A leading pianist on the international jazz scene and a conductor with a taste for challenges. It is from a meeting between Danilo Rea and Walter Attanasi that Classic & Jazz was born, the opening concert of the new Italia Arte Fest season, the festival that since 2011 brings Italian music to the Czech Republic.
A great intuition that in Prague on 28th April gave birth to an exciting divertissement between the two musical genres which at first glance seemed incompatible.
The festival director and organizer of the concert, Maestro Attanasi, explained the sense of the event: “The idea stems from an observation: in almost all languages the verb “play” music also means “play” games. Therefore, as with an authentic game, and respecting each other’s language, we devised a program that intends to demonstrate how the introduction of a jazz improvisation into a classical repertoire could be a harmonious and enjoyable experience”.
The initiative, organized with the support and cooperation of the Italian Embassy in Prague, the Italian Cultural Institute and the support of the Italian Business Center Group, took place inside the prestigious Josef Suk Hall of the Rudolfinum in Prague, before the “beau monde” of the Czech capital, among political and diplomatic representatives, as well as important business people and celebrities from the world of art and culture.
Directed by Attanasi, the Czech Virtuosi string orchestra opened the program with Mozart’s Divertimento K136. After a classical piece, the playlist continued with Haydn’s “Farewell” Symphony, a score that well lends itself to “playing”, the main thread of the evening. At first, everything seems normal until, with nonchalance, a few musicians get up and leave the room, closing the door behind them. The scenic game continues, and one after the other, the musicians stop playing. When the last two violin players show to have no intention of stopping the music, the conductor, with a resigned gesture, among giggles from the public, finally abandons the stage. To support the violins, Danilo Rea, the guest of honour, comes onto the scene and after the conclusion of Haydn’s theme, proposes an excursion into the music of Fabrizio De André with a solo that affirms his great virtuosity and attracts a well-deserved applause from the audience. The pianist from Vicenza came to the Czech capital after his recent participation at the Sanremo Festival in a duo with Gino Paoli and the soundtrack from the movie “Quando c’era Berlinguer”. Director Attanasi could not have chosen a more suitable artist with whom to share the scene. Rea, who graduated in classical piano and is well known as a jazz performer, finds in the improvisations of the themes of the great composers of the past, the way to reconcile the two sides of his musical personality.
The joyful style of the Concert for viola and orchestra by Telemann concluded the first part of the evening with a last guest, the Czech viola player Jitka Hosprová, who alternated with the orchestra during the four movements of the piece. After the interval, Rea accompanied the orchestra and alternated with solos and variations from the rest of the program, that included the Serenade Op. 22 by Dvořák, Barber’s Adagio and Puccini’s elegy Crisantemi (Chrysanthemums). The event drew to a close on the notes of Mozart’s A little night music, with all the protagonists of the evening on the stage.
The public seemed gratified. The rich and varied atmosphere of the divertissement and the harmonious “amusements” performed by the artists from various nationalities, demonstrate once more that music is also an instrument of cultural exchange between countries.