The announced series of concerts, exhibition and conferences “Italian Piano Experience – Music, History and Innovation”, planned at the Millennium Monument from the 17th May to the 3rd June, is going to open with the concert on ancient instruments played by Claudio Brizi on the 17th.
The opening concert will be a rare opportunity for listening different instruments from the baroque age, played by one of the most authoritative player and expert in ancient keyboard instruments.
Brizi will play four different instruments (Harmonino, Harpsichord, Fortepiano and Pedalpiano), connected and so hybridized to be played at the same time by the same musician. This is a heritage of the Italian baroque “invention” of the hybridization of keyboards, called “Galleria Armonica” (meaning multiple hybrid keyboard instruments), but putting together this time instruments of different ages, in a form which can be considered an absolute premier.
The program is including pieces from Ferrini, Bach, Scarlatti and Walther, all belonging or inspired to the “Italian style” in the baroque music.
CLAUDIO BRIZI
Claudio Brizi is a well-known organ and harpsichord player, as well as a scholarly expert on organs and ancient keyboard instruments. His research has brought him a worldwide reputationas an authority in the field of the so-called Hybrid Keyboard instruments.
He has performed over 2,000 concerts for well-known musical institutions around the world. Hisdiscography, some 100 CDs, ranges from the late Renaissance to the present day. The specialized music media has conferred him many awards, among which is the recent “Japan Audiophile Prize”. As a chamber music artist, he has collaborated with numerous high-lever singers and instrumentalists.
He has designed over twenty instruments in Italy, Germany and Japan. He also consults on the restoration of historical instruments. His own collection of historical instruments is of particular significance and includes a XVI century harpsichord, many historical pianos and fortepianos (the oldest is of 1774!), and some rare examples of the claviorgan.
He is professor at the Conservatory in Parma (Italy) and the Kusatsu Summer Music Academy (Japan). He has been regularly invited to teach masterclasses, attend conferences and seminars, and to serve as a jury member at competitions.
Some of the venues where he has performed: Thomaskircheand Bach-Archiv (Leipzig), Schauspielhaus, Charlottenburg-Schloß and Französischer Dom (Berlin), Herkules Saal (Munich), Sans-Souci (Potsdam), Hofkirche (Vienna), San Maurizio (Milan), Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), Oratorio del Gonfalone (Rome), Casals Hall, Triphony Hall and Musashino Hall (Tokyo), SimphonyHall and Ishihara Hall (Osaka), Settembre Musica (Turin), Dresdner Musikfestspiele (Dresden) and many more.