Notes at the Museum

Palazzo Abatellis

"Modern Chamber Music" (Modern Chamber Music) is a project that promises to be a musical event of rare prestige and profound innovation. The artistic proposal is built on the fusion of different sound worlds: the improvisational dynamism of the Jazz Quartet (vibraphone, piano, double bass, and drums) and the structural refinement of the String Octet. The goal is clear: to create a contemporary musical language that transcends rigid genre labels, spanning jazz, classical, and pop harmonies.

Thus wrote Poulenc in 1945 to the French singer Pierre Bernac, whom he often accompanied on the piano, about his The Tale of Babar the Elephant , the composition of which had been begun almost by chance five years earlier, following a protest from one of his nieces. On a dull, sleepy afternoon in the summer of 1940, Poulenc, in the company of his family, was playing one of his compositions, Melancolie , on the piano , without much success with his four-year-old niece. The little girl, bored by the music, said sincerely and even a little impertinently to her uncle: " Uncle Francis, what boring music. Play this instead ." So saying, the little girl took an album with the tale of Babar the Elephant and placed it on the piano stand, ordering him to play. Poulenc, amused, began to improvise chords, pretending to read music from the album. Thus was born the idea of ​​composing a series of pieces to be organized into a cycle, which in its unified structure became The Story of Babar the Elephant . Originally composed for voice and piano, The Story was orchestrated in 1962, shortly before the composer's death, by Jean Françaix and enjoyed considerable success in this form. On this occasion, it is presented in the chamber orchestra version by David Matthews.

Poulenc's L'HISTOIRE DE BABAR & Campogrande's THE TWO NIGHTINGALES

Teatro Politeama Garibaldi

June 7, 1945, marked the dawn of a new era in the history of English musical theater, finally celebrating its emancipation from its centuries-long subservience to European opera, especially Italian opera, which had dominated all English theaters. The architect of this rebirth was Benjamin Britten, who, on that very June 7, 1945, had achieved great success at Sadler's Wells in London with Peter Grimes , with a libretto by Montagu Slater based on the poem "The Borough " by George Crabbe, a poet who served as a source of inspiration for his musical world. In 1948, Britten moved to Aldeburgh, Suffolk, a town particularly beloved by Crabbe, which became the ideal setting for many of his works. Here, in the same year, the English composer founded a Festival with the collaboration of the tenor Peter Pears, the first interpreter of his Peter Grimes , and in 1949 he composed, on a text by Eric Crozier, The little Sweep , written for a rather small ensemble made up of a string quartet, a piano four hands and percussion.

THE LITTLE CHIMNEY SWEEP by Benjamin Britten

"I've never belonged to any specific stylistic movement. One could say that the musical material I choose sets the stylistic direction for each individual work."

Riccardo Scilipoti

Events

Past events

Sep 10, 2026

Notes at the Museum · Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

Aug 6, 2026

Notes at the Museum · Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

Future and recently performed repertoire

Piano in Phantasiestücke by Schumann

Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

Piano in Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio by Bolling

Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

Piano in Drei Romanzen by Schumann

Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

Conductor in L'Histoire de Babar, le petit éléphant by Poulenc

Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

Piano in Konzertstück No. 2 for Two Clarinets by Mendelssohn

Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

Piano in Trois Pièces by Boulanger

Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

Piano in Suite No. 2 for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio by Bolling

Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

Piano in Konzertstück No. 1 by Mendelssohn

Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

Conductor in I due usignoli by Campogrande

Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

Conductor in The Little Sweep by Britten

Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

Piano in Concerto for Violin, Strings and Piano by Freidlin

Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

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