Concert for cello and voice by Naomi Berrill to celebrate the Family Pact and the Electress Palatine

On October 31st the Uffizi Galleries celebrate Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici and her signing of the Family Pact with free admission to the Uffizi, Boboli Gardens and Pitti Palace, and a concert in homage to the last descendant of the Medici dynasty!

On the afternoon of October 31st cellist Naomi Berrill will give in the White Hall of Pitti Palace a personal portrait of the Electress Palatine through the music that is supposed to have accompanied her troubled life as the last heir of the Medici family and great patron of the arts. Fascinated by the great Baroque composers such as Corelli, Scarlatti, Vivaldi and Handel, Anna Maria Luisa always wished to be surrounded by musicians and composers who at her the court were therefore largely free to create and compose. Naomi Berrill will also expand her repertoire to other composers of the same period such as Henry Purcell and the composer and soprano Barbara Strozzi. A special focus will be dedicated to Florentine Francesca Caccini, the first woman composer, who, although born eighty years before Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, undoubtedly played a fundamental role in Florentine and European music scene at the time of the Medici Grand Duchy. The program includes pieces by Italian and foreign authors and original compositions by Berrill herself.

On this special occasion, on display the Portrait of Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici by Antonio Franchi from around 1690, and one of the etchings by Alfonso Parigi drawn from Ferdinando Saracinelli’s libretto written for a ballet set to music by Caccini, that is, “La Liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola di Alcina".

Programme

Henri Purcell - A new ground

Barbara Strozzi - Che si può fare

Francesca Caccini - arrangiamento dall’opera La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina

Ornella Vanoni - Senza Paura

Mina - Nessuno

Nina Simone - Sugar in my Bowl

Billie Holiday - Now or never

Madeleine Peyroux - Don’t wait too long

Blossom Dearie - It’s spring

Naomi Berrill - Gravity

Naomi Berrill - Ginkgo Biloba

Naomi Berrill - Oak and sister spring

Naomi Berrill - Marmeid Dance

Naomi Berrill - Lady Lightouse