Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze launches musical short film Quartetto

The Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze has premiered Quartetto, an original musical short film commissioned to composer and director Giorgio Ferrero. The release is part of the museum’s reopening celebrations, alongside a new web portal offering a rich digital content schedule. Director Cecilie Hollberg stated the project continues the museum’s major renovation, which in 2021 presents the same masterpieces in a renewed guise, with a more contemporary image and a completely revised website aimed at providing Italian and international audiences with a greater, more complete, easily accessible offering. The suite Quartetto was written by Ferrero with Rodolfo Mongitore for four antique instruments from or inspired by the museum’s priceless collection: a reconstruction of Bartolomeo Cristofori’s 1690 Spinetta Ovale, a baroque cello similar to the Stradivari on display, an ancient harp, and a hunting oboe from the collection of the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini di Firenze. The composition was created during the last museum closure due to the pandemic and recorded by four prominent baroque music teachers: Simone Bensi and Rossella Giannetti (Conservatorio di Firenze) on hunting oboe and spinet, Maria Cleary (Conservatorio di Ginevra) on ancient harp, and composer Marco Robino on baroque cello. Musical supervision was entrusted to musician and musicologist Pedro Memelsdorff.