Traditional music
The best way to delve into the traditional music of Italy's lake regions - Piedmont, Lombardy, Veneto - is to follow in the footsteps of the country's folklore groups, some of whom have achieved ethnomusicology through their work. In Piedmont, for example, La Ciapa Rusa has collected and recorded the country's musical heritage, helping to safeguard ancient dances such as monferrine, alexandrine, curente and sestrine. In 1997, the group split up, with some of its members forming Tendachënt, a new ensemble with a similar ambition to preserve, modernize and pass on the traditional repertoire. In the same region, we also find Tre Martelli, whose repertoire also revolves around ethno-musicological research undertaken in Piedmont. After forty years of activity and a dozen albums, the group has become a veritable institution. In Lombardy, the group Barabàn is renowned for striking a balance between the musical traditions of northern Italy - polyphonies from the Po Valley, archaic songs from the Apennines, etc. - and contemporary sensibilities. - and contemporary sensibility. Northern Italian folk instruments such as the piffero (an oboe), the müsa (a bagpipe) and the hurdy-gurdy can be heard in their music. In Veneto, the Calicanto group and the Orchestre Populaire des Dolomites are both driven by a similar ambition, producing works that also aim to revive the region's repertoire.
Classical music
Italy's reputation in the field of art music is well established. And the Italian Lake regions alone are home to many of the country's great historical names and major institutions. Starting with Lombardy, home to Milan's La Scala, considered Italy's leading opera house (built in 1778). This is also where some of the country's greatest orchestral directors hail from: Claudio Abbado (1933-2014) and Riccardo Chailly, both of whom have been at the helm of La Scala, not to mention Daniele Gatti, now director of Rome's opera house. And let's not forget Ricordi, Milan's prestigious record label, whose name is intrinsically linked to the great era of Italian opera. Northeast of Milan, in Bergamo, the local pride and joy is Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848). The composer is often honored in the city, notably at the Bergamo Musica Festival, which never misses an opportunity to perform his works. Further south, in the Po Valley, lies Cremona, a city renowned for its violin making and illustrious practitioners, such as the Amati family, the Guarneri family and Stradivarius. Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643), whoseOrfeo is considered the first opera, was also born in Cremona.
In Piedmont, Turin's Teatro Regio is the Italian benchmark for lyrical music and undoubtedly one of the world's leading opera houses. Puccini's La Bohème premiered here in 1896 in the presence of King Victor Emmanuel II. Destroyed by fire in 1936, only the façade is original, dating from 1738. The musical season is a must for Turin's residents, who flock here every year. Turin is also home to the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, directed since 2016 by James Conlon, and enjoying an excellent reputation. In addition, every year the city organizes a joint music festival with Milan called Mito Settembre Musica, offering top-quality concerts at low prices (classical, jazz, rock). The region is also home to the Semaines Musicales de Stresa (on the shores of Lake Maggiore), a rich program of chamber music concerts and recitals, and the Festival Cusiano di Musica Antica, a major Baroque music festival on the island of San Giulio, in the center of the beautiful Lake Orta.
In the Veneto region, musical history is obviously copious. As in painting, there was also a Venetian school of music. By the early 16th century, Venice had become a major centre of European musical life, following in the footsteps of Rome, whose attractiveness to artists declined after its sack in 1527. A prosperous city with a stable government, Venice quickly became a major center for the publication of musical scores. Composers flocked from all over Europe to take advantage of this innovation, particularly from Flanders. This explains why the first representatives of this Venetian school were Flemish, Jacques Buus and above all Adrian Willaert, who imported the polyphonic style of the Franco-Flemish school to Venice.
But it was really three decades later that the city would reach the height of its prestige with the birth of a violin prodigy and world-renowned composer of the Baroque period: Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1742). The other great Venetian composer of the Italian Baroque, Tomaso Albinoni, was a contemporary of Vivaldi but remained in his shadow. Among contemporaries, the Serenissima also gave birth to a great name: Luigi Nono (1924-1990). At the cutting edge of new music, the composer traversed serialism, aleatoric music, concrete and electronic music, without ever becoming a prisoner of one style or another. Today's Venice has retained all its musical aura and offers numerous venues to enthrall music lovers. These include La Fenice, one of the world's most prestigious stages, the Teatro Malibran and the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista.
Popular music
The region has also been the birthplace of many Italian singing stars. Among them are such national monuments as Milanese crooner Adriano Celentano(24,000 Baci), Turin-born Umberto Tozzi (known for his haunting Ti amo) and the immense Paolo Conte, an Asti-born figure of Italian jazz and blues. Less well known here, but essential to Italian popular culture, are Giorgio Gaber (1939-2003), pioneer of teatro canzone fusing music and theater; Ornella Vanoni (1934), whose smoky voice introduced generations of Italians to the songs of Milan's malavita ("underworld"); Enzo Jannacci (1935-2013), forerunner of rock in Italy; and Mina (1940), the Lombard Dalida.
