© Marco Borrelli
Once again, the 100 Cellos turn Ravenna into the city of the cello
artistic directors Giovanni Sollima and Enrico Melozzi
Il concerto fiume
Six years on from the first time, the Byzantine city once again turns into Celloland: the project that Giovanni Sollima and Enrico Melozzi conceived in the occupied Teatro Valle in Rome ten years ago seems never to have taken leave from the streets of Ravenna, being so deeply ingrained in the heart and soul of the Festival. Spanning a long weekend, and governed by some of the deepest and most evocative sounds that man has been able to create through the ingenious manipulation of wood, strings and geometry, the project will once again revolve around the monumental 100 cellos orchestra. After making it big the world over, from Tokyo to Dubai, the musicians will cruise the city, from theatres and palaces to cloisters and ancient basilicas, riding the rolling sound waves that only a battalion of curvy, shiny instruments can produce, seducing the soul.
As with a “roman-fleuve”, with this kind of concert one immediately understands that nothing can be taken for granted: after all, if “caution” is banished, risk and adventure are the very essence of projects like “Celloland”, which not only challenge an instrument with a venerable history on the roughest of terrains, but also drag it into the fray of burning current events, in the name of such inalienable rights as peace and global disarmament. Thus, from sacred improvisations launched amid glorious mosaics, we will come to the progressive-rock of the legendary, celebrated band PFM: fifty years after its release, their first album, Storia di un minuto, combining powerful rock with classical elements, will be launched into orbit, propelled by a hundred cellos.
