Born in 2014, the Viktor Ullmann Festival aims at bringing back to life works by Jews and non-Jew composers persecuted by Nazi fascism for their cultural commitment, their artistic activity, and their identity. The music festival, set in Trieste, opened a few days ago with a concert in the synagogue which had as protagonists the Abim\u00e0 string orchestra in collaboration with the G. Verdi wind orchestra, with the direction of Maestro Davide Casali and with Manuel Figheli solo accordion.
\nIn the first part of the concert, organized by the Associazione Musica Libera in collaboration with the Jewish Community of Trieste and the Casali Foundations, along with Aaron Copland Fanfare for the Common Man (1942), the Symphony No. 1 in C minor (1899) by Bruno Morpurgo was performed in a world premiere. Morpurgo was a Jewish composer from Trieste who died during the First World War fighting near Gorizia, and his original scores were donated to the Museum of the Jewish Community of Trieste by his nephew (more details in the article below).
\nThanks also to a project carried out in collaboration with the Region, the musician Davide Casali digitized them in order to revive these forgotten pages.
\nThe concert – greeted at the opening by the Rabbi of Trieste Alexandre Meloni and the vice president of the Jewish Community Davide Belleli – continued with the European premiere of the “Israeli Rapsody” (1963) for accordion and orchestra and the First Symphony “La Tragica” in D minor (1943) by Marc Lavry.
\nIt was the prelude to the sixteenth edition of Erev\/Layla Jewish music and culture festival, organized by the Associazione Musica Libera in collaboration with the Jewish Community, the Jewish Museum and the Ullmann Festival. The program consists of four concerts with free admission to be held from June 13 to 22 on the terrace of the Jewish Museum.
\nThe final event will host the musician Raiz presenting, together with Giuseppe De Trizio of Radicanto, some pieces by the band Almamegretta reinterpreted in the dimension of travel. The Amoroso-Palumbo duo (piano and soprano) will open the festival (Tuesday 13) with music by so-called \u201cdegenerate\u201d Jewish authors. Their repertoire will include musicians such as Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco, Aldo Finzi, Fernando Liuzzi and Leone Sinigaglia.
\nThursday 15 will be the turn of the Young Metropolitan Orchestra, born in synergy between the Association Friends of Music of Mestre, Venice Municipality, Venice Territorial Scolastico and Venice Metropolitan. On Tuesday 20th, concert of the Young pianists of the school of Pierpaolo Levi in collaboration and with the association Associazione Nives Caetani Buzzai. Last appointment, on June 22, with the duo Raiz & Radicanto. The concert will feature “Sephardic cantigas, psalms, Neapolitan song, Portuguese fado, North African, Middle Eastern, Asian rhythms: languages and languages chasing each other, a ‘democracy of the pentagram'”.
\nAdmission to the concerts, which will start at 21, is free. Reservation required only for the June 22 event.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"