Those ideals of beauty and passion that inflamed Lord Byron—poet, lover, and rebel—shine through the pages of Mozart, Beethoven, Donizetti, and Mendelssohn, performed by the chamber ensembles of the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra in the romantic heart of Ravenna: the new museum complex created by the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna dedicated to Lord Byron and the Risorgimento.
For three Fridays in September—5, 12, and 19, always at 9:30 PM—the inner courtyard of the Palazzo becomes an elegant musical salon, ideally bringing us back to the atmospheres of over two centuries ago, when Byron was bound to the young Countess Teresa Guiccioli and found sentimental, poetic, and civic inspiration in Ravenna.
Free admission until all seats are taken (no reservations). On concert evenings, the Byron and Risorgimento Museum will remain open until 9 PM.
On Friday, 5 September, the string and wind ensemble tackles the brilliant and chamber-style writing of a young Ludwig with his famous Septet in E-flat major Op. 20, a gem of eighteenth-century “entertainment” music, though composed at the turn of the two centuries, between 1799 and 1800.
On 12 September, the wind octet puts Beethoven, with his Octet Op. 103, which still preserves the light spirit of Viennese serenades, into dialogue with Mozart’s enigmatic Serenade No. 12 K 388, its C minor key seemingly manifesting a transcendent and fateful power.
On 19 September, the triptych of events concludes with the string quintet juxtaposing a brilliant piece by Donizetti – the Allegro for strings in C major, in which one glimpses the melodic energy of his operas – with the emotional range of Mendelssohn’s Quintet No. 2 Op. 87, moving between exuberance and contemplation.
“We are very pleased that the young musicians of the Cherubini Orchestra accepted our invitation to ‘visit Palazzo Guiccioli with music’, emphasizes Mirella Falconi Mazzotti, President of the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna. “These events happily reflect the Foundation’s desire to reopen, for the City and the public, an extraordinary place not only from a historical perspective – for the significant events it witnessed and the artistic value of its spaces –, but also for its ability to welcome, stimulate, and nurture initiatives significant for Ravenna’s and Italy’s cultural life. In particular, chamber music – with its refined, yet intimate and collected nature – immediately evokes the lifestyle of Byron and his beloved Teresa, and therefore finds an ideal setting in the inner courtyard. This is a new invitation to visitors to discover and rediscover the result of the monumental and meticulous restoration and enhancement of Palazzo Guiccioli.”
“The fusion of historical-artistic heritage and live music is an integral part of the identity of the Cherubini Orchestra,” says its superintendent Antonio De Rosa. “It is an aspect of our activity that we have cultivated alongside the development of chamber work, which, as Maestro Muti reminds us, is essential for deepening the relationship between instruments and, therefore, for perfecting the sense of community on which the orchestra thrives. The inner courtyard of Palazzo Guiccioli is well suited to that close encounter between performers and audience that is characteristic of chamber music. For the Cherubini Orchestra, it also represents the first opportunity to pay tribute to the new museums – a magnificent space so full of memories and stories enriching the narrative of a city already widely celebrated as Roman, Byzantine, Ostrogothic, and Dantean, and now also Romantic and Risorgimento-related. For the musicians of the Cherubini Orchestra, this is a new step in their mission to make music a common good capable of engaging with places, people, and history.”
