Vatican Museums

Visitors to the Vatican Museums during the night openings will have the chance to experience a redoubled pleasure, that of visible Beauty (Raphael and Michelangelo, Canova and Pinturicchio, the "Laocoonte" and the "Apollo" of the Belvedere), alongside the Beauty that enters and touches the heart, that of the music of Bach and Handel, Vivaldi and Mozart; with these words Professor Antonio Paolucci, Director of the Vatican Museums, presents the new edition of the cultural initiative, "Che c'è di Bello?", dedicated this year to Music at the Vatican Museums.

A clear invitation to be "captivated by beauty" in all its expressions, the concerts are offered to those who wish to visit the "Pope's Museums" by night during the special evening openings on Friday 11 May, 25 May, 8 June, 22 June and 6 July. On those dates, at 09.00 p.m., guests will be welcomed by the young and talented professionals of the Conservatory of Frosinone "Licinio Refice" who, against the magnificent backdrop of the Raphael Hall or the Pinacoteca Courtyard, not to mention the Sala dei Pontefici, will perform a refined selection of great classical and contemporary music.

During these five musical appointments, the Vatican Museums will therefore become the ideal stage for the marvellous alliance between the figurative arts and music, because, as Professor Paolucci explains, A God gave us music, balm for the soul. Raphael knew this well. And indeed, "numine afflatur" (divinely inspired) is written in "Parnassus", painted in the Rooms of Julius II, where Apollo is depicted playing the zither, surrounded by the Muses.

"Music in the Vatican Museums" is a cultural project presented by the Events Office of the Vatican Museums with the valuable musical and musicological guidance of Professor Ala Botti Caselli.
Loyal to their educational mission, in this series of concerts the pontifical galleries present one of their identities, among the most stimulating for the general public; that of "Cultural Laboratory". The museum space is intended as a "living" and "pulsating" space for convergence and dialogue, with the aim of enabling exchange, experimentation and growth among artistic languages and different protagonists. This is at the origin of the collaboration with the Conservatory of Frosinone "Licinio Refice" and its director, Maestro Antonio D'Antò who, for five concerts, will generously lend his musical excellence to the Vatican Museums, which in turn offer to Conservatory and its students not only a public and an exclusive "theatre" for their concert performance, but above all a unique formative experience.
Indeed, competent art historians from the Vatican Museums will accompany the conservatory students participating in the project, along with their teachers and assistants, on a detailed visit of those treasures and historical locations selected for their particular relevance both to the evening's musical programme and to their cultural formation.

The first appointment, on Friday 11 May at 09.00 p.m. in the Raphael Hall, will be dedicated to the music of Vivaldi and Bach, performed and interpreted by the "Baroque Ensemble". The programme includes the Concert in G Minor P 360 by Vivaldi, Bach's Brandenburg Concerto in D Major, and "Domine Deus" from Vivaldi's Gloria.

Friday 25 May, again in the Raphael Hall of the Vatican Pinacoteca, sees the performance of the concerto "Vox angelica and rediscovered sounds", with vocal works and sonatas from the 1700s (Perti, Vivaldi, Barsanti, Händel, Pergolesi), restored to their original sonority.

The programme for the evening of 8 June is dedicated to the religious and secular music of Licinio Refice, to be performed in the New Wing. The Conservatory of Frosinone thus pays homage to the priest after whom the institute is named.

With the arrival of the summer season, on Friday 22 June at 09.00 p.m. the Pinacoteca Courtyard becomes the natural setting for the "Percussion Ensemble" which will perform music by Brodmann, Rossini, Mozart, Mendoza, Toch, Bach, Piazzolla, Rodríguez, Claps, Kachaturian, Desmond, Bakoua, Monti and Shinstine.

The final appointment, on 6 July concludes the series with a performance by the "Guitar Orchestra": twenty-two guitars directed by Maestro Angelo Ferraro, who will greet the public from the New Wing, with the notes of Boccherini, Vivaldi, Musorgskij and Bizet.

Last minute, 13 July, 09.00 p.m., extraordinary unprogrammed concert by Maria Teresa Bottini, soprano, and Antonio D'Antò, piano, offering a musical itinerary "Between the sacred and the profane".