VIOLIN & HARP

I’ve always believed in the potential of this timbre matrimony – not so well known but immensely full of expression – and I had been yearning for a long time to create a violin and harp duo; this wish came true with N. Sanzin, a friend as well as a colleague, since we had both taught at Benevento Conservatory for several years.

Our debut was a special and unique event, a concert in Lourdes in 2008 on the occasion of the 150thanniversary of the Marian apparition, followed by an intense activity in Italy and abroad, and the publication of a CD, “Viaggio Italiano” (“Italian Journey”, recorded for Radio Vaticana), as well as several participations in important programmes.

Our task is the search for original material, and our “dialogue” with composers – many of which have already dedicated a great number of pieces to our duo - is lively.

 

Programmes:

“Viaggio italiano per violino e arpa” (“An Italian Journey for Violin and Harp”)
“Viaggio tra Italia e Francia” (“A Journey between Italy and France”)
“Fantastiche Follie” (“Fantastic Follies”)

 

“Harp and violin: a pair combining two instruments with an almost opposite symbolic glow. In iconography, the harp is associated to the heavenly hosts, to King David, to love imagery, to Music’s own essence inasmuch as the instrument often lain in Saint Cecilia’s hands.

Conversely, the violin is represented in a demoniac way, bound to the obscure side of the soul: it’s the wandering Jew’s instrument, associated with Lucifer, as attested by Tartini’s “Devil's Trill Sonata”, Paganinis’s Faustian halo or Stravinskij’s “L’Histoire du Soldat”.

This symbolic antinomy meets large reconciliation through an underlying thread: the presentation of original pieces for this ensemble not only by Italian but also foreign composers, composers of the past and of our time who have already dedicated their works to the Bernardi/Sanzin duo.”

Umberto Berti 

 

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Violin and harp project