Once again, Palazzo Ricciarelli has kindly opened its doors to us for a concert in one of Volterra's hidden treasures. A modest but beautiful and atmospheric palace whose history dates back to 1428. Last summer it has been an inspiring venue for chamber music and, to be honest, some of the locals are annoyed because, although they all love it, there have been complaints that the road can be blocked by lingering listeners. That's why it doesn't last more than an hour. But once inside the Palazzo, time flies. This year, with music by Biber, Schmelzer, Marini and Scarlatti.

Jörgen's masterclasses are a recurring theme throughout the festival. Young students from Japan, Australia, America or Germany come to Volterra to learn for a week under his inspiring guidance and leave as different musicians. During last year's open class, some guests asked if they could join a regular class. And so this is this year: you can attend all the lessons, but if you don't want to miss any of the concerts, the open lesson is ideal!

We know, some will say: is he back again? Yes, for the third time in eight years. But we also know that some visitors will say: hey, it's about time you did it again. The opera 'Lo Speziale', once created for our festival, has been so successful that we can now say that the Fiat 500 in which it's set has travelled more kilometres as our set than it has brought olive oil to Volterra. So the production started in Mazzolla, then went to Zurich, Barcelona Cologne, Brühl, Frankfurt, Duisburg, via Luxembourg to Lodz and finally to Trondheim. Not to mention the Netherlands.
As you probably know, we run this festival without any subsidy and we thank our sponsors and guests for making it possible. But also the inhabitants of Volterra, Mazzolla and the surrounding area help us with the organisation, so we thought: one more time in a unique place, the gardens of the “Conservatorio san Lino" in the centre of Volterra, for the fans, for those who missed it and for the inhabitants who make it possible for us to organise the festival.

Marina Zyatkova-soprano
Renate Arends-soprano
Pawel Zak- tenor
Piotr Micinski- bass

The Netherlands Festival Orchestra
Jan Willem de Vriend-conductor
Eva Buchmann- stage director

It has become a tradition that we end as we began the first evening, in the beautiful gardens of Villa Palagione, in the kitchen of Don Pasquale…

Aleksandra Bednarz-soprano
Piotr Micinski-bass
Pawel Zak-tenor
Nikhil Goyal-baritone
Rnate Arends-soprano
Marina Zyatkova-soprano

The Netherlands Festival Orchestra
Jan Willem de Vriend-conductor
Eva Buchmann-stage director

Who is more excited here: the few inhabitants of Mazzolla with our chef Giuseppe or our own visitors? Some of them wrote to us after last year's festival that during the evening they wondered if what was happening was real. And indeed, it remains an incredible experience for us too. The Viti family will once again open their garden where we will play Beethoven and other classics as the sun goes down. And afterwards, in the middle of the main square of Mazzolla, we will enjoy the menu created by Giuseppe.

The Netherlands festival Orchestra
Conductor: Jan Willem de Vriend

Recital by Renate Arends and Hans Eijsackers,

We have a real diva in the house. The nicest and funniest you can imagine. She has agreed to give a recital together with the most famous and best song accompanist we know in the Netherlands. Hans Eijsackers. Schubert (is there anything more beautiful than singing and piano?) with even a clarinet as a guest, we will all experience an unprecedented highlight at the Teatro Persio Flacco.

Renate Arends-soprano
Hans Eijsackers-piano

"Magic", they say, "not of this world" or simply "how does it work"? Then, of course, we are talking about Jörgen's playing. What he can do with a trombone is truly out of this world. He travels the world with it, not only with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, but also as a soloist. Now a program with works by Schuman, ter Veldhuis, Meijering (including a tape of screaming fishermen from Sicily), some of which were composed for him.

Jörgen van Rijen-trombone
Lis Perry-violin
Johan Olof-violin
Richard Wolfe-viola
Judith Chapman-cello