Trame Sonore, 150 shows. The festival in the places of the Gonzagas

Music for Mantua. The Trame Sonore festival, now in its 13th edition, pays homage to the city and its famous places with the most important chamber music festival in Europe. From today to June 2, 300 excellent artists from all over the world will come together for over 150 concerts in various formations for five days and five nights of absolute music. Guests include Alfred Brendel, Alexander Lonquich, Ian Bostridge; the heart of the event is the Mantua Chamber Orchestra . Carlo Fabiano, artistic director, tells us.

Maestro, how do you manage to convince big international artists to perform in Mantua? "It was difficult in the first few years, then we registered a growing trend. For musicians, performing in Mantua is not only a pleasure but an opportunity, it is a moment of meeting with colleagues, operators, journalists to talk about music. Hundreds of meetings that in the turbulent life of a concert artist are impossible to organize. Trame Sonore is a European unicum, requests are increasing and the audience is happy".

In your opinion, are the Gonzaga places fundamental to the success of the festival? "They are unparalleled. We bring chamber music back to its authentic and natural dimension. Mantua is the ideal city. Including Palazzo Ducale, 35 thousand square meters of beauty, 900 rooms all unique for this art including the Teatro di Bibiena, Palazzo Te and many other private places with perfect acoustics".

How important is it to make music together? "Among the great international concert artists, the need to make chamber music has grown. Playing together means freeing yourself from the burden of individual analysis and exchanging ideas on the same score with other musicians. It is nourishment for everyone."

And listening to chamber music? "In chamber music we find the embryo of any other musical genre. Chamber music is a laboratory in which great composers have experimented with their harmonic, timbric, rhythmic solutions that have then been reproduced in symphony, even in opera. Chamber music, in every era, is a model to follow".

What can Trame Sonore teach the musical seasons that take place in concert halls? "That classical music is art, a subject that will never cease to fascinate the listener. We must review the ways of offering it, there has been a change in the habits of musical enjoyment. These themes enter into Trame sonore".

Grace Lissi