From 8 June to 28 September 2025, the Festival of Ancient Music directed by Maestro Giorgio Sasso returns to Rome, in the fascinating architectural setting of the Basilica of Ss. Bonifacio e Alessio all'Aventine, a festival dedicated to the great vocal and instrumental repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries performed on historical instruments, in one of the most evocative places in the Capital.
The Festival, an event always highly anticipated and now consolidated in the Roman musical panorama, is produced by Progetto Sonora Impresa Sociale Srl and organized by Associazione Insieme Strumentale di Roma and ACMT – Associazione Culturale Marco Taschler, with the contribution of the Ministry of Culture. After years of management by the ISR, from this year the initiative benefits from the productive and organizational support of Progetto Sonora, maintaining the original quality and spirit unchanged.
The event is divided into two distinct periods: the first, in June, offers four Sunday events featuring great ancient music, while the second, scheduled for September, offers three evenings dedicated to masterpieces of the sacred and profane repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries.
On Sunday, June 8, the festival opens with “Two Romans born elsewhere”, a concert by the Ensemble Barocco di Napoli, which pays homage to two greats of the Italian Baroque, Alessandro Scarlatti and Arcangelo Corelli, both linked to the eternal city by a strong artistic bond.
On June 15, it is the turn of the harpsichordist Simone Pierini with one of the absolute masterpieces of the European keyboard repertoire: the Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach, proposed in their original version for harpsichord.
On June 22, three excellent musicians – Manuel Granatiero (flute), Teresa and Marco Ceccato (violin and cello) – will perform music by Haydn and a special transcription of Mozart’s Serenade KV 439, originally conceived for three basset horns and here re-proposed in a brilliant instrumental transcription that offers the audience the charm of Viennese classicism.
Concluding the June cycle, on Sunday 29, is the Accademia Veracini of Florence, a youth formation that grew under the guidance of Maestro Sasso himself, with a program that includes music by Corelli, Bach and Vivaldi and celebrates the dialogue between the Italian school and European musical culture of the early eighteenth century.
On September 14, the sacred repertoire is at the centre with Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's Stabat Mater, performed by the Insieme Strumentale di Roma and the voices of Minni Diodati (soprano) and Lucia Napoli (contralto).
On Sunday 21 September, Un Pastiche is scheduled, a first performance conceived for the Festival, which proposes an original artistic project: through an anecdotal, cultured and light-hearted story, the audience is transported into the music of the 18th century, between short musical elaborations and famous pieces reworked for the occasion, such as La Follia by Vivaldi, the Passacaglia from Radamisto by Händel and pages by Corelli. The protagonists of this evening are Minni Diodati, Giorgio and Daniele Sasso, Andrea Fossà and Salvatore Carchiolo.
The Festival ends on Sunday 28 September with Palestrina Vs Lassus, a confrontation between two giants of Renaissance polyphonic music: Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Orlando di Lasso. The music will be performed by the vocal ensemble Extravocalia, composed of Carla Ferrari (soprano), Isabella Candeloro (mezzosoprano), Leonardo Malara (tenor) and Marzio Montebello (bass).
Photo: official poster of the event
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