The ILMC Foundation acquires the archive and violin of Apulian musician Cesare Savino

The composer was interned in the British camp at Huyton

Following the recent acquisitions of musical manuscripts produced in prisons and civil and military internment camps during the Second World War (André Losay, Charles Abeles, Rudolf Karel, etc.), the ILMC Foundation of Barletta can now include in its Archive and in its museum and library heritage an important documentary, musical, museum and organological acquisition: the Marinelli-Savino family of Sammichele di Bari has donated to Francesco Lotoro the musical manuscripts written in the Huyton Camp by Cesare Savino, the books used by Savino during his internment - including a small dictionary for learning the English language - and his violin .

Savino Archive Materials and the Musician's Violin

On 27 November 1941, after the fall of Gondar (Ethiopian province of Begemder) and the surrender of the Italian troops stationed in Italian East Africa to the British troops, the musician Cesare Savino, born in 1908 in Sammichele di Bari (Puglia) and a soldier stationed in Harar (Ethiopia), was taken prisoner and taken to the Huyton internment camp near Liverpool (Great Britain).

Francesco Lotoro with the Marinelli-Savino family

Savino was already in Italian East Africa before Italy entered the war in June 1940; between military service and military internment, he spent six years away from home.

A string virtuoso, excellent violinist and mandolinist , Savino wrote a 59-page music notebook and another smaller one; he took his violin with him to Huyton Camp, and died in 1989 in his hometown.

Cesare Savino's violin

The violin is in good condition and, according to an initial check-up, can be restored and made playable again ; it will soon be delivered for restoration to the violin maker Bruno Di Pilato of Ruvo di Puglia, who already restored the violin used in Auschwitz I Stammlager by the Polish musician Jan Stanislaw Hillenbrand for the ILMC Foundation.

Francesco Lotoro with Cesare Savino's violin

Savino's daughter, Maria Santa, is also an excellent pianist and, as she did years ago during the filming of the film MAESTRO about the search for Francesco Lotoro, she played the beautiful Valzer Nostalgia, written by her father during his imprisonment, on her piano at home; a true generational transition that we can only be thrilled and proud of.

On May 9th at Barletta Castle , as part of the Maggio dei Libri events organized by the Municipality and the Municipal Library of Barletta, Cesare Savino's Valzer Nostalgia will be performed in a version for string quartet.

*We thank the Fondazione Pugliesi per la Musica - ETS for their kind and effective collaboration.

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