for the face-to-face evening. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
ONLINE: The Russian dilemma
Wednesday 19th October 2022 at 19:00 CET
Being geographically at the margin of Europe, the vast Russian empire has often felt an alternance of charm and rejection towards the Western civilization.
Since music is a key factor of the cultural identity of a nation, this ambivalence in the relationship of Russia and Europe is wonderfully expressed through the history of music.
In our meeting we are going to explore and analyse the diverse musical streams within the Russian tradition, through two centuries of intermittent admiration and rejection of the European models.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 15€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
ONLINE: The myth of Turandot
Wednesday 28th September 2022 at 19:00 CET
The artistic arc of the fairy tale of the cruel Chinese princess Turandot is totally Italian, from the literary invention within the tradition of Venetian theater as well as the major operatic versions of its plot.
Despite all this, its path does not lay completely in Italy: in our story we will cross a foreign intervention, that even though it might seem of marginal importance, is actually crucial to understand the great diversity among the musical versions of Turadot’s fairy tale.
Who is the character behind this influence? How could he have a direct impact on the Italian original model? How big of a difference did it make?
We are going to answer to these questions (and more) through an exciting exploration of everything concerning this famous story.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 15€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
ONLINE: The “Scottish” symphony by Mendelssohn: a story of the highlands
Wednesday 8th June 2022 at 19:00 CET
Sometimes our inner life is nourished by intense experiences from our youth for a very long time.
This is for sure the case of twenty-years-old Mendelssohn’s journey to Scotland: he was a young, curious, romantic, talented man in good company… for him those have been unforgettable weeks.
This great symphony, blossomed out that handful of ideas he found in the highlands, was completed after nothing less than thirteen years: it is a testament of those colours, atmospheres and emotions that after such a long time were still highly vivid in the composer’s mind.
It will be a pleasure to live an adventure throughout this masterpiece, with the same spirit and enthusiasm that was animating the young Mendelssohn and his friend Klingelmann when they left Edimburg heading north!
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 15€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
ONLINE: Opera in the XVIII century: Salieri and Mozart
Wednesday 11th May at 19:00 CET
Outside those by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, very few operas of the XVIII century are regularly represented nowadays.
Still, as we can imagine, while he is for sure the most marvellous apex of his time, the history of opera through the entire century cannot be summarized only by his output, even as incredible as it is.
On the contrary: the century of the Enlightenment within the field of musical theater is as rich and interesting as what comes next during Romanticism.
The character of Antonio Salieri with all the legends surronding him will be the core of our meeting: his controversial relationship with Mozart for sure, but also his huge contribution to that crucible of styles and streams he was living in.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 15€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
ONLINE: The seasons in music
Wednesday 13th April at 19:00 CET
Humanity has never ceased to feel amazed and inspired within art and culture by the infinite but very concrete cycle of the four seasons: symbol of impermanence of all things, materialization of the superior unity of diverse and contrasting elements, parallel of the sequence of the stages in human life and its eternal rebirth; these are just some examples of the meanings the seasons suggest to the eyes of philosophers and artists.
Music could not avoid being a tool for humanity to express its view of such a fascinating phenomenon, and the great fame of some of the works born out of it are a clear sign of how strong our connection with this idea is.
The great Four Seasons by Vivaldi will not be the only focus of our meeting: they will cross and stand aside of other similar, but sometimes very different pieces on the same topic.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 15€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
ONLINE: Music and Mathematics, the divided sisters
Wednesday 16th March at 19:00 CET
Even though it is pretty much known that music and maths are somehow related and have some elements in common, it is very surprising to find out how close, deep and essential their relationship is.
But then, how comes that music belongs to the so-called humanistic disciplines, while maths is on the scientific side? What set them apart?
In order to answer such fascinating, but challenging questions it will be necessary to throw ourselves into a time travel, from the root of the discoveries that bind numbers with sounds during the ancient Greek civilisation, through the different meanings, uses, levels and views that changed music between the medioeval and modern eras and the related transformations in arts and society in Europe.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 15€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
ONLINE: The Tragic Feast in the opera tradition
Wednesday 16th February at 19:00 CET
Dramatic plays always lived off big contrasts both on individual and collective level: life and death, good and evil, love and hatred.
On the operatic stage this happens even more, due to the empowering participation of music, which has the capability to stress contrasts to the very extreme.
It is therefore no surprise that in many, many operas of completely different periods and styles we find so often a general and celebrative rejoicing placed in close contact with tragic elements: through many centuries we see this kind of situation recurring very often, never failing in creating a huge emotional respone from the audience
This event will be dedicated to a showcase of all kind of variations on the theme of the tragic feast, every time with different tricks, thetrical strategies and meanings.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 15€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
ONLINE: Goethe and Beethoven; the titans
Wednesday 19th January at 19:00 CET
They are the greatest artistic minds of the entire German culture and destiny wanted them to live in the same years.
So, what did they think of each other?
They were both prophets of the future of their fields: literature for Goethe and music for Beethoven; they had both an incredible artistic sensitivity; they both gave a huge contribution to the cultural self-awareness of their country.
This said, it should be nothing less than natural for such characters to be in a friendly, fruitful, even close relationship.
Was this the case? Well, yes and no.
What does this mean? We will find out together in our quest of unveiling the shades of their strange human and artictic relationship
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 15€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
ONLINE: A festive talk: drunk music
Thursday 9th December at 19:00 CET
Jolly, merry, inebriated, stunned, sick, overwhelmed, alive.
Music can allure our senses, awaken new sensations and even make us lose control over ourselves. When we think about it, it has similar effects on us of alcohol. After all, many drunk people feel an irresistible need of singing.
How can we be surprised by the fact that so many composers expressed through music the inebriation given by wine?
Join me in this musically alcoholic meeting and we will discover a gold mine of stunning drunk masterpieces, able to make us feel jolly, merry, inebriated, stunned, sick, overwhelmed, alive.
There is no way your ears won’t get wasted!
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 15€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
ONLINE: J.S. Bach: the man, the composer, the professional
Tuesday 16th November 2021 at 19:00 CET
Noting is as immortal as Johann Sebastan Bach’s music. Little is as misterious as the man Johann Sebastian Bach.
Despite the gigantic amount of attention and study that in the past two centuries has been dedicated to this immense artist, there are still a lot of uncertainties about his biography, his real human personality and his relationship with his contemporary world.
Myths, lack of reliable sources and especially the intimidating aura of eternal and divine greatness that imbues his music, have contributed to create the image of a man-artist built on a tradition that can no longer satisfy a curious, historically-informed eye.
The quest of this evening will be to re-discover, re-evaluate and re-build a titanic and almost divinised character and make him a real, living man.
We are going to follow, understand and taste his stories, his adventures, his obsessions and the music born out of all this.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 15€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
ONLINE: Music and Chronos
Wednesday 20nd October 2021 at 19:00 CET
We live in and through Time. The ticking of a clock, the rising and fading of daylight, our own heartbeat: we feel its presence within such a large part of our existance.
As our life, music flows through time: it has a beginning, a path and an end; it does follow the step of a pulsation. It is, in a way, measurable.
Through the history of music though, the relationship between the composers’ view of the art of sounds and the passing of time changed a lot, touching opposed extremes and signaling goals and mindsets pointing towards very different poles.
Together we are going to explore the invisible but crucial link beetween these two necessary parts of our lives: music and Time.
Be ready for truths to be discovered and perspectives to be unveiled!
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 15€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
ONLINE: Music and the fairy tale
Wednesday 22nd September 2021 at 19:00 CET
The fairy tale has always been an important part of human imagination and expression of deep streams of beliefs, dreams and superstitions. Whether it is named myth, fable, folklore or fairy tale, it is always charged with an overly strong evocative power alongside with a unique freshness.
Music could not avoid falling for the charm of the fairy tale and the supernatural. The art of sound, so deeply bound to the emotional and unconscious sphere, became aware and herald of the imaginative and its most hidden meanings.
The topic of the meeting will be the various and diverse musical expressions inspired to the world of the fairy tale, to their meanings and their nature of fresh cultural blood turned into high musical mastery.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 15€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
ONLINE: Dance music in modern times
Tuesday 18th May 2021 at 19:00 CET
After its ascension to symbol and voice of entire countries during the XIX century, dance music finds itself in a role of primary importance when the new century comes: composers and artists observe and absorbe higher and lower traditions from the present and the past, looking for new ideas and creative inputs.
New winds of great innovations appeared in Paris during the "Belle Epoque", coming from the Russian culture, changing the very way of looking at the ballet and producing immortal masterpieces, incredibly new and original.
During this event we will explore great expressions through music and dance of dreams and nightmares of the troubled modern era and those fertile sorrows that gave birth to memorable moments of European culture.
Everyone is invited! The participation fee is 15€/person. For bookings or info please write to giacomo.mura92@gmail.com
Music won't sound the same!
ONLINE: heroes and heroines in the musical culture
Tuesday 20 April 2021 at 19:00 CET
From very ancient times many arts revolved around heroic characters. In literature and visual arts heroism found the most suitable and natural place to be told and celebrated, but through many centuries it had also in music a charming and important role.
Dreams, morals, ideals of an era: these find an incarnation into heroes and heroines. These values and their musical realisation changed a lot trough time, giving birth to a very diverse pantheon of human expression and musical worlds.
During our meeting we are going to follow the evolution of the heroic charm from ancient to modern times, and how great composers were able to express through music the values their heros and heroines incarnate.
ONLINE: Don Quixote in Richard Strauss's musical vision
Tuesday 16 March 2021 at 19:00
A great classic, a masterpiece, a kaleidoscopic jewel talking about a real, ideal, suggestive, parodistic world: it is not possible to describe in just a bounch of words "Don Quixote of La Mancha" by Cervantes.
This novel, so vast and rich, in its being fragmentary but at the same time cohesive can be read at several levels and from different perspectives. Its deepest and innermost soul was very cleverly perceived by composer Richard Strauss, and transformed into a stately tone poem.
During our meeting we are going to travel together through this wonderful and complex music, looking at literal or metaphorical and spiritual connections with Cervantes's work, unveiling the deepest and most hidden secrets.
ONLINE: dance and art music through history
Tuesday 16th February 2021 at 19:00 CET
Dance cannot avoid music, music can avoid dance. Through the passing of centuries art music sometimes embraced, sometimes took distance from the art of movement.
The relationship between these two disciplines was through History extremely varied, rich, always fresh and shaped by the most diverse elements: artistic, social, political and national.
In this event we are going to cruise through three centuries of music in order to follow the exciting rise of dance music within Europe and its musical soul, and the eternal and pulsating cultural mark it left, nourishing in the most diverse way the history of music with vibrant inspiration.
Music won't sound the same!
ONLINE: the political genesis of Gluck's reform
Tuesday 19th January 2021 at 19:00 CET
The history of music is an artistic process that was moved forward by changes in the style and musical language of composers, led by a genuine search for new ways of expression of the artist's inner world.
Still, being a human activity, framed within society and most of the times addressed to the upper classes in the first place, music could not avoid being influenced by politics and power, sometimes so radically as we would normally not believe possible.
In this meeting we will talk about the most important and incredible case of political interference in the history of music, that led to a turning point destined to mark its path forever: the reform of musical theater made by Gluck and Calzabigi.
Politics and art never came together with such complementary intents, shaping a very unique moment both storically and artistically. Let us find out how!
See you there. Music won't sound the same!
ONLINE: The symphony as a journey in Beethoven's vision
Tuesday 8th December 2020 at 19:00 CET
The genre of the symphony is an icon of European classical music and by many seen as the pinnacle of the its whole history.
When talking about it the name of Beethoven is immediately summoned: after the stage of birth and early development of the symphony driven by Haydn and Mozart it was him who gave to this genre the majestic aura that makes it so unforgettable and meaningful.
Beethoven gave birth to one of the most powerful ways of conceiving the symphony, giving it a strong sense of progression and immersion that feels like a real inner journey.
Together we will dive into this conception of the symphony born from Beethoven’s vision, listening and analyzing the greatest and most effective masterpiece in this sense, his 5th symphony.
Music won’t sound the same!
The italian comic opera and the musical comedy
Tuesday 18th February at 19:00, Praterstraße 13/1/3
The XVIII century has been full of changes and musical inventions of any kind, from the modern concept of orchestra and symphony to the birth of the classical style.
One of the most shiny and loved creations of this century is the comic opera, whose destiny has been a relatively short life, but rich of incredibly intense creativity, being on the table of undisputed masters like Mozart and Rossini.
After our music talk we will enjoy some chat together and of course a toast!
For those who feel like to go ahead and prepare for the meeting ad the music we will be talking about, here are the pieces we are going to listen together:
- Final duet of the first part of "La serva padrona" by G.b.Pergolesi
- "Son imbrogliato io", recitativo and aria from "La serva padrona" by G.b.Pergolesi
- Ending of the I act from "Così Fan Tutte" by W.A.Mozart
- Concertato from "L'italiana in Algeri" by G.Rossini
- "Miei rampolli femminini" from "La Cenerentola" by G.Rossini
- "Sì, ritrovarla io giuro" from "La Cenerentola" by G.Rossini
- "Tutto nel mondo è burla" from "Falstaff" by G.Verdi
See you there. Music won't sound the same!
The Waltz: birth and ascension
Tuesday 10th December at 19:00, Praterstraße 13/1/3
Living in Vienna it is not possible not to be exposed to its most iconic dance: the Walzer.
Still, even though a portion of its history and characteristics is very well known, the great picture of its birth, development and end is much larger and richer. Together we are going to discover all of it, in a 150 year long trip through the lifetime of the most glorious dance of Europe.
After our music talk we will enjoy some chat together and of course a toast!
For those who feel like to go ahead and prepare for the meeting ad the music we will be talking about, here are the pieces we are going to listen together:
- "Tempo di minuetto" from W.A.Mozart's violin concerto n.5
- "Menuet" from F.J.Haydn's Symphony n. 104 (third movement)
- Ending of act I from "Don Giovanni" by W.A.Mozart
- "Un bal" from H.Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique (second movement)
- "Keiserwalzer" by J.Strauss II
- "Tanz der Sieben Scheiler" from R.Strauss's "Salomè"
See you there. Music won't sound the same!
Music as language and movement
Monday 25th November at 19:00, Praterstraße 13/1/3
Dynamic art, expression and communication, universal and mysterious language: music is all of this, familiar to everyone, but at the same elusive and complex.
Together we will get to know some of its hidden characteristics, in order to learn to listen to it with greater awareness and joy.
In the end of the musical trip we will enjoy a glass of wine and a chat to get to know each other and live a social moment
For those who feel like to go ahead and prepare for the meeting ad the music we will be talking about, here are the pieces we are going to listen together:
- "Ballsirenen", waltz by Franz Lehar
- "Piano concerto n 26", final movement, by W.A.Mozart
- "Die Hebriden" by Felix Mendelssohn
See you there. Music won't sound the same!
The ouverture: from Monteverdi to Prokofiev
Tuesday 5th November at 19:00, Praterstraße 13/1/3
Our journey through this very loved genre will start at the very beginning of the Baroque century, when Claudio Monteverdi decided for the first time to start an opera with an instrumental piece.
We will follow its path through development and changes that the evolution of artistic taste and of composers' intentions necessarily brought with the passing of centuries, visiting Mozart, Beethoven, Mendellsohn and Weber, up to the XX century and Prokofiev, with the partial detatchment of the ouverture from the opera theater.
In the end of the musical trip we will enjoy a glass of wine and a chat to get to know each other and live a social moment
For those who feel like to go ahead and prepare for the meeting ad the music we will be talking about, here are the pieces we are going to listen together:
- "Toccata" from "L'Orfeo" by Claudio Monteverdi
- Ouverture da "Le nozze di Figaro" by W.A.Mozart
- Ouverture "Coriolan" by L.v.Beethoven
- Ouverture "The consecration of the house" by L.v.Beethoven
- Ouverture "Sommernachtstraum" by Felix Mendelssohn
- Ouverture da "Der Freischütz" by C.M.von Weber
- "Ouverture on hebrew themes" by Sergej Prokofiev
See you there. Music won't sound the same!