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Festival Internazionale della Chitarra

20. - 30.August 2001

From 20.-30.08.01 we were invited for a recital and as jury members to this year's international guitarfestival in Lagonegro, which is a small town in the region of Basilicata in South Italy. After a journey of two days by car we reached the hotel and took the possibility of exploring the charming little town on and between small mountains on our first evening. The festival started the next day, a Monday, with the competition for guitar solo, which consisted of three rounds in three days. As a very positive matter of fact, all pieces required and proposed for the competition were from composers of the 20th century. The final round was a public recital on Wednesday evening, in the end of which the jury announced the young Spanish guitarist Roberto Moron as first prize winner. No second and third prize were given. In next year's festival Moron will be one of the performing artists.

Also on Monday the course with Maestro Angelo Gilardino and the Italian guitarist Luigi Biscaldi started. The lessons were given in the mornings in a very convenient and relaxed atmosphere either in the hotel or in the "Teatro Iris", where many of the recitals were presented.

The first of seven recitals was done by the Swedish Duo Anders Ekborg (voice) and Bengt Magnusson (guitar). They performed traditional and popular songs from Scandinavia. Especially the impressive and lively performance of the singer Anders Ekborg made this evening a very special experience.
On Thursday evening we listened to Laura Croce reciting texts by William Shakespeare in an Italian adaption. She was accompanied by the Italian guitarist Luigi Attademo who in the first half played transcription of lute compositions by John Dowland and in the second part one movement from Hans Werner Henze's second "Royal Winter Music" and "Nocturnal" by Benjamin Britten. This concert was repeated the next day in Polla, a town several kilometers apart.
Place of the next recital was the very beautiful chapel "Santa Maria degli Angeli". Andrea Lanza, first prize winner of last year's competition, played a transcription of a piece by Johann Jacob Froberger, "Elegie" by Johann Kaspar Mertz and three Spanish pieces by Joaquin Turina, Manuel de Falla and Roberto Gerhard. The second part of his program was completely dedicated to 20th century compositions. With "Introduction and passacaglia for the golden flower" by Dusan Bogdanovic and - as climax of that evening - four of the "Studi di virtuosità e di transcendenza" by Angelo Gilardino, Andrea Lanza proved himself worth his first prize.
Our recital with works by Raffaele Calace, Thomas Schmidt-Kowalski, Claude Engel, Jaime M. Zenamon, and as special feature the première of "Pas de deux" by the Japanese composer Asako Miyaki was held in the Teatro on the second Monday of the festival. The next day Gianluca Barbero, second prize winner of last year's competition, performed in the church of "San Michele Arcangelo" in Trecchina. He presented seldom played compositions by Henri Sauguet, Carlo Mosso, Ferenc Farkas and Carlos Surinach as well as habitual works from the repertoire by Johann Kaspar Mertz, Miguel Llobet and, of course, Angelo Gilardino. Unfortunately, his performance was continuously disturbed by entering and leaving visitors of the church. As we had to leave before the festival was actually over because of an engagement in Germany, we missed the last concert on Thursday; very unluckily indeed, as the combination of bassoon and guitar is a really rare thing. The performing artists were Steno Boesso (bassoon) and Gianluca Sabbadin (guitar).

The 2001 "Festival Internazionale della Chitarra" in Lagonegro was a really marvellous event with a lot of interesting and multifarious music in a wonderful familiar setting. Many thanks to all the musicians and organizers, especially to the artistic director Pino Racioppi!