At the shadow of the young girls in flower ___________ Sergio Bestente
Auditorium programm




Marcel Proust
Published in 1918 with the title A l'ombre des filles en fleurs, the 2nd part of Marcel Proust's masterpiece A la recherche du temps perdu, revealed to the attentive melomaniac, since the so musical title, a particular and privileged relation with the art of sounds.
The recall to the "filles en fleurs" that in the 2nd act of the Wagner Parsifal tries to divert the hero from his aim, had the double objective to underline the transience of the second phase of a knowledge evolution and to recall in a subtle and mimetic way the cultural background of the story, the cultured and refined Paris of last '800, imbued with Wagnerism and in the same time searching for an authentically cultural French identity.
Perhaps, that's the richest work of musical revocations (revocations disseminated however, in the entire Proust's work) and in particular, it's the one to contain the mention of a very fine episode: it's about of the moment in which the Writer during an evening society, listens to a sonata for violin and piano of the composer Vinteuil and he is stricken by a "little phrase" of the work which will have a great importance in the delicate and rich spiritual universe of the "recherche".
The consciousness and the punctuality that Proust uses to tell the Writer sensations immediately drove the "recherche" lovers to search for the real name of the composer Vinteuil; in reality, like all the characters of this work (but perhaps of every work), under the letters of a name the fusion of different personalities is concealed: among them there is obviously CAMILLO SAINT-SAENS (Paris 1835 Algeri 1921), one of the most interesting and prolific character of French music in the 2nd part of the century.
If his name is certainly bonded to the fervour of "cultural nationalism" that after the defeat during French-Prussian War (1870) took to the foundation of the "Société Nationale de Musique", his work instead, was widely influenced by other cultures and folklore; the Orientalism and the relish for exotic which were walking through the artistic French culture left more than a sign in his work and the proof can be found in the elegant motions of the Havanaise per violin e orchestra op.83, composed in 1887 and that this evening we will listen to in the version for violin and piano.
The rhythm of dancing which title refers is the one with a Cuban origin, that already inspired different French composers like Bizet, who made of the Habanera one of the more successful pieces of his work "Carmen", different years ago. The Romence op.28 of Gabriel Fauré (Pamiers 1845 - Parigi 1924) written in 1882 and corrected in 1901 is for violin and orchestra and it's still played on the elegance of which the main violinists of last '800 seemed to know the natural and delicate secret.
The remaining three works which we will listen to this evening have an obviously chamber tenor. Composed by Claude Debussy (St. Germainen-Laye 1862 - Parigi 1918) in the months of February-March in 1917, when he was already sick and tired, the Sonate per violino e pianoforte in sol minore has the number three, even if it's the only one that the composer wrote for two instruments;
It's about the 3rd work of a group of six Sonate composed for different instruments that Debussy projected to write, in the spirit of pre-classic sonata, pushed by the editor Durand; but the death would prevent him to continue his project beyond this 3rd and extraordinary phase.
Descendant from a well-educated family of noble Poland, Karol Szymanowski (Tymoszowka, Ucraina, 1882 - Losanna 1937) experimented in his "Greek" triptych composed for violin and piano and entitled Mythes, a daring and up-to-date violinist technique; written in 1915 between March and June in the surroundings of Kiev, the three pieces of the work find in the mythological revocations of titles more signs of poetic atmosphere than some real and peculiar programmatic intentions.
The harmonic refinement and the continuous recall to the acute of the violinist writing that is rich of elegant motions and unusual effects, put the composition among the few Szymanowski works that maintained a good presence in the concert repertory of nowadays.
One of the most invaluable works of French repertory of our century dedicated to violin and piano ends the program: the Sonate in sol maggiore of Maurice Ravel (Ciboure 1875 - Parigi 1937).
The last composer's chamber work, the Sonate had a long period of preparation from 1922 to 1927.
Made of three movements of decreasing length, this work clearly shows in "Blues"(the 2nd one) an influence by the contemporary jazz which often succeeds in approaching the sound of violin and piano to the commonest instruments of American music, like banjo and saxophone. From the folkloric and virtuous exotism to the refinement of timbre and compositions, from the elegant mythologism to the first appearance of music that would have soon monopolised the relish of all the world : the 50 years - where Proust Masterpiece realized - left to the present musical world a patrimony whose richness needs still to be evaluated in its real importance.