Leila Shirvani and Domenico Di Leo
“Hidden Dedication”
Leila SHIRVANI – cello
Domenico DI LEO – piano
In today’s world of classical music, it’s possible to encounter many concert performers of undeniable professional ability.
Far rarer are musicians capable of touching the soul, inspiring the thrill and vertigo of art, as Leila Shirvani and Domenico Di Leo do. This elite duo brings together two exceptional talents, trained under great international masters: their artistic understanding was born and consolidated spontaneously, founded on a shared genuine love for music, a diviner’s sensitivity, and a unique ability to communicate.
Their concert is a profound human experience, a magical inner journey on the wave of sound, thanks to the special fusion between Shirvani’s marvelous instrumental voice and Di Leo’s extraordinary piano touch.
Anyone fortunate enough to attend will immediately notice: in the hands of Shirvani and Di Leo, music always flows new, intense, poetic, and vibrant, in the great masterpieces of chamber music or in the moving versions of Persian songs, a tribute to the cellist’s origins. She is fiercely committed to supporting Iranian women’s rights, to whom she has specifically dedicated concerts and awareness-raising and solidarity initiatives.
The duo’s vast repertoire includes many of the most important works dedicated to the two instruments by major classical, romantic, and modern composers (Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Rachmaninov, Martinu, Castelnuovo-Tedesco), as well as evocative and fascinating works of folk inspiration, among which several beautiful traditional songs (Persian, Armenian, Ukrainian, Sardinian, Albanian) stand out.
The two maestros are colleagues at the Nino Rota Conservatory in Monopoli, where they develop special joint projects to convey to young people their engaging vision of music: not just a technique and a profession, but a way of being, a lifestyle.
Program
L. V. BEETHOVEN Sonata No. 5, Op. 102, No. 2
(1770 – 1827)
– Allegro con brio
– Adagio con molto sentimento d’affetto
– Allegro. Allegro fugato
I. STRAVINSKY Italian Suite
(1882 – 1971)
– Introduction
– Serenade
– Aria
– Tarantella
– Finale
N. V. WESTERHOUT Romance
(1857 – 1898)
B. MARTINU Variations on a Theme by Rossini
(1890 – 1959)
N. PAGANINI Bravura Variations from the Aria
(1782 – 1840)
“From Your Starry Throne”
from Moses by G. Rossini
M. CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO
(1895 – 1968) Figaro – Paraphrase
from “The Barber of Seville”
by G. Rossini