Elba European Music Island - Programme of 2023 Edition

The 27th edition of "Elba Music Island of Europe" will be held from August 27th to September 10th not only in Portoferraio but also in the other Municipalities of the Island of Elba like Capoliveri, Rio, Marciana and Marciana Marina, and exceptionally also on the Island of Capraia.

From Wednesday 21st June presale tickets are on sale online, just click on vivaticket.com.

As always, it will be a true, international festival, a combination of music and nature, art and history, and with interludes of dialogues between repertoires, different styles and sounds, going from chamber to symphonic music and from jazz to Brazilian music. As well as what is new to this year's edition, you will have the joy of hearing famous soloists again like Gidon Kremer and Mario Brunello, and, as confirmation of the success of the Elba Festival Orchestra that played with great success in 2022, we will come to know a new phase of this year's Festival.

For the 2023 edition this year too you will experience an encounter between music and cinema as well as many new aspects, first and foremost the fact that the festival will also take place on the Island of Capraia.

Portoferraio: from Rachmaninov to Chaplin and across South America to Mozart

Up till now, the town of Portoferraio has always been the major seat of the "Elba Music Festival of Europe", and this year there will be an extra seat because the Church of the Santissimo Sacramento will also hold the Orchestra concerts.

There will be six appointments in the De Laugier Cultural Centre, and the first will be the opening event on Sunday August 27th with an exclusive special guest, the national violinist Gidon Kremer: this famous Latvian musician will start the festival with his Violin Concert, piano and bows Hob XVIII:6 by Joseph Haydn together with his fellow pianistGeorgijs Osokins along with the Soloists of the Festival, including for the occasion the violinists Aki Saulière and Chiara Sannicandro, the violist Georgy Kovalev, the cellist Raphael Bell and the double bass player Amerigo Bernardi. For the second part of the evening you will hear, as a way of celebrating the 150 years since the birth of Sergej Rachmaninov, the Elegiaco Trio no. 2 op.9 for violins, cellos and piano carried out by Kremer and Osokins as well as the cellist Giedrè Dirvanauskaitè. /s>

The following evening the spotlights will be on Monica Salmaso, at present considered one of the best female Brazilian singers, part of a trio with Nelson Ayres the pianist along with the saxophonist and flute player Teco Cardoso, while on Thursday 31st it will be the Klimt Quartet's turn that, as well as playing on the piano, violin, viola and cello the op. 13 by Strauss, will also compose the Sestetto on the piano, violin, 2 violas, cello and the double bass op. 110 by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy completing it all with Amerigo Bernardi and the violist Margherita Di Giovanni.

Rachmaninovov (Sonata for cello and piano op. 19), along with Brahms (violin, viola, cello and piano Quartet op.60) will also be in the limelight at the concert on Sunday September 3rd, and the stars will be Liana Gourdjia on her violin, David Quiggle on the viola, the cellists Erica Piccotti and Raphael Bell, and Enrico Pace on the piano. Again at the De Laugier, Friday September 8th will welcome the Soloists of the Festival - with this time the violinists Jonian Llias Kadesha and Pablo Hernàn Benedì, the violist Georgy Kovalev, the cellists Vashti Hunter and Indira Rahmatulla, and the pianist Noam Greenberg - will compose music by George Enescu (piano and bow instruments op. 29 for the Quintet) and by Schumann (violin, cello and piano Trio n. 1 op. 63).

Just like last year, the union between music and cinema will bring this 27th edition of "Elba Music island of Europe" to an end: on Sunday 10th Septemberthe German composer and director Gunter Buchwald with his improCinema ensemble will give new life to three short films by Charlie Chaplin, The Vagabond (ll Vagabondo), One a.m. (Charlot comes home late) and The Pawnshop (Charlot the moneylender), all from 1916.

All the concerts at the De Laugier will start at 18.30 with the exception of the one by Monica Salmaso and that held on the evening of September 10th, both will start at 21.15.

Three will be held in the Church of the Santissimo Sacramento (time 18.30), and all three will have the Elba Festival Orchestra as the protagonist; this year, however the musicians will be from 10 different countries and the concert hostess will be Liana Gourdjia.

Monday 4th September will start with the Organ and orchestra Concert Hob.XVlll:1 by Haydn: the main guest will be the Artistic Director of the "Capraia Music Fesival" Maria Grazia Amoruso who will play a strange, completely mechanial wooden organ, built following the same method used by the original maestros of the past. There will then follow the Concert for flutes and for orchestra bows in e minor by Mercadante, with the British soloist and flautist Adam Walker, and then Mozart's famous Symphony no. 29 K.

The following day will be the turn of the cellist Mario Brunello who has been a regular at the Festival since the very first edition, and, accompanied by the Orchestra, will perform his Cello and bow Concertino op. 43° by Mieczyslaw Weinberg, followed by the Orchestra bow serenata op. 22 by Dvorak.

The third and final concert with the Elba Festival Ochestra, Thursday September 7th will stand out thanks to the absolutely unique performance of the guitar and orchestra concert written precisely for the guitar player from Brazil Plinio Fernandes composed by the Columbian Arturo Cuéllar, a long time acquaintance of the "Elba Music Island of Europe". In the lineup we will also have the Nonetto ll by Olii Mustonen from Finland (with Orfeo Mandozzi as the first cello) and also the no. 5 D. 485 Symphony by Schubert.

Another two particularly iconic locations in Portoferraio that will welcome equally important performances are: the delle Grotte Roman Villa, with its breathtaking view of the gulf of the town of Portoferraio, where on Wednesday August 30th (at 18.30), in collaboration with the Association of the Friends of the Festival, the Signum Saxophone Quartet will perform (along with Jacopo Taddei from Elba on the sax) and play pieces by Haydn, Ginastera, Gershwin, Bernstein that have been specifically arranged for the sax quartet; and also the Napoleonic Museum in San Martino where, in the morning of Saturday September 9th (at 11.30) Naomi Berrill from Ireland will perform her Songs for cello and sing them too.

Music journey to the Island of Capraia

This is no doubt one of the most emblematic moments of the 27th edition of "Elba Music Island of Europe": themove to the Island of Capraia on Tuesday August 29th surely means an event that, inaugurating the collaboration with the "Capraia Music Festival" underlines even more the link between sea and nature.

Sailing from Portoferraio at approximately 2.00 p.m. for a two hour crossing: in the Church of Sant'Antonio (at 18.30) the two violonists Aki Saulière and Chiara Sannicandro will perform their sonata for two violins op. 56 of Prokofiev and then, once Georgy Kovalev has joined them to play his viola, they will also be joined by Raphael Bell on the cello and Amerigo Bernardi on the double bass, then the Quintet for 2 violins, viola, cello and double bass op. 77 by Dvorak.

Departure from the Island of Capraia is at approximately 21.30 so return to Portoferraio is expected in the late evening.

Tango in Capoliveri, bows also in Rio, woodwind instruments will be played in Marciana and jazz music in Marciana Marina.

This year too "Elba Music Island of Europe" will not fail to fullfil its task and there will be other concerts in another four municipalities.

Friday September 1st, at the Flamingo Theatre House in Capoliveri (at 18,30), two cello- guitar players consisting of two very talented young musicians, namely Erica Piccotti and Gian Marco Ciampa will play Latin music by Piazzolla, Albéniz, De Falla and Granados, while on Saturday 2nd, in the SS. Giacomo and Quirico Church in Rio (at 18.30) the two violonists Chiara Sannicandro and Diet Tilanus, the violists Georgy Kovalev and David Quiggle as well as the cellist Raphael Bell will take part in playing several pieces of Martinu (Duo no.1 for violins and the Tre Madrigali H. 313 ) by Frank Bridge (Lament for two violas) and of Mozart (K.421 Quartet.)

Wednesday September 6th (time 18.30) in the Pisan Fortress of Marciana, you will have the pleasure of hearing Mozart (Pleasure for sextet on K. 253 and K. 270 woodwind instruments of Haydn (Quintet for woodwind instruments in Hob ll F12 Parthia in D) by means of The Woodwind Instruments of the Festival played by Rossana Calvi and Davide D'Agostino on the oboe, Jukka Hariju and Marian Strandenius on the horn, Andrea Zucco and David Garnès Po-ved on the bassoon.

Finally, the "Elba Music Island of Europe" programme will come to an end as always in a rich and multifaceted way giving way to jazz played by the run in quartet of Fabrizio Bosso the trumpet player, occupied until Saturday September 9th in Marciana Marina (Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, starting at 21.15, entrance free) who will pay tribute to the world famous Stevie Wonder.