by Monica Argentino
This year, Cremona Musica Exhibitions and Festival will host, as part of the Fazioli Piano Festival, the complete Chopin piano concertos in an unusual performance: piano and string quintet. Among the performers is the young pianist Francesca Antonucci, born in Senlis, France, in 2004. Having begun playing the piano at the age of five, she now continues her studies with Roberto Prosseda at the Rovigo Conservatory. Winner of numerous national and international competitions—including the Oltregiogo Piano Competition, where she won the special prize for best Chopin performance—she will perform the Polish composer’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21, in the Sala Zelioli Lanzini at 3:30 pm.
Even though you’re very young, you already have a career underway. When did you realize that the piano would be your life?
I started studying it at five years old. At first, I didn’t imagine it would become the center of my life. I lived it with discipline and hard work, but deep down I recognized that music moved me in a unique way, like nothing else could. The real decision to make it my path came at eighteen, at the end of high school: in that moment of change, with a blank space to fill, I clearly realized that my place was in the world of music.
He will perform the Concerto in Cremona n.2 2 Chopin’s version for piano and string quintet. How does your interpretative approach change?
The quintet version is more intimate and offers a different experience than the orchestral version: each instrument takes on an almost narrative role, interacting with the others and with the piano, making the performance more lively and surprising. Each intervention contributes to building the story we want to tell together with the audience. It’s an approach that stimulates and intrigues me, and I’m certain that the listener will also be able to pick up new details compared to the orchestral version.
If the audience could take home an emotion or thought after one of your concerts, what message would you like to convey?
I’d like to convey a sense of resilience and humanity, which is what this art represents for me: a look beyond the everyday, an invitation to reevaluate things. It’s difficult to describe these feelings in words, because music speaks its own language, capable of reaching the heart directly. This is why I believe in the importance of music education and in introducing young people to this tradition: a cultural heritage and a treasure we cannot lose.
