VIVA ITALIA
From sacred cathedrals echoing with Palestrina’s motets to lavish theatres presenting Verdi’s operas, from being one of the birthplaces of Western music notation to providing the very vocabulary of music — allegro, crescendo, vivace — Italy’s influence over Western Classical music is truly significant!
Admire the piano? Thank Italy. Upon invention, the piano was originally called clavicembalo col piano e forte — “a harpsichord that plays soft and loud.” Like sonatas and concertos? Italians were the first ones to draw a distinction between pieces for big and small instrumental ensembles, vocal forces and solo instrumentalists which is apparent in the words still in use for these forms: Sinfonia, Sonata, Cantata and Concerto. Adore an opera aria? Italy was the birthplace of opera, of course. Monteverdi was the first composer to pioneer the development of this genre.
Celebrating 160 years of Furtados and commemorating the 500th birth anniversary of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina — the master of Renaissance polyphony — Con Brio 2025 "BEL CANTO" celebrates the legacy of Italian composers. The fifteenth edition of this Competition-Festival will take place at the Experimental Theatre from July 24 to 27, 2025.
July 24 (Thursday) will present the semifinals for all three competition categories: Piano, Voice, and Violin.
July 25 (Friday) will open with the Overture to Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, in a Piano Four-Hands arrangement. The Final Round for the Piano competition will then be presented, followed by a Scherzo for Strings by Luigi Cherubini. Hello! Oh, Margaret, it’s you!”, a comic aria by Gian Carlo Menotti will be performed, followed by a duet from Donizetti’s opera L’Elisir d’Amore. The evening will close with Vivaldi’s Concerto in E minor for Solo Violin, String Orchestra and Continuo — an early work that established his fame across Europe.
July 26 (Saturday) will open with Ottorino Respighi’s Quintet for Piano and Strings — an early work by the composer known best for his orchestral tone poems. After the Voice Competition Finals, a Gran Quintetto for Strings by Giovanni Bottesini, very aptly titled Allegro Con Brio will be presented. Alessandro Marcello’s Adagio, and Respighi’s Berceuse will follow next. The evening will close with a choral tribute to Giovanni Palestrina, presented by the Newman Choir, in honour of his 500th birth anniversary.
July 27 (Sunday) will begin with the Violin Finals. The Paranjoti Academy Chorus will perform beloved operatic excerpts: Verdi’s ‘Va pensiero’ and Anvil Chorus, Leoncavallo’s Bell Chorus, and an arrangement of Puccini’s stirring ‘Nessun dorma’. A Baritone-Tenor duet will perform a comical scene from Donizetti's Don Pasquale, followed by a Vocal Quartet presenting Bella figlia dell’amore from Verdi’s opera Rigoletto. The festival will conclude with Vivaldi’s Concerto in B minor, in a grand arrangement of four pianos and string orchestra.
Join us as we explore how a culturally rich peninsula defined the course of Western Classical music with spectacle, flair and brio.
SMIT SHAH, DIRECTOR, THE CON BRIO FESTIVAL