Musical High Point

A big ‘thank you’ to Jerry Dunne (21) for generously providing an opportunity for those in residence to experience a virtuoso performance by two, Italian violinists of international stature – Fabrizio Falasca and Raffaele Pagano. The performance in the Great Hall was delayed for an hour due to an accident, affecting the road the violinists’ journey, but the wait was well worthwhile. While both artists played individually, their duet versions of other pieces, including Vivaldi’s Four Seasons suite, filled the Hall with dramatic sound.

Falasca’s accolades and appointments are too numerous to list here, but he is currently violin professor at the Conservatory of Potenza, Italy, and at the London Performing Academy of Music. In 2016, he won the Concertmaster position of Tyroler Symphonie Orchester at Innsbruck and joined the Philharmonia Orchestra in London as Assistant Leader. Pagano leads the London Arte Chamber Orchestra, is Concertmaster of the Oxford Festival and plays regularly with the Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also played as Concertmaster in several orchestras of his home city of Naples. Pagano also composes music for the violin.

The instruments played by the performers have their own claims to fame. Falasca played a violin made by Joseph Guarneri in 1727. His father, Andrea, was a contemporary of Stradivari. The instrument was a gift to Falasca by the Barison family and is reputed to be valued at around £1million. Pagano’s violin was made by the father of his first violin teacher and is also considered priceless. His bow he won in an international violin competition in Cremona – the home of the legendary luthiers, Stradivarius and Guarneri dynasties.