Music will open the 2021 celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the death of Raimondo di Sangro, seventh Prince of Sansevero, with the online event “Concert for the Prince”.
The initiative, presented by the Museo Cappella Sansevero and the Alessandro Scarlatti Association, will feature the Baroque Ensemble of Naples inside the eighteenth-century temple known throughout the world for the Veiled Christ.
The concert will be broadcast for the first time on Saturday 20 March 2021 at 19:30 pm, simultaneously on the Museo Cappella Sansevero Facebook channel and on the Associazione Scarlatti YouTube channel.
Raimondo di Sangro (Torremaggiore, 30 January 1710 – Naples, 22 March 1771), the brilliant creator of the iconographic project of the Sansevero Chapel and a multifaceted genius, maintained relationships with the greatest composers of eighteenth-century Naples and also had a deep personal interest in music.
“Concerto per il Principe”, in the evocative performance of the Ensemble Barocco di Napoli, offers pieces by Alessandro Scarlatti, Domenico Gallo, Francesco Mancini and Leonardo Leo, four composers who are highly representative of the era in which the prince lived and who, in some cases, had direct relations with the di Sangro family.
“It has a particular meaning – declares Fabrizio Masucci, director of the Museo Cappella Sansevero – that the opening of the celebrations be entrusted to music and we are happy to pay this first tribute to the prince together with the Alessandro Scarlatti Association. Music played a significant role in the life of Raimondo di Sangro, both because of the relationships that tied him to the main composers of the time, and because it played a part in one of his most original inventions: the large carillon clock that he designed and built on the bridge that connected the Chapel to his palace, whose bells could play any aria desired”.
“At a time when it is still very difficult for the music world to see the light at the end of the tunnel and streaming is still the only way to share the emotions of a concert with the public,” adds Tommaso Rossi, artistic director of the Alessandro Scarlatti Association, “we imagined with our friends at the Museo Cappella Sansevero an opportunity to experience, even if only on the web, the emotions of music and art, placing the figure of Raimondo di Sangro and the great music of eighteenth-century Naples at the center.”
The concerto writing is a writing with real parts, flute, two violins and basso continuo, which is realized with the support of the harpsichord, the cello and the double bass.
The Ensemble Barocco di Napoli, founded in 2010, has been dedicated for years to the Neapolitan Baroque repertoire, with the solo presence on the flute of Tommaso Rossi, artistic director of the Alessandro Scarlatti Association, and with Rossella Croce and Marco Piantoni (violins), Manuela Albano (cello), Giorgio Sanvito (double bass) and Patrizia Varone (harpsichord).
“Concerto per il Principe” will open with the Sonata IX in A minor for flute, two violins and basso continuo by Alessandro Scarlatti. A key figure in the history of Neapolitan music between the 600th and 700th centuries, Scarlatti knew and had relations with the family of the Prince of Sansevero: the National Library of France preserves a cantata of his composition for voice and basso continuo dedicated to Paolo di Sangro, sixth Prince of Sansevero and grandfather of Raimondo.
The program of the concert
We will continue with the Sonata No. 1 in G major for strings by Domenico Gallo, whose sonatas were erroneously attributed for years to Giovan Battista Pergolesi. The chosen sonata, in particular, presents, in the first movement, one of the most famous themes used by Igor Stravinsky in his Pulcinella, a work that was decisive, in the mid-twentieth century, in bringing the Neapolitan School back to the attention of the international musical world.
Next on the program is the Sonata IV in A minor for flute and basso continuo by Francesco Mancini, who was vice-master of the Royal Chapel from 1708 to 1725 and, upon Scarlatti's death, took over from him as Maestro di Cappella, a post he held until 1737, the year of his death. Mancini was particularly active in the field of noble commissions, writing dozens of cantatas and serenades for the Neapolitan aristocracy.
The celebratory event will close with the music of Leonardo Leo, a composer who was particularly close to the di Sangro family, so much so that he set to music a serenade for the wedding of Prince Raimondo with Carlotta Gaetani dell'Aquila d'Aragona, the Pasitea, whose score has unfortunately been lost. On the program for "Concerto per il principe" is his Concerto in G major for transverse flute, two violins and basso continuo.
The year of celebrations for the 250th anniversary of the death of Raimondo di Sangro, a valiant man of arms, man of letters, publisher, first Grand Master of Neapolitan Freemasonry, prolific inventor and enterprising patron, opens with the notes of the Ensemble Barocco di Napoli. The Museo Cappella Sansevero together with the Alessandro Scarlatti Association pays homage to him in the very treasure chest of art that the prince gave to humanity.
The anniversary year will continue in the coming months with a program of various initiatives dedicated to the Prince of Sansevero. After the concert, there will be a short video tribute to the figure of Raimondo di Sangro, produced for the occasion and created by NFI – Napoli Film Industry, which will be launched on the museum's social media channels on Monday, March 22, the very date of his death.
Concert for the Prince. The Baroque Ensemble of Naples at the Cappella Sansevero. Saturday 20 March 2021 at 19:30 pm | Free online event | Facebook | Museo Cappella Sansevero
YouTube | Scarlatti Association – Moral Entity
Programme
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)
Sonata IX in A minor for flute, two violins and basso continuo (from “24 Concertos for flute, violins, viola and bass by various authors”)
Allegro – Largo – Fugue – Piano – Allegro |Domenico Gallo (1730-1768)
Trio Sonata No. 1 in G major
Moderato – Andantino – Presto | Francesco Mancini (1672-1737)
Sonata IV in A minor for flute and basso continuo
Witty – Largo – Allegro – Largo – Allegro spiccato |Leonardo Leo (1694-1744)
Concerto in G major for transverse flute, two violins and basso continuo
Allegro – Siciliana – Allegro | Baroque Ensemble of Naples:
Tommaso Rossi, recorder and transverse flute
Rossella Croce and Marco Piantoni, violins
Manuela Albano, cello
Giorgio Sanvito, double bass
Patrizia Varone, harpsichord
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