The Enchantments of the Violin

The programme of this evening crosses musical worlds that are very distant from one another without ever truly breaking their continuity. Each page seems to grow out of the previous one as a natural transformation of colour, rhythm or expressive tension. The journey moves from the theatrical gesture of the Baroque to the urban melancholy of the twentieth century, from classical brightness to the almost cinematic energy of contemporary music, while always keeping the voice of the violin at its centre. The opening is entrusted to Antonio Vivaldi and to Spring from The Four Seasons, perhaps one of the most famous pages in the history of Western music. Yet beyond its fame, what still strikes us today is its extraordinary physical and theatrical immediacy. Nature is not simply described: it comes to life. Bird calls, wind, a sudden storm, the awakening of the countryside become sound gesture, movement, rhythm. With Alberto Nepomuceno, the atmosphere suddenly changes perspective. The Serenade for Strings abandons any descriptive impulse and gathers itself into a more intimate, singing dimension. The sound becomes soft and expansive, crossed by a luminous melancholy that seems to belong more to the end of the day than to its beginning. In Concerto dell’alba by Franco Margola, time seems instead to pause. A reserved yet highly refined figure of the Italian twentieth century, Margola creates a musical language that remains accessible while opening itself to unexpected harmonic colours. The violin emerges like a line of light slowly crossing silence: it does not dominate the orchestra, but appears and disappears within it, like a thought gradually taking shape. Then the music changes space. With Astor Piazzolla, we enter the city. Invierno Porteño belongs to another emotional geography: no longer Vivaldi’s luminous nature, nor Margola’s suspended contemplation, but an urban night made of memory, distance and nostalgia. Here the tango loses any folkloric dimension and becomes profoundly inward matter. With Goran Bregović, energy suddenly bursts open. Underground Tango draws the programme into a theatrical, almost physical dimension. Rhythm becomes a continuous impulse, irregular dance, instinctive vitality. The return to classicism with Haydn then feels like the rediscovery of balance after the journey. The Concerto in C major restores to the music a luminous clarity, made of dialogue, measure and naturalness. Finally, Antonio Vivaldi. With Summer, virtuosity returns to the foreground, but transformed into pure elegance. The violin moves with theatrical freedom, alternating momentum, rhythmic sensuality and sudden lightness. All this takes place at Spazio Garavello 7 in Morcote, a terrace suspended above the lake and overlooking one of the most evocative panoramas of the Ceresio. Here the landscape is not merely a frame for the concert, but slowly enters the music itself. The light fading over the lake and the silence of the evening transform listening into a deeply immersive, almost contemplative experience. At the centre of this journey is the violin of Davide Alogna, a musician capable of combining technical brilliance, communicative presence and natural expressiveness. His sound crosses very different repertoires without ever losing its identity, always maintaining a direct and living relationship with the audience.

Alongside him, the Musicians of the Teatro alla Scala bring the quality and compactness of sound of one of Europe’s most important orchestral traditions. Their way of playing combines precision, transparency and theatrical intensity, allowing every detail to emerge without ever breaking the overall breath of the journey. More than a succession of pieces, this evening thus becomes a journey through different musical landscapes, a continuous shifting of light, atmosphere and memory. A path in which the violin seems to guide the act of listening like a narrative voice, accompanying the audience from the symbolic rising of Vivaldi’s Spring to the last lights of evening over the Ceresio.

BIOGRAPHY

Davide Alogna
Davide Alogna is an Italian violinist active on the international scene. After studying violin and piano at the Conservatory of Como, he continued his training in Paris and at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena with Giuliano Carmignola. He has appeared as a soloist in major concert halls across Europe, America and Asia and is especially appreciated for his commitment to rediscovering twentieth-century Italian violin repertoire. Alongside his concert activity, he pursues constant musical and recording research, collaborating with leading orchestras and musicians on the international scene.