Florenz - Villa Medicea di Castello

Canzoni per Roberto...and you probably think that we mean Robert Schumann : ) but actually a very different Robert was the reason for our concert in Firenze at the Accademia della Crusca. It was all because of Mister Robert Rüegg. That‘s right! mathias‘ father finished his dissertation about Italian dialects in 1956. And now all these years later, his visionary works were translated and published in Italy: Sulla geografia linguistica dell' italiano parlato/ Franco Cesati Editore, thanks to Sandro Bianconi. Can you imagine? And for this special presentation of his work we were invited to play in honour of Robert Rüegg in beautiful Firenze. The forword of the book was written by mathias and is a letter to his daughter Naima about his father and to celebrate this special occasion, Naima came all the way from Brussels! Naima is an amazing dancer studying at the one and only school for contemporary dance called P.A.R.T.S in Brussels. I have been working with Naima before, once for our music video „Diamonds & Pearls“ that we choreographed and danced together : ) and once she performed with us live at the Porgy dancing to „Leiermann“ by Franz Schubert. And this is what we did once more, for our last song we chose Leiermann and mathias, Naima and I performed all together. Also part of our set was mathias‘ stunning composition of Francesco de Assisi‘s „Sonnengesang“ - „Brother Sun and Sister Moon“. It‘s maybe the most challenging ballad I have ever sung, it surprises me constantly and always leads me to an unexpected place in the best way! As mathias and I had a duo performance, our sound check was really short and we were treated to delicicous italian food, I think I found myself with three plates of Antipasti in my hands : ). Thank you Sandro Bianconi for inviting us to this wonderful place! mathias had also prepared a speech about his father in ITALIAN : ), oh yes it‘s true and he was asking the waiters or the concierge for input on his accentuation : ), they helped him and he did really really well!!!Bravissimo mathias : )!The whole ceremony took place at Villa Medicea di Castello and it looked just like I had imagined a Villa in Tuscany – incredibly beautiful! When you walk within these walls, you feel like you are in a different world. It is truly stunning. And of course you can imagine what Tuscany has to offer : )! I ate pasta all day long, drank as much coffee as I could, ate ice cream, gazed at Michel Angelo‘s David and the incredible Dome in the middle of town. And of course mathias had to buy shoes : )! I fell in love with Firenze and hope to be back soon (also because we heard wonderful street musicians „I Citofoni“ to which Naima and I couldn‘t help but dance to : ) )!We all traveled back to Vienna together - Naima had performances coming up at the Kunstraum Niederösterreich and the Porgy & Bess and mathias and I had to get back to rehearsals for our concert in Zürich...back to Vienna, back to Robert and now I mean Robert Schumann : )!

Yours Lia

The Event:
Florenz (I), Villa Medicea di Castello