Slavia Festival 1996, illustrative notes to the programme, Bologna, Accademia Filarmonica, 24 pp.

Being at its Third Edition, the Slavia Festival, which was created by the initiative of the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna with the Associazione Giovanile Musicale (A.Gi.Mus), the Il Circolo  della Musica (Endas) and under the patronage of the Italy-Russia Association, is one of the few events in Italy exclusively dedicated to Eastern European composers and music, especially in the aspects which may be less known to the wide public. The opening concert is dedicated to Rimskij-Korsakov and his dearest pupil Aleksander Glazunov, two personalities who deeply influenced the Russian musical life from 19th to 20th centuries. There will follow a lecture-concert dedicated to Cajkovskij’s (definitely  the most performed Russian composer in the world today) less known piano repertoire. Also the concert on 28 November, a Piano Marathon revolving around the character of Aleksandr Skrjabin, is particularly relevant: there will be performed some unpublished music taking inspiration from Skrjabin together with works by Russian composers who were contemporary to him. During this long evening, a book and a CD-Rom about Skrjabin, both realized  by Alessio Di Benedetto, will be presented. On 28 November,  the piano concert will include some works by the Croatian composer Josip Slavenski, whose 100th –birth anniversary falls this year and whose music summarizes the popular features of all the ex-Yugoslavian Republics. On 14 December there will follow  a singular event dedicated to the personality of Lev Teremin (1896-1993), who pioneered  electronic music and invented the acoustic instrument which bears his name: there will be performed music by composers of 20th century, with three first performances all over the world. The Festival will end with a concert including  piano and violin transcriptions of works from the Russian repertoire, with a wide range of Rein’hold Glière’s works (he was a fundamental personality of the period from the tzarist age to the post-revolutionary age.)

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