The Trieste Prima 2014 festival at the heart of its season

The opening concert, held at the Sala Victor De Sabata's in the Teatro Giuseppe Verdi in Trieste on 31st October kicked off the Trieste Prima 2014 season in the presence of a large audience. Organized by Chromas in collaboration with Chamber Music, it presented the Josef Suk Piano Quartet, an emerging ensemble in the panorama of chamber music, in a programme that has been able to marry the repertoire of the great tradition to that of contemporary music. At the start of the concert the announcement of the winners of the International Composition Competition in memory of Giampaolo Coral was also held. This is the Premio Trio di Trieste - Coral Award, now in its second edition. In front of the jury, chaired by the Maestro Claudio Ambrosini, the Artistic Director of Chamber Music, Fedra Florit, together with the President of Chromas, Rojac Corrado, introduced the large audience to the importance of the event. The composers that won the first and second prize were, respectively, Walter Mobilio and Franco Venturini. The quartet then performed the winning scores of the last edition of the competition, Rosa amara by Rocco De Cia and Refrain in extenso by Maurilio Cacciatore. At the end of the contemporary section, the Josef Suk Piano Quartet concluded the evening with a masterful interpretation of the Quartet op. 60 by Johannes Brahms

The Josef Suk Piano Quartet while interpreting Rosa amara by Rocco De Cia (Photo: Franco Visintin)

CLASSICAMENTE SONORI (ZVOČNO KLASIČNI) - Video RTV SLO 26/02/2015

The second concert was held on 8th November at the Auditorium of the Revoltella Museum with the ImprovvisoFantasia ensemble from Rome. The Roman group was presented to the large audience of Trieste in a programme that lent space to their impromptu musical creativity. Alongside the young talent of the clarinettist Michele Mazzini and the talent of percussionist Sergio Armaroli, the evening witnessed the playing of the true legends of Italian contemporary music, the tireless experimenters in computer music in the form of Walter Prati and Giuseppe Giuliano and the “father of the contemporary trombone” Giancarlo Schiaffini, the latter being characters who have worked with the biggest names in the late twentieth century, such as Luigi Nono, Giacinto Scelsi and Karlheinz Stockhausen. The concert held moments of great emotional intensity, especially in Aus den sieben Tagen, the work that concluded the performance of the group.

Giancarlo Schiaffini during rehearsals

The third concert saw the players, violinist Crtomir Šiškovič and pianist Luca Ferrini, in a programme devoted mainly to contemporary Slovenian music and local composers, including the founder of the Trieste Prima festival, Giampaolo Coral, to whom the Chromas association has devoted a detailed portrait over the years. Among the songs there were three warmly-welcomed premieres.

Crtomir Šiškovič and Luca Ferrini in an archive image

The fourth concert of Trieste Prima 2014, held on November 20th at the Auditorium of the Revoltella Museum, presented a glimpse of the contemporary music scene in Switzerland with the Duo Orion from Berne, who shone for the strong sense of their own theatrical performances, aided by the repertoire chosen ad hoc and often dedicated to the Duo Orion themselves, which sees the violinist Anne-Noëlle Darbellay a multifaceted figure - instrumentalist, singer, narrator and actress together with the horn player Olivier Darbellay, whose uncommon instrumental virtuosity was much appreciated. Some big names featured among the music in the programme including Messiaen, Holliger and Aperghis.

The Duo Orion behind the scenes of the Auditorium of the Museum Revoltella before the concert

After these “dual conjugations”, the grammar of the Trieste Prima music festival once again savoured some plurality. November 28th saw the Icarus Ensemble quintet in the fifth concert of the season. Held at the Teatro Miela, the event was characterized by the variety of the music on offer from the solo pianist Franco Venturini in Forte by Corrado Rojac through the duo of the schonbergian Fantasia Op. 47, the Trio No. 4 by Gabrio Taglietti and the quartet Pour Ph. B. by Alessandro Solbiati through to the Demoni quintet and nocturnal ghosts of Kubin by Giampaolo Coral. The group, from Reggio Emilia, shone for their consistent search for expression and tone which elevates the ensemble to the summit of international contemporary interpretation.

An enthusiastic audience, The Icarus Ensemble in an archive picture

The festival ended on December 5th 2014 at the Auditorium of the Revoltella Museum with the concert of Piano Duo Spinosa-Calcagnile. Given the non-appearance of Alessandro Calcagnile, the pianist Rossella Spinosa performed in a solo recital, showing great professionalism. The public rewarded her with very warm applause.

Rossella Spinosa during rehearsals at the Auditorium of the Revoltella Museum