One of the most stimulating experiences of the Genoese musical season took place last 11 June 2024 at the Palazzo Rosso, as part of the international project Knowledge Exchange Violin — an initiative that brings into dialogue historic instruments, early and contemporary music, art, and narrative.
The protagonist of the event was the celebrated violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved, who offered the audience a free concert traversing a vast and fascinating repertoire: from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Italian music by composers such as Torelli and Paganini, to modern compositions inspired by the historic instruments themselves.
The project, realised in collaboration with Research England and the Royal Academy of Music in London, also took shape through the filming and interviews curated by Malene Sheppard Skaerved, with the contribution of filmmaker Immo Horn. In this unique setting, the interview with curator Martina Panizzut, conducted inside the palazzo’s frescoed rooms, explored the relationship between music, visual arts, and cultural heritage, highlighting how Genoa and its historic instruments sit at the heart of a living artistic dialogue.
A particularly intense moment of the day was the encounter with Alberto Giordano, luthier and guardian of the Italian violin-making tradition, who shared with the audience his knowledge of the history and construction of the instruments at the heart of the event.
The musical part of the day explored a repertoire spanning from the Baroque to the contemporary, with works by composers including Biagio Marini, Nicola Matteis, Giuseppe Torelli, the great Niccolò Paganini, Rodolphe Kreutzer, Camillo Sivori, through to modern works by Evis Sammoutis and Michael Alec Rose.
