Accademia Musicale Chigiana

The Palazzo Chigi-Saracini

Arcades

patio

The Accademia Musicale Chigiana (in short: the Chigiana ) is an international musical institution that was founded in 1932 in Siena (Northern Italy) by Count Guido Chigi Lucarini Saracini. The aim of the academy is to provide advanced training courses for musicians and singers of classical music . Around 1970 she also took over the organization of the annual Siena Music Week . The current artistic director is Nicola Sani.

As a patron of the Academy, Count Chigi made his own possessions available, including the Palazzo Chigi-Saracini in Via di Città, where the Academy is located. The Chigiana also has a large library with literary and musical works, an extensive art collection and a musical instrument museum in the building. It is financed from the Count's inheritance and, since 1961, from the foundation of the Bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena .

history

Before it was officially founded, various festivals took place in Siena that later became part of the academy, such as B. the concerts of the winter season, inaugurated in 1923, or the Festival della Società Internazionale di Musica Contemporanea ("Festival of the International Society of Contemporary Music"), the first events of which in 1928 premiered Sergei Prokofiev , William Walton , Alfredo Casella and Maurice Ravel , Anton Webern , Paul Hindemith and Manuel de Falla .

The academy was founded as a school consortium, with the owners of the individual music schools being lecturers of international repute. When it was founded, courses for organ , singing , harp , violin , cello , composing and accompaniment were planned, followed by courses for piano , poetry , conducting , guitar , harpsichord and film music .

A few years after it was founded, the academy succeeded in teaching students from over 50 countries, also because at that time the number of music schools for further education was very limited.

In 1939 the Settimana Musicale Senese was created , which was conducted by Alfredo Casella . He dealt with the rediscovery of "old-fashioned" or little-known composers, such as B. Antonio Vivaldi or later Giovanni Battista Pergolesi , Baldassare Galuppi , Antonio Caldara , Antonio Salieri and the Quintetto Chigiano . In a certain sense, a re-evaluation of the works of Gioachino Rossini , Gaetano Donizetti and Luigi Cherubini was also worked out .

Well-known lecturers

• Andrés Segovia , guitar
• Emilio Pujol , guitar and vihuela
• Kenneth Gilbert , harpsichord
• Vito Frazzi , composition
• Severino Gazzelloni , flute
• Daniele Damiano , bassoon

Competitions

Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana

From 1982 to 2010 the academy awarded an international music prize, the Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana . The prize was given primarily to young but already successful violinists and pianists. The jury consisted of prominent music journalists and the director of the academy. The winners were:

• the violinists Gidon Kremer (1982), Shlomo Mintz (1984), Anne-Sophie Mutter (1986), Viktoria Mullova (1988), Frank Peter Zimmermann (1990), Gil Shaham (1992), Maxim Vengerov (1995), Julian Rachlin ( 2000), Hilary Hahn (2002), Sarah Chang (2005), Lisa Batiashvili (2008)
• the pianists Peter Serkin (1983), Krystian Zimerman (1985), Andras Schiff (1987), Andrej Gavrilov (1989), Jewgeni Kissin (1991), Andrea Lucchesini (1994), Lilya Zilberstein (1998), Leif Ove Andsnes (2001) , Arcadi Volodos (2003), Paul Lewis (2006), Rafał Blechacz (2010)
• the conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen (1993)
• the Hagen Quartet (1996) and the Artemis Quartet (2004)
• the violist Tabea Zimmermann (1997)
• the cellist Matt Haimovitz (1999)

International composition competition

In 1983 the Academy set up an international composition competition named after Alfredo Casella , the Concorso Alfredo Casella . Applicants should be under 35 years of age and submit a chamber music work that has not yet been performed and a length of 18 to 25 minutes. The competition was held every two years, most recently in 2009. There were a total of twelve prize winners (no prize was awarded in 1983 or 2007).

Art collection

The Academy also has an art gallery, the Chigi Saracini Collection , which houses works by Beccafumi , Botticelli , Alessandro Casolani , Amos Cassioli , Girolamo del Pacchia , Giovanni Dupré , Girolamo di Benvenuto , Neroccio di Bartholomeo di Benedetto de 'Landi , and Cesare Maccari , Rutilio Manetti , Bernardino Mei , Bartolomeo Neroni (Il Riccio), Master of Osservanza , Master of Tressa , Astolfo Petrazzi , Marco Pino , Salvator Rosa , Francesco Rustici , Arcangelo Salimbeni , Ventura Salimbeni , Sano di Pietro , Il Sassetta , Sodoma , Pietro Sorri , Francesco Vanni and Raffaello Vanni are located.

Works in the art collection (selection):

• Sala Guido Chigi Saracini
  • Giuseppe Angeli ( Ritratto di Donna dormiente , Ritratto di soldato con tamburino )
  • Bartolomeo di David ( Fede, Speranza, Carità, Due Angeli incensanti )
  • Rutilio Manetti ( Concerto con Violoncello , Giocatori e suonatori al lume di candela , Giocatori di dama , Transito di San Giuseppe , Ritratto di Pier Maria Saracini , Cleopatra and Susanna )
  • Salvator Rosa ( Autorittrato con veste armigero )
  • Sodoma ( La Sagezza )
• Salotto Giallo
  • Beccafumi ( Madonna col Bambino )
  • Andrea Piccinelli (also called Brescianino ) ( Madonna e Bambino )
• Salotto Rosso
  • Alessandro Casolani ( Ritratto di giovane )
  • Beccafumi ( La Madonna con il Bambino e Sant'Anna )
  • Girolamo di Benvenuto ( Natività con San Giovannino )
  • Neroccio di Bartholomeo di Benedetto de'Landi ( Madonna col il Bambino e le Sante Caterina da Siena e Maddalena )
  • Bartolomeo Neroni (Il Riccio) ( Pietà )
• Sala del Sassetta
  • Maestro di Tressa ( Madonna con il Bambino )
  • Master of the Osservanza ( Trittichetto )
  • Il Sassetta ( San Martino e il povero , L'Addolorata , San Giovanni piangente , Adorazione dei Magi )
• Salotto Liszt (named after Franz Liszt because of the musician's piano located here )
  • Sano di Pietro ( Madonna, il Bambino angeli ei Santi Girolamo e Bernardino )
• Anticamera della Regina
  • Marco Pino ( Sacra Familia )
• Sala Casella
  • Amos Cassioli ( Visita di Galeazzo Sforza a Lorenzo de 'Medici )
  • Cesare Maccari ( Fabiola )
  • Rutilio Manetti ( Suicidio di Lucrezia )
  • Bernardino Mei ( Batsabea , Giudizio di Salomone )
  • Astolfo Petrazzi ( Martirio di San Sebastiano )
  • Francesco Rustici ( Assunzione della Vergine con i Santi Giorgio e Giacinto )
  • Pietro Sorri ( Santa Caterina e Gesù )
  • Raffaello Vanni ( Trionfo di Davide )
• Sala Pergolesi
  • Bernardino Mei ( Allegoria della Fede , Allegoria della Speranza )
  • Cristoforo Roncalli (Il Pomarancio) ( Crocifissione )
  • Sodoma ( Cristo risorto )
  • Francesco Vanni ( Allegoria della Carità )
  • Raffaello Vanni ( Carità )
• Sala Monteverdi
  • Alessandro Casolani ( Matrimonio mistico di Santa Caterina da Siena )
  • Rutilio Manetti ( Susanna ei vecchioni )
  • Astolfo Petrazzi ( Macellaio )
  • Raffaello Vanni ( Apollo )
• Sala Frescobaldi
  • Alessandro Casolani ( Salomè che presenta ad Erode la testa del Battista )
  • Francesco Vanni ( San Girolamo nel deserto )
• Sala Scarlatti (also Sala del Beccafumi)
  • Beccafumi ( Matrimonio mistico di Santa Caterina da Siena , Putti reggi cartiglio )
  • Bartolomeo Neroni (Il Riccio) ( Madonna col Bambino, San Giovannino ei Santi Caterina e Bernardino )
  • Girolamo del Pacchia ( Madonna col Bambino in trono ei Santi Niccolò e Agostino , Ciborio eucaristico con angeli recanti gli strumenti della Passione )
  • Sodoma ( Allegoria dell'Amore celeste )
• Sala di Legno
  • Rutilio Manetti ( Pietà )
  • Bernardino Mei ( Sofonisba )
• Studio del Presidente
  • Andrea Piccinelli (also called Brescianino ) ( Ritratto di fanciulla )
• Boccherini Hall
  • Giorgio di Giovanni ( Endimione addormentato e Selene )
  • Bartolomeo Neroni (Il Riccio) ( Christo in pietà tra le Vergine, le pie donne e San Giovanni Evangelista )

Further works can be found in the spaces between, for example works by Giovanni Dupré ( Dante and Beatrice ), Arcangelo Salimbeni ( Estasi di Santa Caterina ), Ventura Salimbeni ( La Veronica , Lavanda dei piedi ) and by Francesco Vanni ( San Girolamo ).

The gallery also includes a musical library with around 70,000 editions and a musical instrument collection that contains a Stradivarius violin and other valuable musical instruments. In the summer concerts for the Estate Musicale Chigiana ("Chigiana Music Summer") take place.

The Palazzo Chigi-Saracini

The current building was built in the 12th century as Palazzo Marescotti , consequently by the Marescotti family , who in turn were Ghibellines . The building acquired its first historical significance during the Battle of Montaperti , when a certain Cerreto Ceccolini stood on the tower of the Palazzo, then one of the highest points in the city, and is said to have told the population about the course of the battle. By buying neighboring buildings and merging them with the main building, a city fortress called Castellare was created . In the 13th and 14th centuries, the Consiglio dei Reggitori (roughly the council of rulers ) of the city of Siena resided here , until the Palazzo Pubblico (since then the town hall) was completed around 1310 . In 1506 the building came into the possession of the Piccolomini-Mandoli family. Since 1877 the building has been named after the new owners, the Chigi-Saracini family.

literature

• Bruno Santi: La Collezione Chigi-Saracini , Scala Editore, Florence 1998

Web links

Commons : Palazzo Chigi Saracini  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Accademia Musicale Chigiana
• List of works (selection) by the Collezione Chigi Saracini in the Fondazione Zeri of the University of Bologna

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Accademia Musicale Chigiana: Prizes chigiana.it (English)
2. ^ Piero Torriti: Tutta Siena. Contrada per Contrada , Bonechi Edizioni, Florence 2000, ISBN 978-8872-04456-8 , pp. 60 ff.
3. ^ Official website of the city of Siena for the Palazzo Chigi-Saracini
4. ^ Piero Torriti: Tutta Siena. Contrada per Contrada , Bonechi Edizioni, Florence 2000, ISBN 978-8872-04456-8 , p. 59

Coordinates: 43 ° 19 ′ 1.9 ″  N , 11 ° 19 ′ 51.3 ″  E