A
group of Tuscan wine producers with a passion for classical music has created ,
together with a group of musicians, a music festival called
"Musica e Rossi
Toscani". The idea was born during the Salzburg Easter Festival in 1999, when a
series of musical events was planned for August 2000, around the time of the
Palio of Siena. The festival, which began as a private get-together among
friends, has become a yearly event.
The wine producers are: Count Andrea Costanti (Brunello di Montalcino),
Caterina Dei (Vino Nobile di Montepulciano), Lorenza de Medici and
Emanuela Stucchi Prinetti (Chianti Classico), Roberto Fuligni (Brunello di
Montalcino), the Boscu Bianchi Bandinelli family (Chianti Classico),
Stefano Cinelli Colombini (Brunello di Montalcino)
and Elisabetta Gnudi (Brunello di Montalcino and Chianti Classico).
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The
musicians, a group of important German performers which includes a few of the
elements of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra,
the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Amsterdam and of the Berlin Philharmonic
String Sextet:
Bernard Hartog, Marietta Kratz,
Ying Zhang,
Rebecca Schneider, Nienke van Rijn, Walter Küssner, Matthew Hunter, Ulrich Knörzer,
Martin Stegner, Simone Jandl, Pauline Sachse, Ansgar Schneider, Götz
Teutsch,
Trey Lee, Johan van Iersel,
Ulrich Wolff, Martin Heinze, Janne Thomsen, Jonathan Kelly, Walter Seyfarth,
Daniele Damiano, Sevimbike Elibay, Noriko Sugyiama, Yoko Kikuchi, Cordelia Höfer,
Hendrik Heilmann,
Magdalena Schäfer,
Wolfgang Schmidt.
The
concept behind the August festival involves the realization of a series of
musical appointments with the music of: Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert,
Schumann, Brahms, Dvorak and others in the private villas and palaces of the wine
producers. Each concert is followed by a tasting of that producer's wine
(Brunello di Montalcino, Nobile di Montepulciano and Chianti Classico).
The concerts take place in the Fuligni hunting lodge in
Montalcino, in the Dei villa in Montepulciano, in the historical gardens of
Villa di Geggiano near Siena,
in the park of the villa 'i Podernovi' of the Fattoria dei Barbi,
in the medieval Borgo Scopeto, in Palazzo Pannocchieschi
d'Elci in Siena and in
Badia a Coltibuono.
Representatives of the international cultural scene, academics, actors, and
journalists have participated in "Musica e
Rossi Toscani", a festival that has
become one of the cultural and oenological events that shouldn't be missed
during the Tuscan summer.
The
events comprise the blending of different cultural aspects which include music,
historic venues and wines that symbolise so much of this ancient territory.
The opening concert of ‘Musica e Rossi Toscani’ is traditionally
held close to the vineyards of the
Fuligni
wine estate in Montalcino
which has been family property for over a century. The hunting lodge where the
concert takes place is today the home of Roberto Guerrini Fuligni who is a law
professor at the University of Siena. It was built in 1714 and was at times used
for hunting the wild boar; it offers the perfect atmosphere for a concert
surrounded, as it is, by thick woods creating a mood of past gone times. At the
beginning of the last century Viscount Giovanni Maria Fuligni retired to
Montalcino where he started to produce a fine internationally acclaimed Brunello.
Owing to lack of space only e restricted number of guests can be invited to the
concert held on the terrace at twilight. This is followed by dinner and wine
tasting of the last vintage of Brunello and other wines also produced on the
estate like Rosso di Montalcino ‘Ginestreto’ and ‘San Jacopo’.
The venue for the second concert is also Montalcino on the old
estate belonging to the
Counts Costanti. Andrea Costanti is the present
manager of the estate which has been producing brunello since 1858 in the
historic sixteenth century villa ‘Colle al Matrichese’ where the ancient wine
cellars are still found today . The concert is held for a restricted number of
guests in Andrea’s private home alternating personalities from the wine, sports,
and music fields. Beneath an enormous two-hundred-year old lime tree mainly
eighteenth century music for string instruments is played. This music is
Andrea’s favourite and reflects the sobriety and classical elegance of his
wines. Wine tasting of the last vintage of brunello di Montalcino and other
wines produced on the Costanti estate follows the concert. A dinner is laid out,
as though by magic, around the very same tree. Red house wines as well as superb
white ‘Bellavista’ wines, specially selected by Neil and Maria Empson (highly
reputed great Italian wine importers in the USA) are served just like at the
Fuligni dinner party.
It
is customary for the concerts at
Fattoria dei Barbi to take place in the
old park of the villa ‘i Podernovi’, which since 1790 has belonged to the
Colombini family. This was the beginning of a success story in wine growing.
Excellent wines which in 1892 achieved a very important goal: the prize of a
silver medal from the Ministry of Agriculture. It was to be the first of a long
series of acknowledgements from both Italy and abroad. In 2007 the Barbi wines
reached the highest international lists with Brunello Riserva and Brunello Vigna
del Fiore. Today the company is run by Stefano Cinelli Colombini, descendant of
the lineage, keeper of ancient traditions and also promoter of great
technological innovations. The spot chosen for the concerts, in the shade of an
old holm-oak, has witnessed in the course of time singers and musicians of
international fame such has Renato Bruson, Misha Maisky and members of the
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert takes place at 7 o’ clock just before
sunset when the elongated shadows of the statues which decorate the park and the
golden lights which penetrate through the foliage create a mystic atmosphere.
Then follows an invitation to supper at the
‘Taverna dei Barbi’, adjacent to the park, with typical Tuscan
food and famous house wines.
The
Villa di Geggiano
with its annexed wine estate is
located in the Chianti Classico hills in the province of Siena, famous
throughout the world for its wines, its beauty and its rich history. The oldest
documents regarding the production of wine by the Counts Bianchi Bandinelli date
back to 1725 when Niccolò Bandinelli used to export wines from the vineyards of
Villa di Geggiano to England. The family, one of the oldest Sienese aristocratic
families, had among its ancestors Pope Alexander the third. Today Chianti
Classico and Riserva are excellently produced in the cellars of the eighteenth
century Villa by Andrea and Alessandro Boscu Bianchi Bandinelli. The bottles
still bear the historic label designed by the grandfather, the famous
archaeologist Ranuccio Bianchi Bandinelli. In the garden, adorned with
centuries-old cypresses, sculpted boxwood bushes and age-old lemon trees, is the
characteristic open-air theatre with two late baroque brick arches surmounted by
statues and this is where the concert is held offering the guests a unique sight
of Siena silhouetted against the setting sun. Wine tasting of the last Bianchi
Bandinelli vintage takes place inside the wonderfully frescoed halls of the
Villa after which dinner is served in enchanting surroundings on the garden
lawn.
Badia a Coltibuono
(which means Abbey of the Good
Harvest), dates back to the middle of the eleventh century. In 1051 the monks of
the Vallombrosan Order, a Tuscan reform of the Benedictines, founded the Abbey
and also began planting the first vineyards in the Upper Chianti area. Over the
centuries they extended their vast land holdings to include many
thousands of
acres and developed a flourishing wine production and commerce. In 1810, when
Tuscany was under Napoleonic rule, the monks were forced to leave Coltibuono and
the monastery was secularized. The estate was first sold by lottery and then in
1846, Coltibuono was bought by Guido Giuntini, a Florentine banker and great
grandfather of Piero Stucchi-Prinetti, under whose guidance the estate grew and
built a solid reputation in Italy and abroad through the high quality of its
products. Nowadays, his son Roberto Stucchi Prinetti, the oenologist of
Coltibuono, manages the Abbey along with his sister Emanuela who is responsible
for Marketing and Sales (and also the former President of the Consorzio del
Marchio Storico Chianti Classico).
It
is customary for the last concert to be played a little before sunset in the
courtyard of the Badia. The mystic silence of the place bestows to the
performance a special aura which is absolutely unique. Donna Lorenza de’ Medici,
the Lady of the house and wife of Piero Stucchi Prinetti, jealously guards this
atmosphere by closing the gates a few seconds before the beginning of the
concert even at the cost of leaving dear friends outside, in order to preserve
the touching atmosphere of the musical event in Coltibuono.
Borgo Scopeto
is a medieval rural hamlet in the Chianti Classical region
where Elisabetta Gnudi Angelini has established her home. It is the headquarters
of a group of some of the finest Tuscan wines which includes
Altesino and Caparzo in Montalcino. Elisabetta, who nurtures a deep passion for
wines, has set herself the goal of bringing Borgo Scopeto back to its prestine
glory where she intends to host
discerning
wine lovers in an elegant ‘realais’ where a
natural atmosphere can still be savoured. Wandering
down
olive and cypress paths and a seventeenth century boxwood labyrinth one leaves
the medieval castle behind and moves towards Siena finally reaching the new
cellars of Borgo Scopeto. Here great attention is given to rationality, quality
of materials and respect for the enviroment. The inside of the cellars are very
impressive and the special shade of blue,
lovingly
chosen by Elisabetta, used for the decor and for the wine labels, lends a
unique
aura to the ambience.
The Palio of the 16th August marks the climax of the
Sienese summer. The musicians of ‘Musica e rossi toscani‘ usually offer
the
family
Pannocchieschi d’Elci
a concert on the eve of the race. This is played in
one of the halls of the historic building whose windows overlook the
Piazza del Campo. The following day while tasting the last vintage of red wines,
produced by Andrea and Ranieri Pannocchieschi at Anqua, the old family estate,
guests and musicians can watch the historic parade and the exciting race which
draws the curtain on the Sienese summer as well as on the music festival.
R.G.F.
