Bach en Italie - Un voyage imaginaire

Description

Let's pretend for a moment that, during his youthful travels in Hamburg, Bach, who was not yet twenty, met an Italian prince who, captivated by the young man, took him with him to Italy for a firsthand experience of music and life within the Italian courts. Bach would have become a true Italian musician, his music would have been genuine "Italian" music, and it is likely that his entire artistic world would have been very different from the world we know today. But all of this never happened: the young man who experienced these events during the same years that Bach was in Hamburg was named Georg Friedrich Händel, and the prince was Gian Gastone de' Medici. Bach's relationship with Italy, on the other hand, was essentially an ideal one. Italy and Italian music were a constant absence for him, perhaps an object of desire. The circumstances of life, and perhaps also his character, made Bach a diligent and honest craftsman, appreciated and revered in a small corner of Germany, rather than the famous successful cosmopolitan musician that Händel became. Bach's journey to Italy remained an intellectual journey, but no less real and rich for that. Salvatore Carchiolo was born in Catania on June 30, 1962, and lives in Rome. He studied harpsichord and historical keyboards at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam, with Bob van Asperen. Under his guidance, he obtained the concert diploma. His career as a concert artist has led him to perform in the most prestigious venues in Italy and abroad. He has played with chamber music ensembles and Italian orchestras specializing in the baroque repertoire. He has recorded for RAI and ORF (Austrian radio and television). He holds the chair of harpsichord at the "Licinio Refice" Conservatory in Frosinone. Salvatore Carchiolo combines musicology with his concert activities and has published, among other works, a fundamental study on the performance practice of the Italian figured bass: Una perfezione d'armonia meravigliosa. Prassi cembalo-organistica del basso continuo italiano dalle origini all'inizio del Settecento (A Wonderful Perfection of Harmony. Practice of the Italian figured bass for harpsichord and organ from the origins to the early 18th century).