This year we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Festival of Pentecost. Over the years men and women in our community have been actively involved in keeping alive the musical tradition of the region, their commitment in turn renewed by the younger generation so that our network of relationships with musicians, the public, and institutions has grown and strengthened.
This season, therefore, not only serves as a moment of celebration to share with our members and our audiences but is also a way of highlighting the varied nature of our work, and of remembering our past achievements in the belief that music is a powerful repository of memory.
The spirit of celebration is reflected in our special inaugural concert.

This will be held on  7 June in the refectory at  Badia a Passignano and will feature the Souvenir de Florence by Tchaikovsky, a work particularly dear to us as the recording of the performance by the Quartetto Fone with Harald Schoeneweg and Sadao Harada was the first CD we produced. This opening concert will also include the Sextet op.18 by Brahms, following our long journey through the chamber music of Brahms that began with the opening of the 2019 season. On this occasion three already celebrated musicians, Andrea Obiso, Luca Ranieri and Alessio Pianelli, will be joined by three younger ones. Our public has been able to follow their development since the very beginning when they first turned to music: Ludovico Mealli, a recent winner of the competition for first violinists in the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Margherita Fanton, much appreciated by our public for in her performance in the Quartetto Dynamis, and Elettra Mealli, who has already appeared at the festival with the ORT and other ensembles.

On 14 June  Francesca Dego returns. We remember the generosity of her performance together with Daniele Rustioni, in 2020, when in the first concert after the pandemic she agreed to play for us in circumstances still far from ideal. This year, accompanied by Francesca Leonardi, Dego will play music by Tartini, Berio, Debussy, Respighi and Ravel.

On 20 June Alessio Dainese, another young but already well recognised performer, who at only 23 won the competition for first horn in the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, will play in the horn quintet by Mozart and in the sextet for two horns by Beethoven, together with his colleague Michele Canori. They will be joined by another group who have been close to us for years, the Quartetto di Fiesole: they will also perform music by Webern and Mendelssohn.

On 28 June we have the much anticipated return of the clarinetist Nicolas Baldeyrou, who has kept his promise to return with Tiziano Mealli and Giovanni Gnocchi to complete the Brahms cycle. This will be a real tour de force with performances of the Trio op. 114 and the two Sonatas op.120 in the same concert.

Our final concert will also be a celebration, marking  the 90th birthday of  Bruno Canino, who has so often taken part in our festival.
The Comune of Barberino Tavarnelle has decided to award him the Sigillum Comunis and as part of this event the celebrated pianist will play a selection of his best-loved pieces.

Four later concerts in the cloisters at Badia a Passignano will be offered by the Orchestra della Toscana, faithful and invaluable supporters of our summer season. The programmes will range from Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik and the Serenade for strings by Tchaikovsky to Boccherini’s Cello concerto and Haydn’s Symphony no. 88, and from Mozart’s Violin concerto KV 219 to Beethoven’s Symphony no.7. In addition, the soprano Letizia Bertoldi will further enrich the concert on 31 July with extracts from Mozart including the celebrated aria by the Queen of the Night, Der Holle rache.

But we could not bring the celebrations to a close without remembering those who over the years have done so much to keep this extraordinary festival alive. On  28 August, therefore in the Church of Santa Lucia al Borghetto in Tavarnelle, we are happy that Michael Chance will  return to conduct a concert of sacred music in memory of Don Biagio Della Vecchia, marking thirty years since his death. Don Biagio, the first prior after the return of the Vallombrosians to  Badia a Passignano in 1986, first gave us permission to hold the festival at Badia and was its most fervent supporter.

This is also an occasion to acknowledge the contribution of all those who have taken part in organizing our events, to reflect on our achievements and on all those whose dedication has made the festival such a success.