“Gigs at Hangar 44“, this is the title of the concert season that the Italian Air Force Band will run from Saturday 18 November to Sunday 17 December, at the’Urbe Airport in Rome, to celebrate – also in music – the Centenary of the Armed Force, which takes place in 2023. An initiative that, through the universal language of music, aims to bring citizens closer to the Italian Air Force, its history and its various professions.
The four concerts – scheduled forSaturday 18th November, Saturday 2nd December, Sunday 10th December and Sunday 17th December – will all be held at 5:00 PM, lasting approximately one hour, and will feature chamber ensembles born within the wider framework of the Italian Air Force Band.
The initiative was presented this morning in Hangar 44 of the Urbe airport, where the Medium wave it resides and practises when not engaged elsewhere for concerts, with a preview dedicated to over 350 students and teachers from four schools in the city of Rome – the “V. Bellini”, “Don Giuseppe Morosini”, “Guido Milanesi” and “W. Disney” institutes – who were able to attend a musical performance of the fairy tale “Peter and the Wolf”.
“In the four scheduled events until 17 December, each ensemble will present a specific programme to highlight the particular tonal and acoustic characteristics of the instruments that comprise it, with the aim of introducing the different ‘souls’ of the Band to an ever-growing number of people“, said the Master, Major Pantaleo Lanfranco Cammarano. “Also for this reason, we have devised a rather varied musical proposal, ranging from a musical fairy tale for the little ones and their families, to more classical pieces for wind instruments, moving on to clarinet and brass ensembles which will offer a repertoire that is sure to appeal to everyone, with nods to jazz and pop as well“.
Saturday 18 November – Peter and the Wolf.
The programme for this first concert in the series includes the performance of Mozart-Haydn's Toy Symphony and Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, with a revised libretto in which an actor takes on the role of the grandfather, narrating the events to his grandson, Peter. Both scores have been rearranged by the Bandmaster for a mixed ensemble of wind and percussion instruments and will be conducted by him.
Saturday 2 December – Clarinet Quintet
From classical to jazz, from pop to klezmer, this ensemble presents itself with an E-flat sopranino clarinet, two B-flat soprano clarinets, an E-flat alto clarinet and a B-flat bass clarinet, offering a concert brimming with suggestions. Just to mention a few of the pieces on the programme: Jazz Band by Henghel Gualdi, Mozart's Marriage of Figaro, Gardel's Por una cabeza, and many other pieces, all arranged by First Lieutenant Carmine Roberto Scura, the group's bass clarinetist. A welcome addition of the piano to the ensemble will introduce us to a composition by Emanuela Chiodi, herself the pianist for the concert.
Sunday 10 December – Mozart's “Gran Partita”
The star of this concert is the celebrated Mozart serenata composed for 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 corni di bassetto, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, and double bass, an absolute masterpiece dedicated by Mozart to wind instruments. It will be conducted by Chief Petty Officer Massimiliano Picca, who will also lead the same ensemble in Mozart's Exultate Jubilate, first performed in Milan in 1777 by the castrato Venanzio Rauzini, here interpreted by soprano Maria Emanuela Digregorio.
Sunday 17 December – Brass and Percussion Ensemble
Grand finale of this first musical showcase with the brass band of the Air Force.
In the first part of the concert, the classical quintet – two Trumpets, French Horn, Trombone, and Tuba – will perform works by composers such as Bizet, Morricone, Kompanek, and the popular Frère Jacques. In the second half, the ensemble will be augmented by other brass instruments and percussion to present pieces ranging from the Baroque of Handel with his Fireworks music to the contemporary David Short's Frontier, Ricky-Tick, Put that Hoe Down, via Herbert Clarke, Ernest Gold, Harold Harlen, and Enrique Crespo.
Access to the concerts is completely free, subject to booking on the Italian Air Force website, by clicking on the “Concerts at Hangar 44” banner.” https://www.aeronautica.difesa.it/home/noi-siamo-l-am/organizzazione/gruppi-musicali /
The Italian Air Force Band It was established on 1st July 1937. Rome's Cavour Barracks, the first in Italy to host an aviation unit at the beginning of the century, was its first home. There, in the presence of Maestro Pietro Mascagni, the Band gave its first formal concert reserved for authorities and senior officers of the newly formed Air Force. On 20th September of the same year, with a concert at EIAR (the Italian Radio Broadcasting Authority), the Band officially presented itself to the general public and began its concert and representative activities. The first maestro to conduct it was Alberto Di Miniello, a composition student of Ottorino Respighi, who in 1935 won the competition for director of the Royal Air Force Musical Corps. He wrote the Official March of the Italian Air Force. Disbanded following the events of the war, the Band was subsequently re-established in 1944 and by December of that same year had already resumed its intense concert schedule: the Juilliard School in New York, the Teatro Coliseo in Buenos Aires, the Musikhalle in Hamburg, the Conservatoire de la Ville in Luxembourg, Ankara, Moscow. Among its institutional duties, the Band performs guard of honour service at the Quirinal Palace, alternating with other military musical ensembles, and takes part in the most significant ceremonies of the Armed Forces, inter-service events and NATO. Today's establishment, laid down by state law, consists of 102 orchestral musicians, an archivist, the Maestro Director and the Maestro Deputy Director. The Band comes under the command of COMAER – Rome Military Air Force Command, whilst its deployment is ordered by the Air Force General Staff – 5th “Communication” Department.
