With an outstanding concert for violin and piano, the Italian Cultural Institute in London brought its activities at its historic Belgrave Square premises to a close on 25 June.
The concert featured Japanese violinist Rino Yoshimoto, runner-up at the 58th edition of the International Premio Paganini Competition, performing on her Stradivari alongside pianist Sergei Redkin.
The programme wove together Italy and the United Kingdom, virtuosity and lyricism, folk tradition and the great European violin repertoire. The concert opened with Variations on God Save the King, M.S. 56 by Niccolò Paganini, a symbolic tribute to the host country. It continued with the Sonata for Violin and Piano in A minor by William Walton, La Capricieuse, Op. 17 by Edward Elgar, Paganini’s Caprices Nos. 1 and 24, and Londonderry Air in the arrangement by Fritz Kreisler.
The audience gave the performers an exceptionally warm reception. Seated in the front row alongside the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute, Francesco Bongarrà, were the Italian Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Fabio Cassese, and the President and Artistic Director of the Premio Paganini, Giovanni Panebianco and Nicola Bruzzo. The musicians responded to the enthusiastic applause by performing two encores.
This evening of great classical music marked the end of an era for the Italian Cultural Institute in London at its historic home at 39 Belgrave Square, where it had been based since 1950. From 1 July onwards, all of the Institute’s activities will take place at Casa Italia, the building just a short walk from Buckingham Palace that also houses the Embassy of Italy and the offices of the Italian Trade Agency (ICE).
