Il Pellegrino at Villa Medici

Villa Medici in Rome is preparing to host and bring back to life an out-of-the ordinary musical adventure on the 24th and 25th of September, thanks to the sponsorship of BNP Paribas and Banco Nazionale de Lavoro (BNL).

In 1614, a somewhat unadventurous musician from Rome left Italy for a long, twelve-year journey that took him to the furthest reaches of India, passing through Greece, Turkey, Palestine, Egypt, Syria and Arabia.

Upon his return to Rome, Pietro della Valle would call himself “Il Pellegrino” (“The Pilgrim”). He published a highly colourful and action-packed account of his voyage and composed musical works that combined the Italian music of his era with the tones of the oriental music he discovered on his travels.

It would require an equally avid explorer to rediscover the trace of Il Pellegrino and bring his works back to life: Jean-Christophe Frisch, and his group Le Baroque Nomade, sponsored by the BNP Paribas Foundation, threw himself into such an adventure. “Pellegrino” is also available as an audio CD published by Arion.