Viva Belcanto!

The title "Viva Belcanto!" cannot really be translated. "Hail to Fairy Chants" would be a rather literal translation. But Belcanto is more than that. It is a way of life, it is the joy of spontaneous and virtuosic singing, of real singing. Singing can express moods and feelings in a believable way: Joy, sorrow, love, togetherness...

The composer began with the famous trumpet signal from P.I.Tchaikovsky's "Capriccio Italiano" - and a joyful Italian song, also taken from this "Capriccio". This is followed as number 1 by the "Prisoner's Choir" from the opera "Nabucco". A song that sings of great need, but also of hope and cohesion. The number 2 is also very well known: Just a few bars are enough to recognize the "Triumph March" from Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Aida". Alfred Bösendorfer wrote a full-sounding arrangement of this march and also added a new text to it: "Viva, viva la gloria, viva la libertà" ("Long live fame, long live freedom"). After a transition with a clarinet cadenza, number 3 gives love enough room to unfold. It is a beautiful song sung by a Neapolitan fisherman in his boat, the "Santa Lucia". His boat, which often defied the elements and always brought him home safely. In number 4, the music expresses the cheerfulness and joy that can be found at big parties, but also at modern football matches. To translate this mood into music, Alfred Bösendofer drew on the drinking song from the opera "La Traviata" by Giuseppe Verdi. Finally, in the form of a fast tarantella, the famous "Funiculì, Funiculà", a tribute to a visible landmark of southern Italy: Vesuvius. Luigi Denza composed this famous song in 1880 for the opening of the cable car to Vesuvius (Monte Vesuvio funivia).