August 7, 2024
ASIAGOFESTIVAL 2024
Now in its 58th year, the festival conceived by Fiorella Benetti Brazzale will once again make its music resound in Asiago, Aug. 9-17.
The festival opens this year on Friday, Aug. 9 at 9 p.m. with the return of music at the Le Carceri Museum in Asiago, amid the striking contemporary Italian paintings of the “Gran Turismo” Exhibition. The program will transport the listener into an ethereal atmosphere, outlined by the magical, intangible sound of Canadian Marlis Neumann’s harp and Julius Berger’s cello. The romanticism of Mendelssohnn, the late Romantic sounds of Lizst and Wagner, the symbolism of Debussy: a perfect combination of enthusiastic transport and veiled melancholy: are these not the same passions that also characterize the path of the “grand tourist” traveler? An unmissable opening concert.
The second event of the festival will be as unusual as it is awaited: on Saturday, August 10, at 11 a.m., again at Le Carceri Museum, we will in fact go on a discovery of the photographer Julius Berger. Throughout his life, the great Bavarian cellist has shown great eclecticism, distinguishing himself not only through his music but also through his poetry and, now, through his photography. For the past several years, in fact, the Master, animated by an artistic spirit of a Renaissance man, has been on the path of further artistic research using images as his medium. Thus, Berger has already given us more than one series of splendid shots having nature as their subject, understood as a place where the mystery, intensity and beauty of Creation reside; the same mystery, intensity and beauty that also reside in the human being or in each musical phrase of Johann Sebastian Bach. Here, then, the Master’s quest uses a new medium for an ancient purpose: to try to caress that flame of the divine that only art allows us to glimpse.
In more detail, Asiagofestival will host at Le Carceri Museum a selection of 7 shots by the Maestro and 7 shots by the Maestro’s son, Julius Berger Junior, who, in his early twenties, is making a glittering career in the U.S. just as a photographer. In his case the subject is human beings, portrayed as archaic and hieratic deities in a New York suspended in space and time: again, as in his father’s works, an intimate need for the absolute.
During the morning session on August 10, the public will have a unique opportunity to discover the photographic works together with Berger, who will accompany and guide visitors through his works, revealing their intentions and aesthetics.
Also on Aug. 10, at 9 p.m. at the Millepini Theater in Asiago, the second concert will be held, part of the “l’officina cameristica,” the festival’s now multi-year project that brings musicians of different ages, nationalities and careers together to play some of the most beautiful pages of the classical and contemporary chamber music repertoire. This year, the celebrated quintet for piano and strings in A major opus 81 by A. Dvorak will be performed alongside the quartet for piano and strings (2022) and the passacaglia for cello solo (2022) by Asiagofestival 2024’s guest composer, Polish cellist Marcin Zdunik. The latter’s work, aesthetics and life will be presented the following day, Sunday, Aug. 11 at 11 a.m. at the Council Chamber of the Asiago City Hall.
Tuesday, Aug. 13, will mark a milestone birthday for the festival: the 30th anniversary of the Cellopassionato ensemble, the cello ensemble founded by Julius Berger and Hyun-Jung Berger that has been regularly enchanting Asiaghese audiences for many years. The concert program is very rich, ranging from J.S.Bach to the transcription for cello ensemble and harp
of the Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 by Gustav Mahler, from Richard Strauss to the composition “Da Pacem Domine,” written for Asiagofestival 2024 and dedicated to the City of Asiago and of which we will hear the premiere performance. Camporovere, Forte Interrotto, 5 p.m. In case of bad weather, the concert will be held at 9 p.m. at the Millepini Theater in Asiago.
On Wednesday, Aug. 14 at 9 p.m. at the Millepini Theater, the instrumental ensemble “Crescere in Musica” will perform together with mezzo-soprano Elisa De Toffol and under the direction of Maestro Sergio Gasparella, a regular guest of Asiagofestival. The ensemble is characterized by gathering some of the best young musicians from the Vicenza and Veneto area and offering, on this occasion, a repertoire of great interest all focused on popular music. The concert will open with Luciano Berio’s “Folk Songs” (1964) for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble, and will close with “Folk Cansóni” (2023) for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble by the young Paduan composer Dario Michelon (*1986), who will be present in the hall as a guest of the festival. The instrumental ensemble will consist of the following elements: flute, clarinet, harp, viola, cello, percussion.
The traditional Concerto per l’Assunta will be held on Thursday, August 15 at 9 p.m. at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Asiago. On the organ is French organist Tom Rioult, winner of the third international organ competition “Fiorella Benetti Brazzale – City of Vicenza,” the competition named precisely after the founder of Asiagofestival. The program will include the performance of some great classics of the organ repertoire, such as the introduction and passacaglia in F minor by Max Reger or the passacaglia and fugue in C minor BWV 582 by J.S.Bach, as well as the performance of some small gems of the French organ repertoire and the world premiere of the piece “Chorale prelude. Da Pacem Domine” composed by Marcin Zdunik and dedicated to the City of Asiago.
The 58th edition of Asiagofestival will close on Saturday, Aug. 17 at 9 p.m. at the Millepini Theater in Asiago with a spirited and virtuosic program for transverse flute and piano, featuring the compositions Barcarola and Scherzo by A. Casella, Suite op 34, no. 1 by C.M.Widor and Sonata op 94 by S. Prokofiev. On flute the great Sardinian flutist Silvia Careddu, for the first time a guest of the festival, on piano one of the most sensitive international chamber performers, Argentinian pianist and Asiagofestival artistic director Josè Gallardo.
All concerts are free admission subject to availability.
Artistic direction: Hyun-Jung Berger and Jose Gallardo
Organizational direction: Alberto Brazzale