As part of the concert for the anniversary of the Great War, being a guest of his country, Malo, I proposed to commission a piece for the occasion from Maestro Mario Lanaro.
The result was a happy page for mixed choir, harp, strings and reciting voice, which will go on first performance on Saturday 4 November in the Sanctuary of Santa Maria Liberatrice, in Malo (VI).
The verses set by Lanaro begin with a bucolic “Di Malo, pel verde silente…” (“In Malo, for silent green …”) and are taken from a postcard from the autumn of 1916, with a particularly serene image for the historical moment. And in fact the words narrate the passage from the peace of the green to the cannon of death that “in the mountains, fierce, talks”. Lanaro’s music, between vocal and instrumental effects and with the distant echo of the reciting voice, theatrically makes these two images even more contrasting.
Next to this page, Vivaldi’s Magnificat, Fauré’s Pie Jesu and Mahler’s Adagietto.
I will have the pleasure of conducting I Cantori di Santomio and the Santa Libera Orchestra once again.
“… pel verde silente” is a commission of the Department of Culture of the Municipality of Malo.