Il Ponte Di Leonardo

On 3 July 1502, a remarkable letter with a bold and daring proposal went on a ship from Genoa to Istanbul, signed by one of the most brilliant minds of his time: Leonardo da Vinci. It was addressed to Sultan Bayezid II and Leonardo proposed a daring project to the Sultan: the largest bridge in the world over the Golden Horn, 23 m wide, 350 m long and 40 m high! His revolutionary design never saw the light of day; only a sketch in Leonardo's notes has survived. His revolutionary design never saw the light of day. Some 500 years after Leonardo's death, this recording gives musical expression to his unfinished architectural project and builds the bridge he envisioned between East and West. Ottoman compositions, Persian poems and 16th century Italian frottole are heard, uniting the popular repertoire of two centres of musical culture of the time: Persia and the Ottoman Empire on the one hand, and Renaissance Italy on the other. Under the direction of Kiya Tabassian, Italian singer Marco Beasley and the musicians of Constantinople immerse us in the imaginary and audacious world of da Vinci's drawings.