Symphony in C. Rare Italian Music at the Carnegie Hall

On Tuesday February 2 2010 (7:30 pm) the Carnegie Hall will host a not-to-be-missed concert featuring world-renowned Italian-Norwegian soprano Elizabeth Norberg-Schulz and famous conductor Mattia Rondelli.
 

Soprano Elizabeth Norberg Schulz

Sponsored by the Italian Cultural Institute and Pastificio Cocco, "Symphony in C" is aimed to promote rarely performed Italian classical and contemporary music and make it accessible to a wider audience.
 

After all, why should only "initiates" or experts enjoy it?
 

Famous Italian conductor Mattia Rondelli, the promoter of the initiative, realized that the perception of Italian "high" music is probably too skewed towards Opera and that so many masterpieces written by Italian composers could be somewhat re-discovered, especially by non-experts.

The program includes three rarely performed pieces for string orchestra: Riccardo Luciani's Le Tombeau Perdu, Giuseppe Verdi's String Quartet in E minor, and Boccherini's Stabat Mater for soprano and orchestra.
 

Luciani’s Le Tombeau Perdu was written in 1991, the year when the classical music world marked the bicentennial of Mozart’s death. In instrumental music, tombeau, which in French means “tomb”, signifies a musical “tombstone”. In true neoclassical spirit, A. Riccardo Luciani selected this instrumental genre, much popular in 17th century France, to pay tribute to the great composer.

Verdi’s Quatret is the only surviving chamber music work in his catalogue. Written during a decade long pause in his operatic writings, it strikes the listener with its impressive sculptural vigor of the  Allegro, the dancing advancement of the second movement that fades out into a moonlight-atmosphere reminiscent of Don Carlo, and the severity, sometime almost Beethovenian, of the ending Fuga.

Better known to the wider public for his prolific instrumental output than for his vocal works, Boccherini creates a true masterpiece in his Stabat Mater for soprano and strings. In his rendition of the medieval text, the 18th century Italian master captures in an unsurpassed manner the immediacy, awesome power and heartrending intensity of the maternal sorrow that makes the Passion of Christ so emotionally involving.
 
The soloist of the concert is world-renowned soprano Elizabeth Norberg Schulz. Highlights of her career include performances at the most prestigious opera houses in the world: the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, Opéra Bastille, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, La Monnaie, Teatro Real di Madrid, Opéra de Genève, Vienna Staatsoper, La Fenice, and many others. She has collaborated with some of the greatest conductors in modern history: Claudio Abbado, Colin Davis, Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev, James Levine, Myung-Whun Chung, Semyon Bychkov, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Georg Solti, Kurt Masur, Seiji Ozawa, and Carlos Kleiber. Her many concert appearances include the Berlin Phiharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Orchestra Nazionale di RAI, Dresden Staatskapelle, Munich Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic,  Chicago Symphony, and the San Francisco Symphony.

The orchestra will be led by Mattia Rondelli. He recently recorded the Boccherini piece, Stabat Mater, with Barbara Frittoli and I Virtuosi del Teatro alla Scala for SONY Classical. His credentials include appearances with the Beijing Opera Theater Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Parma Teatro Regio Symphony Orchestra, Arturo Toscanini Symphony Orchestra, La Fenice Orchestra, Marche Philharmonic, Turin Philharmonic, Pomeriggi Musicali di Milano, and Cantelli Orchestra. He has appeared at theBologna Festival, MITO and the Ravenna Festival.