Incontri in Terra di Siena newsletter, winter 2017
Dear Friends,
As we all prepare for the upcoming holiday season, our thoughts are racing towards 2018 when we will celebrate 30 years of Incontri in Terra di Siena. The festival will be held from July 28th – August 4th and we have some exciting details that we would like to share with you.
For his second Incontri season, Artistic Director Alessio Bax, who many of you will remember from his superlative performances in recent years, has invited an extraordinary line-up of musicians (see below), some of whom are returning to Incontri and others who are new faces.
The festival will open on July 28th in the magical setting of the Locanda dell’Amorosa in Sinalunga, a much-loved venue for regular Incontri audiences. The first ever Incontri concert was held in thesalone at La Foce in July 1988, but the festival was officially established in 1989 with concerts at Castelluccio and the Amorosa. It therefore couldn’t be a more appropriate venue for the Camerata Strumentale di Prato under conductor Jonathan Webb with world-renowned flautist Emmanuel Pahud and our own Antonio Lysy as soloists.
There’s lots more! The exciting, eclectic programme will include a ‘Schubertiade’, an evening dedicated to the music of Schubert with the great English tenor Ian Bostridge together with the resident artists. It will feature a selection of lieder from ‘Schwanengesang’ and the great Cello Quintet plus a Schubert-inspired work by one of today’s leading living composers, Jörg Widmann.
There will be a chance to hear the rarely-performed septet version of Strauss’s Metamorphosen led by the First Concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic Daishin Kashimoto. With Alessio Bax, Kashimoto will also perform the Violin Sonata n. 2 by Tuscan-born Ferruccio Busoni, a massive, masterful work that encompasses everything from the spirituality of a Bach chorale to the energy of a Tarantella.
Emmanuel Pahud,undisputed giant of his instrument, will show the flute at its most versatile and Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes (who the New York Times described as ‘a pianist of magisterial elegance, power and insight’) will perform rarities by Nielsen, Sibelius and Dohnányi. Finally, an intimate and varied evening of duo sonatas for violin, cello, flute and piano will close the festival at Monteverdi Tuscany on August 4th.
Aside from the concerts, there will be talks, a photographic exhibition, dinners and other surprises. Among the Oltre la Musica events will be presentations, both in English and Italian by Katia Lysy, Michele Serra and Benedetta Origo, of Iris Origo’s recently-published book ‘A Chill in the Air’, the prequel to her celebrated ‘War in Val d’Orcia’ diary.
As soon as we have confirmed the missing details, we will let you know, but do keep an eye on the website (itslafoce.org) as updates come through. To give you a taste of what is in store, you can view a further selection of Paul Flanagan’s photos of the 2017 festival .
We are so proud to have arrived at this landmark year, an achievement that is due, in no small part, to the loyal and on-going contributions of our Sponsors, Patrons, Friends and audience members. As a non-profit organisation, the Incontri relies entirely on private funding to provide concerts of the highest quality. Please consider making an early donation in support of our 30th anniversary by visiting the MEMBERSHIP page of our website or the SUPPORT page of our new website for US Friends.
It just remains to send our very best wishes for a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a peaceful and healthy new year; we hope to see youat La Foce in the summer!
The Incontri team
INCONTRI in TERRA di SIENA
2018 – artists:
Piano Leif Ove Andsnes – Alessio Bax – Lucille Chung
Violin Maja Avramović – Nicolas Dautricourt – Esther Hoppe – Daishin Kashimoto – Annabelle Meare – Lawrence Power
Viola Lise Berthaud – Lawrence Power
Cello Antonio Lysy – Christian Poltéra
Double Bass Nabil Shehata – Knut-Erik Sundquist
Flute Emmanuel Pahud
Voice Ian Bostridge
Vibraphone Pascal Schumacher
The Camerata Strumentale di Prato, Jonathan Webb – conductor