TIRANA, June 29 – Italian and Albanian musicians will tour Albania for ten days in early July to perform at the “Vox Baroque” festival featuring 17th and 18th century music by some of the greatest composers of this genre.
The festival’s fourth edition brings three baroque ensembles performing in some of the country’s cultural heritage sites in a bid to promote Baroque music and enrich cultural life as a heat wave has hit the country, already in its peak tourist season.
Sonatas & Canzonas, an ensemble composed of Italian soprano Enrica Mari, Italy-based Albanian harpsichordist Jusuf Beshiri and Tirana-based guitarist Arber Cerri will be the first to perform with an opening concert at the landmark Rozafa castle in Shkodra, northern Albania.
Italian Collegium Pro Musica and Festa Rustica are the two other ensembles that will be performing in Tirana, Korà§a, Vlora and Berat in this year’s fourth edition of the festival scheduled to be held from July 2 to 11.
Harpsichordist Jusuf Beshiri, the festival’s founder and organizer, says the event will be a “musical and tourist itinerary for all those who want to enjoy the sounds of this music along with the beauty of the sites where it will be performed, promoting the country’s cultural heritage values.”
“The old music “Vox Baroque” festival is the only event of its kind in Albania. This festival is entirely dedicated to the baroque repertoire. The spread of this music performed with original instruments, in full respect of the style, rules and performance of its time, the consideration of music from another historical and critical viewpoint by always seeking new approaches, shape our ideal of holding this festival each year,” says Beshiri, a musician who shares his time between Italy and his native Albania.
“Aware of curating the details of the carefully selected repertoire, we would like to research deeper into music toward continuous perfection, in search of the emotions and essence of the beauty. The baroque repertoire still offers much space for discovery and deepening, which will be manifested by performers also through examples of baroque language and gestures,” he adds.
According to him, performance through a “togetherness” of expressive gestures which were used by singers to stress the emotions of the cantata lyrics will bring us closer to the opera stage atmosphere.
In the 1700s, music penetrated people from every background like never before, this way marking aesthetic, artistic and social emancipation of instrumental music. In this process Italian composers such as Vivaldi, Scarlatti, Sammartini were affirmed with their compositions being independent from the aesthetic viewpoint, coherence in the musical form and in the meantime clearly expressed.
These elements play a key role along with other composers such as Bach, Handel and Telemann, conveying excellent heritage and tradition on international stages, says the festival’s organizer.
“That’s why in this festival’s edition, a special space has been dedicated to Italian composers, especially Naples ones. Naples is a city boating the rise of many 17th and 18th century composers and singers and that was thanks to the conservatives this city had,” says Beshiri.
“In the meantime, Naples was famous for its folk songs which had a strong presence and this is noticed in the figurative art of that time. It is clearly evident that music was performed on the street and the “a pizzico” instruments were widely used.
Tarantella was one of the most popular musical forms mixing canto and dance. This wonderful music will be brought in this festival by renowned groups such as Collegium Pro Musica, Festa Rustica and the Sonatas & Canzonas trio.
Festival programme
Sonatas & Canzonas, July 2, at 8 p.m., Rozafa castle, Shkodra
Sonatas & Canzonas, July 3, at 9 p.m. Fujimoto Cloud installation, Tirana
Collegium Pro Musica, July 4, at 8 p.m., Puppet Theatre, Tirana
Collegium Pro Musica, July 6, at 7 p.m., Dyqani i Rakos (Rako Shop), Korà§a
Festa Rustica, July 8, at 8 p.m., Petrolifera Italo-Albanese, Vlora
Festa Rustica, July 9, at 7:30 p.m., Onufri Museum, Berat
Festa Rustica, July 11, at 8 p.m., National Gallery of Arts, Tirana
