Rondò Veneziano is an Italian and Swiss chamber orchestra led by composer Gian Piero Reverberi and formed by him in 1979. They still tour to this day, despite Reverberi pushing eighty, and will be performing in Lucerne on 20th October. What is unusual about the ensemble is that, although specialising in forms of music from the Baroque and Classical periods, particularly the rondo, hence their name, they have a modern bass and drum rhythm section and synthesisers. Specifically, there are usually nine members: one bassist, one drummer, three violinists, one violist, one cellist, one oboist and one flotist. This updates classical orchestral compositions, both rearrangements of old works and new original pieces, into more of a classic or prog rock intermediary. Rondò Veneziano have always worn period costumes when performing, which distinguishes the group from any possible session musicians to create an extended orchestra for live performances; but for their album La Serenissima, released in English as Venice in Peril, the orchestra themselves sometimes appeared as robots in period costume for publicity events, reflecting the artwork of the album cover and thus aesthetically blending tradition and futurism. There is, then, with regard to tradition, a definite congruence with the exhortions of a certain poet-philosopher of Italian fascism to 'make it new.'
The following is an interview I did with Dorin Alexandru of the Council of European Canadians. The Council was set up in 2014 by Professor Ricardo Duchesne to promote and defend the interests of European Canadians. Dorin's poetry is featured in the current issue of Mjolnir Magazine.
On the threshold of the cultural struggle there exists the hammer that is Mjolnir. Now if you haven't heard about Mjolnir, you haven't been very active in keeping up with the Right. Mjolnir
is the pet project literary magazine of David Yorkshire, self-described
as "the first step in the cultural fightback against the tidal wave of
leftist propaganda" — and a big step indeed.
