Chamber Orchestra I MUSICI

In 1951, twelve young and promising italian musicians, mainly roman and mostly graduates of the at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, got together “inter pares” to create a unique chamber orchestra comprising six violins, two violas, two cellos, one double bass and one harpsichord.

They chose the simple, yet nice, name I MUSICI and they deliberately decided to shape the ensemble without conductor. They did so in order to create an egalitarian relationship among the twelve colleagues and friends, which would bring to their music-making a unanimity on technical and interpretative questions. It was a very unconventional but unexpectedly suitable procedure. Notably, maestro Arturo Toscanini, on hearing them rehearsing in April 1952 at the Italian Radio studios, enthused over the young orchestra in front of journalists and musical personalities, and dedicated his photograph to the group with the words “bravi, bravissimi …no! la musica non muore”, (bravo, the music will not die).

A few weeks earlier, on the 30th of March 1952, their public debut was an enormous success at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Roma; it was the starting point of an astonishing career, which in a short time catapulted them among the ranks of the great international performers.

In 2020 I Musici celebrated their 69th anniversary since the beginning of their

activity, an adventure that began in 1951, when the first members gathered. However, the official debut was on March 30, 1952 with the concert at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in Rome.

The goal that these young musicians had prefigured was to make known and spread the immense heritage of eighteenth-century Italian music, at the time still not known at all, as well as performing music of Italian authors of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Probably none of them would have imagined that the group they founded would still be around the world to play that repertoire, but that was the case. Discovering, studying, spreading, this is the tireless engine of the long wandering of I Musici di Roma in these 65 years. The beauty of music did the rest. How can we not remember that if today’s Four Seasons of Vivaldi are one of the most famous pieces in the world, we owe it to I Musici. And then Corelli, Albinoni, Locatelli, Rossini, Rota, to name some of the most accomplished authors. But not only Italian music, of course, their Mozart was awarded with the Grand Prix du Disque, and then the string symphonies of Mendelssohn, and Brandenburg Concertos of Bach, Haendel’s Concerti grossi. Certainly, this would not have been possible unless a special relationship established with the public, which still lasts today. I Musici concerts are every time a trip to a different place, you just sit in the hall and let yourself be guided and carried in the magic world of sounds. Even today, the members of the group move among the score with the same enthusiasm of their predecessors, and perhaps this is the secret of this incredible longevity: the desire to share and the enthusiasm of those who know they have a beautiful gift to give to others: Music.