RENATO DE BARBIERI

Matej Isak

“You known the Italian violinist Renato de Barbieri? Son of the famous violin maker Paolo de Barbieri, he was a child in his father’s shop by the great violinists of the century, including Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz and Bronislaw Huberman, as well as Mischa Elman and Váša Příhoda with whom he perfected. He started the five-year violin study, at eight he performed the Mozart concert in G major with the orchestra. He has won numerous violin competitions and the prize of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana di Siena, starting the concert activity. Very young, after attending the celebrations for the centenary of Nicolò Paganini’s death, he was invited in 1945 to perform, with the 1742 Guarneri del Gesù, ‘Cannone’ the great violin that belonged to Paganini, in a radio concert all over the world. With the same instrument he shot in 1947 a short film entitled The Voice of Paganini, which for the musical performance won him the 1st prize at the Venice Film Festival. In 1958, he was appointed a member of the Honorary Committee for Ysaye centenary celebrations.” 

“In 1965 he performed the Beethoven Concert on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Mozarteum in Salzburg and on November 22 of the same year he married in Genoa with Maria “Mariangiola” Firpo. On October 5, 1966, his son Henry was born. In 1971, he played with the Paganini violin a concert at the Liederhalle in Stuttgart with a triumphal success: it was the first time that the famous Guarneri was played abroad after the death of Paganini. His is also the soundtrack of Nicolò Paganini (1973). In 1980 he executed the 24 Paganini Capriccis in Switzerland, writing again the voice of the precious “Cannon” with which in 1982 he inaugurated the celebrations held in Genoa for the bicentenary of the birth of Paganini. Musical criticism puts it in the narrow box of those concertists who have given their own physiognomy to the violinist style of the twentieth century. “Golden Frond” 1961, “Eur Prize” 1974, “Regional Ligure Prize” 1975, “International Prize for Concert” 1977, in 1981 he was awarded the “San Giorgio d’Argento” and Rome, in Campidoglio , in May 1982, the “Golden Violin”, on the occasion of the bicentenary of the birth of Paganini. Also in 1982 and again in Rome the “David of Michelangelo” Award; in 1983, in Milan, the “Meneghino Prize”. In the same year he was awarded the “Fieschi d’oro” Prize and in 1986 the International Prize “Guido Monaco-Apollo Musagete” in Talla (Arezzo).

Memorable performance in honor of Queen Elizabeth II of England on his visit to Genoa in 1980. In December 1985 he received the Targa d’honor for the Year of the Music of International Rotaries. In 1987 Raitre dedicated his biography “Renato De Barbieri: a life for the violin” by Arnaldo Bagnasco directed by Bruno Ferracciolo. In 1988 he was awarded the European Gold Medal for Concertism and awarded the Honorary Citizenship of Mezzolombardo (Trento), where he founded the international summer music courses in 1983. In 1990, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Paganini’s death, he was appointed Honorary President of the International Prize of Paganini violin. Recently, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his artistic career, he was conferred on him by the Mayor of Genoa with the “Golden Griffin”, the highest recognition of the city in memory of the seal of the ancient Republic. Jury member of the most important international violin competitions, Renato de Barbieri, during his career, has been awarded numerous and prestigious honors, both Italian and foreign, including the Knight of the Great Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic , the Gold Medal for the well-being of the school, of culture and art and the Cross of honor for the art and science conferred on him by the President of the Austrian Republic. 
On the proposal of the Mayor of Genoa, he was buried in the Pantheon of the Cemetery of Staglieno (Genoa), where he rested beside Camillo Sivori, Nino Bixio and other illustrious Genoese. In 2011, the town of Mezzocorona (Trento), a royal landowner to which he was very affiliated and where he stayed for long periods, titled the urban park adjacent to the Town Hall. In the same year, the City of Genoa decided to dedicate the stretch between Via Roma and Galleria Mazzini to its illustrious fellow citizen. In 2013, on the idea of ​​violinist and violinist Paolo Turri, the Orchestra Giovanile Trentina, directed by mo Andrea Fuoli, dedicated to the great violinist a national violin and bow competition, addressed to young people and held in Mezzocorona, in order to honor even more active and special the memory of the great master de Barbieri, also nicknamed ‘Paganini’ of the ‘900. Finally, in May 2014, the Municipality of Mezzolombardo (Trento) dedicated the concert hall of the Musical Complex to the new Cultural Center “La Corte”. – Saulo Zucchello