"We have become a civilization of people who want to see, no longer hear, feel badly, due to lack of knowledge, due to ignorance."
Controversial, although "happy to be here with my young musicians from the Cherubini Orchestra", Riccardo Muti yesterday evening at the Pergolesi Theater in Jesi, in the province of Ancona, inaugurated the celebrations for the 250th anniversary of his birth (which took place in nearby Maiolati ) by Gaspare Spontini, with a concert at the end of which he attacked the oblivion into which so much of the Italian musical heritage has fallen.
A very political speech, "even if politics isn't done from the podium", aimed above all "at those who have the fate of our country in their hands" to ask for more attention to music, over 20 minutes long, punctuated by applause from the audience.
Italian music "dominated the world with Spontini in Berlin, Mercadante in Madrid, Cherubini in Paris, Salieri and, even before, Porpora in Vienna, Cimarosa and Paisiello in St. Petersburg. Our composers made Europe, before ours politicians and economists".
Muti praised the Marche, a region that "has given birth to many artists, not only in the field of architecture and painting, but also of music. Just a few kilometers away you have Giovan Battista Pergolesi (born in Jesi, ed) and Spontini".
And he praised the two cities that "are doing their utmost to highlight the importance of these two giants of music", but "many people don't know who they are and this is a shame for us".
Because "Italian music is not simply the coarse expression of high notes held endlessly, but our history is a history of noble and great composers".
Composers who "made Europe before our politicians and economists".
"Just think that Spontini was a king first in Paris and then in Berlin - Muti said -, and in Wagner's memoirs we read that when Spontini arrived in Dresden to direct The Vestal Virgin he got out of a princely carriage coming from a humble house in Maiolati. Wagner even kneels in front of him."
Two "forgotten" music giants: "Pergolesi was greatly admired by Bach, at the age of 26 he died leaving us incredible masterpieces".
Masterpieces rarely performed and the same happens for The Vestal Virgin or Agnes of Hohenstaufen by Spontini or other works.
"The 'Vincerò' which lasts half an hour is fine and is also pleasant - the maestro joked - but it doesn't represent all of our music".
And "if you go and see Puccini's score, it doesn't express 'ad libitum' until everyone, gripped by frenetic orgasms, screams wow".
"What happened to our country? - Muti asked -. Has it happened that on big occasions we dress well, appear on stages and then disappear? Or do we have to get it into our heads that music and the history of music taught well and brought to the new generations can improve the future of our country?".
However, all of this "doesn't happen" and for this reason the public no longer knows how to listen.
"We owe a debt to our past - he became heated -, we have an infinite history of beauty and art that many young people today do not know and which is only becoming an opportunity for some privileged people to listen. I am not a politician, but with with great melancholy I approach the end of life because we are no longer worthy of the roots on which we made flowers, or trees or leaves grow".
"Verdi remains the Michelangelo of music and covered the entire nineteenth century."
And Puccini is also representative of a certain period.
But "when Spontini writes the Vestal Virgin, it contains everything that Wagner will later take. This is what we are and this is what those who lead Italy should know and this is what they should teach in school".
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