Join us for an evening of music inspired by by Italo Calvino’s novel ‘Invisible cities’.

Delicious plant-based food and drinks available throughout the evening

Produced by Baroquestock and St. Margaret’s House & supported by The Italian Cultural Institute of London

ITALIAN SOUNDS IN LONDON 2023

‍LE CITTA’ INVISIBILI - ‘Invisible cities’

CITIES & MEMORY I:3

Thursday 2nd November 7.30pm

The Gallery Caffe - E2 9PL

‘The fifth Season’

new arrangements inspired by Vivaldi,

Caldara, Strauss, Maneiro, Haydn

Istante Collective

As this wave from memories flows in, the city soaks it up like a sponge and expands. A description of Zaira as it is today should contain all Zaira’s past. The city, however, does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand, written in the corners of the streets, the gratings of the windows, the banisters of the steps, the antennae of the lighting roads, the poles of the flags, every segment marked in turn with scratches, indentations, scrolls.

(Italo Calvino - ‘Invisible Cities’ - Cap.I - ‘cities&memory’ 3, translation by William Weaver)

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‘THE FIFTH SEASON’

The Seasons are four, we all know it.

But, have you ever heard about Vivaldi’s ‘fifth season’?

Can we take back the freedom of listening differently

to a very very famous piece of music?

Here we are: the solo violin instead of a string orchestra will have a bizarre trio

formed of accordion, baroque guitar and a violone.

And what about Bela Bartok? Did he know about Inti-Illimani and peruvian quenas?

We are quite sure that Johan Strauss played in many cafes in Vienna but we aren't sure that Jean Baptiste Lully realized how far he went in changing his name a’ la francaise. He actually invented the French baroque style.

Last but not least, in 1578 Giorgio Mainerio certainly didn’t even imagine that 399 years later or in 1977, his Schiarazula Marazula would have been part of a pop LP.

Tonight's program is, perhaps, the closest to the visionary fantasy of Invisible Cities, with an unusual combination of ancient and modern, traditional and classical instruments.

‘THE FIFTH SEASON’

program will include:

A.Vivaldi - ‘l’autunno’ Concerto op.8 n.3 RV 293 per violino e….Istante Collective

A.Caldara - sonata op.2 n.12 ‘chaconne’

G.Mainerio - selection of dances from ‘Il primo libro dei balli - Venezia 1578’

J.Strauss - Waltzes and Polkas

J.Haydn - rondo’ all’ungherese

J.B.Lully - Entree des espagnoles

B.Bartok - Romanian Folk dances SZ56

and a selection of folk tunes from South America, Ireland, Sweden

and new compositions by Rachel Bell and Ally Synclair

ISTANTE COLLECTIVE

Jo Lawrence - violins

Nicola Barbagli - accordion, oboes, flutes

Johan Lofving - theorbo, guitar

John-Henry Baker - violone, double bass, percussions