Music in Bologna, musicians in Bologna.
Mozart in Bologna. The places, the characters and the examination at the Accademia Filarmonica, exhibition held at the foyer of the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, on the occasion of the performance of  “Le nozze di Figaro” (21 January–9 February 1997). Since December 1997, the exhibition has been permanently set in the Sale dei Carrati of the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna.





It has been re-proposed within the activity of the Mozart Italia Association, on the occasion of the Mozartian Festival in Rovereto (18-27 September 1998)(18-27 Sepbember 1998). The catalogue of the exhibition is in “Studi e materiali per la storia dell’Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna”, XI, 1998, 36 pp.   
Re-proposed by the occasion of Maggio musicale persicetano 2023: "1770 - Il giovane Mozart a Bologna. I luoghi, i personaggi e l'esame all'Accademia Flarmonica (San Giovanni in Persiceto BO, Chiesa di Sant'Apollinare 6-28 maggio 2023)

PHOTO GALLERY

LIST OF THE DOCUMENTS EXHIBITED


Bologna was certainly one of the most important stops of fourteen-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s journey to Italy i with his father Leopold in 1770. In the course of one first short staying in March, the Mozarts got in touch with the Bolognese musical background, by performing in a musical Academy in Count Gian Luca Pallavicini’s palace in Strada San Felice; then, they returned to Bologna in July and stayed until mid-October, sojourning in the magnificent Villa Pallavicini at the Croce del Biacco; at that time, Wolfgang was preparing for the examination in view of the aggregation to the famous Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna, under the guide of Father Martini, at that time tutelary deity of the European musical culture. The aggregation to the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna was a particularly important title for composers all over Europe and could be obtained by taking a demanding examination, which consisted in realizing one four-voice antiphon from the Roman gradual psalms. Since young Mozart did not own the counterpoint rules in full, his admission test did not on the whole  comply with the strict academic rules, so that Father Martini’s intervention  was necessary; having perceived the child’s genius, he secretly handed him the correct version of the exam work.
The exhibition Mozart in Bologna: the places, the characters and the examination at the Accademia Filarmonica , arranged by the Accademia Filarmonica and by the Historical Archives of the Teatro Comunale on the occasion of the performances of “le nozze di Figaro” at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna (21 January-9 February 1997), now is permanently set in the Sale dei Carrati of the Accademia Filarmonica. The various steps of Mozart’s staying are described in the exhibition  through the showing of about 150 documents, among which letters, musical manuscripts, drawings, prints and photos, so as to outline a manyfold overall description. All around Mozart is a multitude of characters, from Count Pallavicini and his family to the famous castrato singer Carlo Broschi named Farinelli, who used to reside in a sumpuous house outside Porta Lame in Bologna, nowadays unfortunately lost; from composers Vincenzo Manfredini and Joseph Myslivecek, to the historian of the English music Charles Burney, who right in the summer 1770 was passing through  Bologna; from the austere Philarmonic Academicians to Father Giambattista Martini,
central figure of the European musical 1700s, to whom Mozart was always grateful. The documents shown in the exhibition, in elegant reproductions, are placed inside 25 panels complete with notes and illustrative captions, so as to take the visitor throughout a visit which is rich in interesting links to the Bolognese cultural life in the 1700s.

Click here to request the complete catalogue of the exhibition (Italian version only)