La “musica d’insieme” a Napoli: una piccola rivoluzione da camera

In June 1971, a new musical project burst onto the Neapolitan scene: it was the Settimana Internazionale di Musica d’Insieme, conceived and founded by Salvatore Accardo and Gianni Eminente, produced by the Scarlatti Association. The event, which will find its definitive and precious seat in the neoclassical Villa Pignatelli in Naples, will arouse an enormous success, forming new generations of listeners and making them loyal to listening to classical music. The great novelty of this project lies in the renunciation of the established rituals of the standard concert and in the introduction of some informal characteristics of fruition that will be much loved by the audience, especially by the younger ones. All rehearsals are open to the public, which is given the opportunity to see how a musical performance is born, without a barrier separating them from the stage, without reverential fear, despite the fact that the protagonists of the concerts are all big names. The audience feels directly involved in the musical event and this factor exerts an irresistible appeal on them. In a short time, the fame of the “Settimana Internazionale di Musica d’Insieme” grew beyond expectations but then, as in any cycle, it was exhausted during the late nineties, being strongly linked to the listening and participation modes of a different historical period. The fascination and the memory of this brave and brilliant musical experiment are still alive today.