ACCADEMIA DEGLI ASTRUSI

On 18 May 2019 at the Bologna international museum and library of music, baroque ensemble Accademia degli Astrusi, in collaboration with the museum and Bologna UNESCO Creative City of Music, presented the complete instrumental works of Giovanni Battista Martini in both a discographic edition, distributed by Warner Classics, and in a critical edition published by Sugar-Suvini Zerboni. The meeting took the form of a mini-symposium, an in-depth discussion of the work of the Bologna born Franciscan monk, musician and music theorist among the highly regarded in eighteenth century Europe and especially well known as a teacher of fundamental significance in the education of Mozart, whom he assisted in passing the Bologna Academy of Music entrance examination.
Among the greatest merits of the “Martini Project”, started in 2006 at the time of the third centenary of Martini’s birth by the Kaleidos Association under the patronage of the City of Bologna and Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna, is the commitment to revive the activities of Martini as an eclectic, cultured, refined and even surprising musician, author of a vast catalogue of works in which sacred music is accompanied by a  well-defined repertory of less-elevated secular works that were extremely popular at the time, including scores for orchestra or soloists, operettas, farces and theatrical intermezzi. The elevation of Martini as a world ambassador of the musical excellence of Bologna culminated in 2012 with a series of concerts by Accademia degli Astrusi in several European cities in the context of the UNESCO Creative Cities of Music network, which includes Bologna. This initiative also provided the ideal opportunity to rediscover the Bologna school of 17th and 18th century, which occupied a position of world renown for centuries.
The discographic edition that Marchesini Group helped produce is composed of a box set of 9 CDs + DVD, released on 10 May 2019 and distributed by Warner Classics. The discs combine the recording made by Accademia degli Astrusi, directed by Federico Ferri, of Martini’s entire instrumental opus, recorded in acoustically perfect spaces including Rocca di Bazzano and, above all, Pieve di San Lorenzo di Panico in Marzabotto. The recording was accompanied by the recovery of the entire corpus of manuscripts, currently recomposed in an impressive critical edition comprising more than 80 volumes containing 3,500 pages of musical notation, curated by Federico Ferri and Daniele Proni for Sugar-Suvini Zerboni.