The Ridotto of the Teatro Ponchielli hosted the final concert of the second edition of Connect, Learn and Research, a training program promoted by the Municipality of Cremona as part of the 2025 initiatives of the Plan for the Safeguarding of Traditional Cremonese Violinmaking Know-How, an element of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. The event represented not only the culmination of an intensive series of workshops devoted to varnish retouching and acoustic setup, but above all the most authentic verification of the work carried out: the test of live sound.

The protagonists of the evening were I Solisti di Pavia, invited to give voice to four of the instruments refined during the laboratory, in a program spanning three cornerstones of the chamber repertoire between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, offering a wide range of timbral colors and interpretative solutions.

The concert opened with the Sextet from Richard Strauss’s opera Capriccio, a page imbued with late-Romantic aesthetics and lyricism, which introduces an opera built around one of the questions dearest to great opera composers of every era: which comes first, words or music? The ensemble delivered the piece with a compact, malleable sound, capable of sustaining the refinement of the sonic textures and the sober dialogue among the six performers, never losing clarity or cohesion.

This was followed by a great classic of the Baroque repertoire, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins, Strings and Continuo BWV 1043, made famous by historic interpretations such as those of the Oistrakh–Menuhin duo. Steering clear of outdated interpretative solutions, I Solisti di Pavia opted for a balanced middle path that sacrificed neither the quantity nor the quality of sound, while avoiding any heaviness. Articulation proved effective, phrasing fresh and natural. Particularly successful was the central movement, Largo ma non tanto, an authentic summa of Bach’s contrapuntal art in its most lyrical and communicative form, a perfect counterbalance to the two outer movements, dominated by a rhythmic element handled with energetic control.

The program concluded with Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet op. 20, a chamber masterpiece that continues to astonish with the extraordinary richness of contrasts in its score. Though written by a composer just sixteen years old, the work already reveals all the distinctive traits of Mendelssohn’s style: flowing melodies, skillful imitations, and harmonies suspended between Classicism and early Romanticism.

The first movement, which alone occupies about half of the entire composition, was approached with boldness and momentum, with particular attention to dynamic shaping; noteworthy was the great unison leading into the recapitulation, executed with confidence and precision. Of an opposite character was the Andante, languid and melancholic, at times dramatic, rendered with composed nobility. The Scherzo, with its fairy-like atmospheres, explicitly evoked the world of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, while the resounding theme of the final fugato surprised with the effectiveness of its contrast, preceded by a pianissimo of rare refinement. The stereophonic effects and dense web of imitations generated a feverish, fiery atmosphere, culminating in a heartfelt ovation from the large audience in attendance.

The concert confirmed the value of the Connect, Learn and Research approach: bringing violinmaking work out of the workshop and into direct dialogue with musicians and listeners, on stage. A concrete example of how the Cremonese violinmaking tradition can renew itself through the interaction of craftsmanship, scientific research, and musical interpretation, preserving its identity while at the same time opening itself to a fully contemporary dimension.