OTTAVIO DANTONE.

From  Toccata Alte Musik Aktuell  September/October 2004

Interview with Ottavio Dantone

Ottavio Dantone was born in the South of Italy and studied the harpsichord  and  organ at the Conservatorio “Giuseppe Verdi” in Milan.  During his studies he developed an interest for early music . In 1985 he received the award for thorough-bass in Paris, and in 1986 he was the first Italian to win the Bruges competition for the harpsichord.

In 1989 he performed as  harpsichordist  for the Accademia Bizantina, founded in Ravenna in 1996, and since 1996 he has also been the ensemble’s musical director.  The original interview was in the Italian language.

Maestro Dantone, how did you become a musician?

At the age of six I was spontaneously drawn to music and so I began to read, write and compose music without the help of a teacher. I felt a real affinity for music. At the age of eight or nine I became part of the choir  in the cathedral of Milan. It was there that I started my  studies of the organ and piano. At the age of thirteen I attended Music School where I received a diploma in organ.

I also became interested in early music, starting on my own at first. I studied early composers , I started to play the harpsichord on my own and, for this instrument I received my diploma in Milan, after which I attended further specialisation courses to improve my  harpsichord skills.

Then I worked as harpsichordist, either for ensembles or as soloist, until the nineties when I became   musical director of various musical ensembles of early music and I accepted direction of  Accademia Bizantina. As musical director of opera, I also conduct operas as well as  symphonic music.

Was the name” Accademia Bizantina”  coined   by Jorg Demus’

Yes,  it was. The  history of the name “Accademia Bizantina”  took its origin from the famous pianist Jorg Demus who had performed at a concert together with the ensemble. He was the one to propose the name because he said, “You come from Ravenna, from a city full of Byzantine mosaics and monuments, so why don’t you simply call yourselves Accademia Bizantina?” And from then on the ensemble went by that name.

What changes were made after your entrance into the ensemble?

I began with Accademia Bizantina  in 1989 as harpsichordist and then, in 1996, they asked me to take over the musical direction. Initially the ensemble began as a chamber orchestra performing on modern instruments, then gradually began to use baroque bows and  strings made in gut. Following this authentic instruments were introduced. When I became musical director we decided to become an ensemble exclusively of early music performing on period instruments.

We made this choice because we felt that we could give the best interpretation of Baroque music with  authentic instruments, the language of the music and its articulation is much easier when using period instruments.   The use of  authentic instruments is not just for its own sake.  In our view they are indispensable if you want to play, and interpret this type of music well and give the public the best possible performance of it.

You were born in Puglia, weren’t you?

Yes, that’s right.

Do you come from a musical family?

No, not at all. And they were not all happy with my decision to become a musician.

But all Italians are musicians!!!

Yes, but not my family. For them the fact that I wanted to become  a musician was really strange. Now they’re really happy with my decision.

I wanted to tell you more about Accademia Bizantina; well, it was founded in 1983, so last year we celebrated its  20^th birthday. The composer who represents us most is undoubtedly Corelli, who was born in Fusignano, a few kilometres from Ravenna.

So this year we concluded a festival dedicated to Corelli  which takes place every two years in Fusignano and to which international guests participate. And this year we discovered that in the theatre of Ravenna there is a table  dedicated to Corelli.

Am I right in saying that you also perform operas by Sarti?

Yes, also Sarti is an important composer of our area. He came  from Faenza, another town near Ravenna. In 1999 we performed one of his operas “Giulio Sabino”, which also happened to be my first operatic production with the Accademia Bizantina. We perform other operas by Sarti during our concerts and on this subject we have other plans. For instance, we went to St Petersburg where Sarti lived for a long time. We held a concert at the Hermitage.

And now you’re working with Andreas Scholl.

Our collaboration with Andreas Scholl and Decca came about because Andreas Scholl was looking for an Italian ensemble for the project “Arcadia”. He had heard some of our recordings and purposely came to Basle to see one of my concerts. We met on that occasion and decided to work together on this recording project.  We get on really well together and have similar views on many things. Our first rehearsal was absolutely perfect. I remember it so well even now as it went so smoothly.

We have other plans with Decca. At the moment, for example, we are doing our second  CD with works  for harpsichord and symphonies taken from oratories by Alessandro Scarlatti (Decca 470 650-2, SACD).  These concertos have never been recorded before but  they can be found at the British Library  and also in a version only for harpsichord. My job was to reconstruct the part of the orchestra on this version. We completed the CD with symphonies from oratories which were in harmony with the concertos. These were  easy to choose just from the harpsichord or organ parts, even in the sinfonie di chiesa.

At this point the question arises “Riccardo Muti and the Ravenna Festival”!

Yes, Riccardo Muti lives in Ravenna. For this reason he has  attended many of our concerts and never fails to come when he is in Ravenna. He’s not a lover of period instruments, except when he hears Accademia Bizantina, of course.

He is also the honorary president of the Accademia Bizantina, isn’t he?

Yes, he has been for many years now and  he has always been  very close to the town of Ravenna and to the Accademia Bizantina. On one occasion I also worked with him on an opera. And ,of course, we are also close to the Ravenna Festival where we are invited every year to represent early music in performances of Baroque music such as “Orlando” by Handel . Next year we shall be performing the Mass in B Minor by  Bach .

So the official seat of the Accademia Bizantina is in Ravenna, is it?

Yes, that’s right . It’s there that we rehearse together and have all our offices. All our productions originate in Ravenna, and half of the orchestra lives there, the others come from around Ravenna or further away, for example from Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, and Japan, etc. We always meet up in Ravenna to begin new projects and do rehearsals.

If you had plenty of money and all possibilities, what would you do?

Well, here in Italy we don’t receive any type of financial assistance, so we have to live on the income of our concerts. If we had all the money we wanted we would open a music centre, possibly in Ravenna, for the teaching of music for the new generation. There we could  find new talent and musicians as a tribute to the reawakening of interest in early music in Italy.

Now would be the perfect time for this. But there is still so much work to do. In fact , in Italy not many Baroque operas are performed, and also not very much Baroque music in general, even if the level of Italian musicians has markedly improved. But in order to study early music it’s still necessary to go abroad, as here in Italy in-depth study of early music does not exist.  Italian maestros are very well-known and appreciated abroad, but they do not teach in Italy, as there is no possibility of doing so. Another plan of ours is to perform Baroque operas in public places  to heighten the public’s  awareness of this type of music. This will take place in April/May or September/October in historical palaces in Ravenna, Ferrara, Faenza etc., where the musicians can  talk  to the audience about their instruments as well as performing on them .

Like a sort of tactile lesson?

Yes, this is very important for the audience. And the demand for early music is much greater than you would imagine. We just have  to find the right way of presenting it to the public. In the past few years we have performed “L’Olimpiade” by Pergolesi, “Orfeo” by Monteverdi, and now “Orlando” by Handel, and, in the near future, “L’Ulisse” by Monteverdi and “Il Flaminio” by Pergolesi.  The artistic directors did not believe that these operas could be so successful.  Then they realised that  there is a great demand for this type of music and so now they only want to put Baroque operas  on the stage. The public’s interest was a great surprise for them, too.

Do you perform these operas in the open air or in the theatre?

Oh no , we do these in the theatre, as a real production, during  the operatic season  in which other operas like those of Verdi or Puccini are performed. The demand from other theatres is on the increase because the public really want to see Baroque  operas now.

Maestro Dantone, thank you very much for speaking to us.