On thursday october 31st, at 9 p.m. at Teatro Olimpico di Roma (P.zza
Gentile da Fabriano, 17), organized by Accademia Filarmonica Romana, an
interesting concert named “Il Cammino di Santiago” was performed. During
the concert the New London Consort, directed by Philip Pickett, played
componiments of Martin Codax and componiments taken by Codex Calixtinus
and by the manuscripts of Las Huelgas and of Escorial, with the purpose
of recalling the pilgrimage of devotes to the sanctuary of Santiago de
Campostela which happened between IX and XII century.
In this spanish town, whose sanctuary used to attract devotes from everywhere
in Europe, with no distinction of class and cense, plenty of very different
cultures melted together and music was surely one of the first forms of
expression to be influenced by this precious condition. The concert of
Philip Pickett appears to be particulary interesting, even because of the
fact that this english musician is famous for his philological studies
of ancient music: this sounds as a precise guarantee that the performance
is historically and scientifically exact and correct.
Alessandro Annunziata