The Italian Cultural Institute of Washington and the Italian Cultural Society of Washington DC (ICS) present a concert for piano for four hands and a conversation on Dante Alighieri to kick off the events organized for the XXIV Settimana della Lingua Italiana nel Mondo (Week of Italian Language in the World) on October 15, 2024, at 6 pm.
The concert is the result of a research study in the musicological field that led the pianists Elena Buttiero and Anita Frumento to rediscover the score “The Divine Comedy for piano four hands” by Cesare San Fiorenzo, original for piano four hands. The score, forgotten for more than 100 years, offers extraordinary and evocative melodies very close to the operatic world. Professor Virginia Jewiss will introduce Dante Alighieri, the father of the Italian language, and comment the verses that inspired this music.
After the talk and concert, a reception will be offered by ICS to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its Italian Language Program, “Ente Gestore e promotore della lingua e cultura italiana”, a program founded in 1974 thanks to the contributions from the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
LOCATION
📍Embassy of Italy
3000 Whitehaven Street, NW
Washington, DC 20008
ABOUT THE CONCERT
Cesare San Fiorenzo, born in Genoa in 1834, was one of the most important musicians of the nineteenth century. He composed several works such as Il taumaturgo (debut in Milan in 1879) and Un telegramma (Genoa 1881). He was a highly renowned teacher and talented pianist; he devoted himself extensively to composition for piano four hands. Among his works dedicated to this formation The four parts of the world, The Divine Comedy, published in 1875, and Sinfonia. He frequented Giuseppe Verdi during his stays in Genoa and died in 1909.
Excerpts from “The Divine Comedy, Dramatic musical illustrations for piano four hands”, (1875):
1. La porta dell’Inferno (The gate of hell)
2. Le bestemmie dei dannati (The curses of the damned)
3. La barca di Caronte (Charon’s boat)
4. L’Inferno (Hell)
5. La Carità (Charity)
6. La Preghiera (Prayer)
7. Il Canto degli Angeli (The song of the angels)
ABOUT THE PIANISTS
Elena Buttiero
Elena Buttiero graduated in piano at the Turin’s Conservatoire ‘G. Verdi’, she held concerts in several Italian cities, Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, France, Romania, Czech Republic, Serbia, United States, Canada, Tanzania, Argentine and Uruguay. She published two CD’s as harpist with Birkin Tree: Continental Reel and A Cheap presen’. With Carlo Aonzo, she published Il mandolino italiano nel Settecento and Fantasia poetica. During 2009, the Duo was awarded with the Ligurian Region Price, Cultural section, from Liguria Region. In 2012, she recorded the CD Arethusa Consortium for two Celtic harps repertoire and plectrums, Saluti dall’Italia in 2013 and Lontano nel mondo in 2015 devoted to Luigi Tenco’s songs. In 2021 she published the CD The Baroque Hurdy-Gurdy at the French Royal Court with
Francesco Giusta. In the didactic field she published for Carisch/Hal Leonard editor the
solfege method Il Centone, the piano method Primo Piano, the Piano Antologia and the
Antologia pianistica a 4 mani. She is the artistic director of the Mozart Savona Association and of the Allegro con Moto Association.
Anita Frumento
Anita Frumento obtained the Second Level Academic Diploma in Piano and Chamber Music with full marks and honors at the Conservatory of Genoa and the Conservatory of Piacenza.
Winner of numerous competitions, she has participated in important national and international exhibitions. She has been carrying out research in the musicological field for many years in duo with the pianist Elena Buttiero, in particular aimed at the discovery and enhancement of the repertoire for piano four hands, performing regularly in Italy and abroad. She is a pianist and managing member of the APS Nuovi Contesti Sonori of Clusone (Bg), where she actively participates in concert and teaching activities and in the creation of original shows. Always dedicated to teaching and training, she obtained the Master of Arts in Music Pedagogy at the Conservatory of Italian Switzerland in Lugano. She teaches at the MAT Artistic Center in Lugano (Switzerland) and she is a tenured piano teacher at the Liceo Musicale of Albenga (Sv).
The pianists Elena Buttiero and Anita Frumento have been carrying out research in the musicological field for many years, in particular aimed at the discovery and enhancement of the repertoire for piano four hands.
ABOUT VIRGINIA JEWISS
Virginia Jewiss
Prof. Jewiss received her PhD in Italian literature from Yale University and taught at Dartmouth College and Trinity College’s Rome campus before returning to Yale, as Senior Lecturer in the Humanities and Director of theYale Humanities program in Rome.
Sheis currently the Director of Public Engagement at the Alexander Grass Humanities Institute and a Teaching Professor in the Humanities at Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.
She has translated the work of numerous Italian authors and film directors, including Dante’s Vita nuova, Luigi Pirandello’s short stories, Roberto Saviano’s Gomorrah, Melania Mazzucco’s Vita, and screenplays for Paolo Sorrentino, Matteo Garrone, and Gabriele Salvatores.
ABOUT THE ITALIAN CULTURAL SOCIETY
The Italian Cultural Society of Washington DC (ICS) is your home in the Washington metropolitan area for cultural and social events and for courses to learn or improve your Italian. Anyone with an interest in Italian culture can become a member of the Italian Cultural Society.
We are a non-profit organization that promotes Italian language and culture through the Italian Language Program, founded in 1974, through cultural meetings ranging from the presentation of books, concerts, films, lectures and debates on literature or current events to the celebration of regional traditions. We organize special events for Christmas, Carnival, Easter, and an annual Gala at the Embassy of Italy. We also offer a Scholarship Award Program, to award students who excel in Italian, classics, art, science and piano performance. Our main mission as Ente Gestore e Promotore della lingua italiana is to include the Italian language in the curricula of American private and public schools, thanks to contributions from the Italian government, and promote our language and culture among families, through courses (our school counts over 2,000 enrollments per year) and events.