Cremona: STRADIVARIfestival 2025. Special audition with Luca Fanfoni as the protagonist of the inaugural moment

It opens Sunday April 6 at noon in Giovanni Arvedi Auditorium the cycle of Special Hearings entitled Capricci and surroundings, included in the billboard of STRADIVARIfestival – Season 2025.

It is four matinees Sundays, marked in the months of April e May, entrusted to famous italian violinists, where you can listen to the sound of some of the most precious instruments in the collections of the Violin Museum engaged in a themed repertoire.

The protagonist of the inaugural moment is Luca Fanfoni, a violinist from Parma of consolidated fame, who for the occasion has chosen to compare an anthology of Caprices of Niccolò Paganini (nn. 1, 9, 13, 19, 20, 24) with a milestone in the literature for solo violin, the very famous Chaconne in D minor from Partita No. 2 by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Fanfoni will play the violin of Antonio Stradivari Clisbee 1669.

The initiative is promoted by Violin Museum in collaboration with One media and the support of Arvedi Buschini Foundation e Mdv friends.

I Tickets special auditions can be purchased at the Violin Museum box office and on the platform Vivaticket (recommended mode). These are the prices:

• € 10 full ticket
• €5 children under 11 years
• €5 reduced for schools

Reservations: tel. 0372 080809 or biglietteria@museodelviolino.org

La ticketing It is open from Tuesday to Friday from 11.00 to 17.00 and Saturday and Sunday from 10.00 to 18.00.

Bach's Chaconne and Paganini's 24 Caprices

La ciaccona It is the final movement of the Partita No. 2 in D minor for solo violin by Johann Sebastian Bach and, with its exceptional length of 257 bars, exceeds the overall duration of the previous parts.

From it originates a constantly growing organism in which the dramatic tension knows intense moments of accentuation. A temporary relaxation occurs only in the central part written in the key of D major. The final part, again in minor, leads to the re-proposal of the majestic initial theme.

This grandiose work is crossed by a quantity of artifices, ever new figures and daring passages. There is also no lack of inversion of the theme by ascending motion and complex procedures of variation of the variation.

According to the musicologist's definition Alberto Basso, ciaccona it can be considered “a sort of constitutional charter of transcendental violinism”Given these premises, it is easy to understand how the Bach's masterpiece was and still is a milestone for all great violinists.

Each performer brings his own technical ability in solving the many textual problems and his own conception of sound and phrasing. The range goes from romantic accentuations to the more markedly philological ones, based on the use of ancient instruments and the recovery of period performance practices.

In short, a work that, like few others, invites the performer to challenge himself and the listener to make thoughtful, non-univocal and preconceived choices.

Extraordinary figure of an artist, Paganini filled the musical life of the first decades of the nineteenth century, conquering and exciting audiences in many European countries with his astonishing violin technique.

Her 24 Caprices for solo violin, which were initially judged unplayable and contributed to creating around the Genoese musician that aura of myth and legend that has always surrounded this singular character, so romantically rich in light and shadow, in life and after death, remain to this day a fundamental work of violin literature, a sort of summa of technique and virtuosity, a true vade mecum for all those who dedicate themselves to the study of the violin.

Much has been and continues to be discussed about Paganini's "secret" and how he was able to reach such heights in the transcendental acrobatics of his astonishing violin playing.

Luca Fanfoni's CV

Luca Fanfoni, graduated in violin with top marks at the “G. Verdi” Conservatory of Music in Milano with Gigino Maestri, it is winner and prize winner at the international competitions of Genoa (“N. Paganini”), Brescia (“R.Romanini”) and Vercelli (“GB Viotti”).

He has performed in prestigious concert halls around the world receiving unanimous acclaim from the public and critics, so much so that he can today be considered one of the most prominent Italian violinists.

For the record company Dynamic he recorded the complete concerts of PA Locatelli L'Arte del Violino and, by Antonio Lolli, the complete concerts of the 10 Violin Concertos in collaboration with Reale Concerto Ensemble as soloist and conductor.

The recordings have received unanimous acclaim from specialized critics. In 2013 he recorded for Dynamic the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin by JS Bach.

In February 2002 he made his debut in New York to the Carnegie Hall, where he was again a guest in February 2003, the opening concert of his tour in the United States.

The important magazine Amadeus In 2004 he published the CD with the six Sonatas for solo violin by E. Ysaye, in 2012 the CD of the two Sonatas for violin and piano by F. Busoni in collaboration with Luca Ballerini.

In 2005 and 2014 he participated in the live radio broadcasts of Rai Radio 3 “Concerts from the Quirinale Palace” and to the transmission “The Music Room”.

With the chamber ensemble Royal Concert In May 2012 he went on a long tour of nine concerts in Japan as a solo conductor, performing in Japan's major concert halls. The Tokyo concert was broadcast live on NHK television.

In 2014 he was engaged in the tour of “Pietro Antonio Locatelli” Festival on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of his death, with numerous concerts in Europe in collaboration with the Reale Concerto complex. Also in 2014 and 2015 the Dutch record company Brilliant Classics he has published two CDs dedicated to Luigi Dallapiccola and Antonio Bazzini, a nineteenth-century Italian virtuoso violinist.

Among the albums produced by Dynamic there is also the one published in 2015 “Paganini Rediscovered”, composed of six unpublished Paganini works discovered by Luca Fanfoni together with the musicologist Dr. Danilo Prefumo and performed with the famous Guarneri del Gesù 1743 “The Cannon” owned by Niccolò Paganini from Luca Fanfoni.

... Luca Fanfoni for his dexterity and passion for risk honors his illustrious predecessor Niccolò Paganini (Diapason, December 2015, Jean-Michel Molkhou).

In 2020 during the pandemic, in collaboration with his entire family composed entirely of musicians and with the support of other very valid friends, Luca Fanfoni discovered and recorded in world premiere the beautiful concerts of Mauro D'Alay 12 Concertos for violin and strings op. 1.

In 2022 the record company Aulicus Classics has released the record recording including the 24 plus 1 Whims for violin by Niccolò Paganini.

In 2024 Luca recorded for Dynamic and Aulicus Classics two CDs on music by Paganini containing many unpublished works by Paganini. He plays a Giovan Battista Rogeri from 1697 ex “J.Falk”.