My wife and I had a little treat last Friday (7 Jun 2013) when Italy's oldest chamber ensemble, I MUSICI DI ROMA, gave a signature performance at the Dewan Sri Pinang. The internationally-acclaimed I MUSICI was the opening act at this year's month-long George Town Festival celebrations. We took pride that George Town was one of only two South-East Asian venues during their current Asia tour, the other being Singapore a few days later.
We arrived early and sneaked into the Dewan Sri to escape the heat and humidity outside. Empty stage with an almost empty audience. Of course, the people started coming in soon afterwards and it was a full house with all tickets having sold out.
Lim Guan Eng, the ever popular Chief Minister of Penang,even took some time off to share in some friendly banter with the people. Would you see this elsewhere?
Antonio Anselmi received the Brand Laureate award on behalf of I MUSICI.
The I MUSICI ensemble with the Chief Minister and some other personalities before the start of their one-and-a-half-hour performance.
The first set of the programme consisted of Overture from Barber Of Seville (Rossini), Variations on a Theme from Moses in Egypt by Rossini (Paganini), Prelude from La Traviata (Verdi), Une Larme for cello and strings (Rossini), Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana (Mascagni) and Sinfonia from Nabucco (Verdi).
I MUSICI returned after the break to perform one of their most famous pieces, the full set of Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Then, garbed in the George Town Festival T-shirt, the musicians presented two stirring encores.
The people that waited patiently after the concert were rewarded with an autograph session by all the musicians at the Dewan Sri Pinang's lobby.
I didn't realise it then but here I was with my wife, caught lining up during the autograph session. This picture was lifted from the George Town Festival page on facebook. Of course, I had brought along my booklet of the Brandenburg Concertos double-CD that had been performed by an earlier incarnation of I MUSICI during the 1990s. Francesca Vicari, the only lady amongst the present 12-member ensemble, was totally engrossed with the booklet.
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