Artistic Freedom

GIUSEPPE PENNISI visits the sophisticated
music festival in a Tuscan mountain convent
and stays for the full three days

This year too, the Montegral Academy held its annual three day festival at the end of the Spring in the breathtaking Convento dell'Angelo on the top of a Tuscan mountain. General information on the Academy was provided in Music & Vision on 10 May 2010 and there's further information at the www.montegral.com website. In short, the Academy was created some ten years ago on the basis of a long-term agreement between the Passion Fathers (owners of the Convent) and a foundation established under the aegis of the composer and conductor Gustav Kuhn, considered by Herbert von Karajan as his favorite heir. Its main purpose is to train instrumentalists and singers for two major festivals, the Tyrol Festival (www.tiroler-festpiele.at) in July (mostly opera) and the Alto Adige Festival (www.altoadige-festival.it) in September (mostly symphonic music). Often, the young musicians are recruited by Austrian and German orchestras and opera houses...

ITALY