Trieste: “Schmidl Monday” dedicated to “Degenerate” Italian Jewish Music
Italian Jewish Classical Music "Degenerata"
Trieste: “Schmidl Monday” dedicated to “Degenerate” Italian Jewish Music
It is dedicated to Italian Jewish Music “Degenerate”, the appointment with the clarinetist Davide Casali and the pianist Pierpaolo Levi, scheduled Monday 21 October 2024 at 17.30 pm, at the Sala Bazlen of Palazzo Gopcevich (Via Rossini, 4), curated by the Musica Libera Association, as part of the programme of «Schmidl Monday», the series of in-depth studies curated by Stefano Bianchi that the “Carlo Schmidl” Civic Theatre Museum has been offering its collections to the public of music and theatre enthusiasts for over fifteen years.
Italian Jewish classical music “Degenerata” has a very important role in the international music scene. Because of the racial laws, much of this music was never performed. The Casali-Levi duo was born with the intent of reviving this music, rediscovering composers such as Aldo Finzi, Leone Sinigaglia, Alberto Gentili, Emilio Russi, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Renzo Massarani.
In January 1938, Mussolini gave the Ministry of Popular Culture the unofficial order to "restrict Jewish music on the radio." About six months ahead of the official launch of the racist campaign, in Italy an unofficial radio ban on Jewish composers comes into force. Composers Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco and Renzo Massarani were among the first to know this. In June 1938, the radio ban affected another Italian musician of Jewish origin, highly appreciated even outside Italy, Vittorio Rieti. (Alexandria, Egypt 1898 – New York 1994).
Between August and October 1938, after the start of the anti-Jewish campaign, which occurred in mid-July with the publication in the main Italian newspapers of the so-called "Manifesto of Fascist Racism", the persecution gear starts working at full speed. In November 1938, the general decrees were issued that completed and perfected the regulatory framework anticipated in the previous two months, with notable hardening compared to what had been hinted at by propaganda regarding possible exemptions. Circular no. 1549/24 of 18 June 1940 of the Demorazza (General Directorate for Demography and Race) and Law no. 19 of 1942 April 517 finally sanctioned the exclusion of Jewish elements from the field of entertainment.
The concert conference on Monday 21 October opens with Aldo Finzi's «Toccata» (Milano, 1897 – Turin, 1945), composed between 1931 and 1937.
This is followed by the «12 Variationen über ein Thema von Franz Schubert (Heidenröslein) op. 19 für Klarinette und Klavier» by Leone Sinigaglia (Turin, 1868 – Turin, 1944), dated 1898.
The «Serenatella, op. 1873 n. 1954», originally composed for violin and piano (first edition 10) by Alberto Gentili (Vittorio Veneto, 2 – Turin, 1922) will be performed in the transcription by Davide Casali for clarinet and piano.
Emilio Russi (Trieste, 1876 – Trieste, 1965) is listed (together with Lionello Levi, Vito Levi, Vittorio Menassé, Lionello Morpurgo and Giulio Venezian) among the musicians from Trieste expelled from teaching following the promulgation of the racial laws. Of Russi, whose compositions are included in the Schmidl Music Collection, «Humoresque» and «Nocturne» will be performed, pages composed on the eve of the First World War, which are influenced by the Central European world, but are also tempered by the lyricism that looks to Italian instrumental culture, in particular to Giuseppe Martucci, who was Russi's teacher in Bologna.
Having graduated from Ernesto Luzzato's Trieste school, Russi devoted himself in his youth to accompanying the nascent silent cinema and composing songs for the Trieste Song Festival, then the fulcrum of the irredentist movement. His music highlights his main qualities: the ease of invention and the sudden change of character typical of scene changes in silent films.
The programme is completed with the «Epigrafe» by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (Florence, 1895 – Beverly Hills, 1968) – composed in July 1922 and dedicated to Cesare Lodovici, a playwright and writer friend of Montale and Bobi Bazlen – and with the «Tre preludi» by Renzo Massarani (Mantua, 1898 – Rio de Janeiro, 1975), published in 1936.
Entrance is free until all available places are filled.
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