Composed between 1805 and 1806, during a particularly happy period for Beethoven, who was experiencing an intense and significant romance with Josephine Brunswick, the Fourth Piano Concerto , with the lyrical nature of its themes, seems to faithfully capture the composer's joy. The Concerto was first performed privately in the home of Prince Lobkowitz in March 1807, and in public on 22 December 1808 at the Theater an der Wien, within the famous Academy where the composer also presented his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies . Composer Johann Friedrich Reichardt left us a very detailed account of that evening in a letter:

“We sat there from half past six until half past ten in the freezing cold, and we learned that even beautiful things can get boring. Poor Beethoven, who could have earned his first and only profit of the year from this concert, had had difficulties and disagreements in organizing it. […] The singers and orchestra were made up of very heterogeneous elements. It had not even been possible to obtain a dress rehearsal of all the pieces, full of very difficult passages. You will be amazed at all that this most fertile genius and tireless worker accomplished during these four hours. First a Pastoral Symphony or memories of country life, full of lively pictures and images. 

Parabola Romantica

Politeama Garibaldi - Palermo

Incontri Musicali Del Terzo Tipo - "foss Late Night"

Composed in 1807 for Heinrich Joseph von Collin's tragedy Coriolanus , the overture was the only piece from an original project that included composing an entire cycle of incidental music for this play. Like other Beethoven overtures, this one immediately found a permanent place in the symphonic repertoire, regardless of the performance of the play for which it was conceived. The overture was most likely performed only at the tragedy's premiere, on April 24, 1807, although its music had already been appreciated a month earlier at a concert held at Prince Lobkowitz's palace under Beethoven himself, during which the Fourth Symphony and the Fourth Piano Concerto were also performed . This overture reveals the tragic grandeur of Coriolanus, a character whose historical reality is uncertain. After conquering the Volscian city of Corioli, the hero was exiled by the Romans for his despotic rule. Taking refuge with the Volscians, he decided to take revenge by leading the enemy army against his homeland. As he approached the gates of the city, Coriolanus was joined by his mother Veturia and his wife Volumnia, carrying their two young children in their arms. The two women begged him not to raise arms against Rome. Heeding their fervent prayer, the leader then decided to retreat, but was executed by the Volscians on charges of treason. The entire overture, which opens on a tragic C minor with three celebrated crescendos of string unisons that pave the way for the full orchestral explosion, thrives on the contrast between Coriolanus's fighting spirit, effectively captured in the first theme, and his wife Volumnia's imploring spirit, equally powerfully expressed in the strongly lyrical second theme. The coda is very evocative, where, after the resumption of the introductory lines, the theme slowly dissolves, almost as if to foreshadow the protagonist's tragic end.

Eroi E Passioni

Sinfonia Delle Alpi

The name Ottorino Respighi is often associated with his famous symphonic poems, among which the masterpieces of the so-called Roman Trilogy ( The Pines of Rome , The Fountains of Rome , Roman Festivals ) stand out, or with those compositions in which the musician engaged with the great traditions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. To fully understand the value of his mature works, however, it is also necessary to know his lesser-known youthful production, which includes the cantata Christus . Composed in 1898, when Respighi was still studying at the Liceo Musicale in Bologna with Giuseppe Martucci, the work was born at a time when the composer was learning to master orchestral writing and complex genres such as the symphonic poem. Although an early work discovered only recently, this cantata, whose texts were taken directly from the Vulgate , astonishes for its imposing character and the young composer's confident handling of choral masses. In them we can already see the archaic taste and modal writing that would characterize his later masterpieces.

68th WEEK OF SACRED MUSIC OF MONREALE - THE LIFE OF CHRIST

Cattedrale di Monreale

Between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a profound interest in the revival of Gregorian chant and the great polyphonic music of the Renaissance spread throughout the Catholic world. This orientation culminated in the Motu Proprio Inter sollicitudines , issued in 1903 by Pope Pius X with the aim of reforming and reevaluating sacred music. It was within this specific cultural climate that Monsignor Lorenzo Perosi, a leading figure in the Cecilian Movement, took root. Perosi aimed to restore liturgical music to its original spiritual and historical purity, distancing it from the influences of opera. Born into a family of musicians, Perosi initially studied with his father, choirmaster at the Tortona Cathedral, but at just eighteen years old he became organist and singing master at the Abbey of Montecassino. Here he had the opportunity to deepen his study of Gregorian chant, to whose revival he would later make a decisive contribution. After graduating in counterpoint from the Milan Conservatory in 1892 and being ordained a priest in 1895, in 1898 he was appointed Perpetual Director of the Sistine Chapel Choir by Pope Leo XIII. In this role, which he held until his death, he initiated a historic reform of the choir, decreeing the end of the centuries-old presence of castrate singers and gradually replacing them with falsettists and children's treble voices. He composed the oratorio Il Natale del Redentore (The Christmas of the Redeemer ) in 1899. It was premiered on September 12 of that year at Como Cathedral and met with immediate and resounding success both in Italy and abroad. The oratorio, whose Latin text draws directly from the Holy Scriptures, opens with a Prologue in which the figure of the Historian (the Evangelist), together with the choir, announces the sacred theme. The work is then divided into two main parts: the Annunciation and Christmas Night. The first, introduced by an invocation of divine blessing, describes the Angel's apparition to Mary and the announcement of Jesus' virginal conception, concluding with a deeply lyrical Magnificat . The second, opening with a suggestive theme for horns evoking a pastoral setting, describes the Nativity scene. Among the highlights of this second section are the splendid Hymn of Adoration ( Jesu, Redemptor omnium ) and the procession of the shepherds to the manger. In this work, stylistically distant from the emphases of nineteenth-century opera, Perosi opted for particularly delicate orchestral instrumentation, highly expressive choral writing, and a skillful use of plainchant, successfully blending the great polyphonic tradition with a modern sensibility.

The birth of the first religious songs in the Romance language and, consequently, of the lauda was favored, in the thirteenth century, by an intense religious sentiment that developed in Italy and Europe following the reformist action of some popes, including Innocent III, and the foundation of the mendicant orders by Saint Dominic and Saint Francis. The diffusion of this renewed sentiment was notable thanks to the adoption of the vernacular, a form of literary communication easily understandable not only by the higher and more educated social classes, but also by the less well-off classes who were ignorant of Latin, the official language of culture and of the Church. The first literary document in the Umbrian vernacular can be considered the Canticle of the Creatures by Saint Francis (1224), originally intended for song, as can be seen from the blank spaces left for musical notation in the manuscript. In it the Saint, expressing his love for creation, raises a hymn of praise to God, Creator and Lord of the universe. The cultural and religious climate of which the Canticle is the most effective testimony created the spiritual conditions for the flourishing of laudi (from the Latin laus , "praise"), which were most widespread in Tuscany and Umbria. In the latter region in particular, Ranieri Fasani fostered a great mystical-religious movement, closely linked to lay brotherhoods such as the Flagellants or Disciplinati. Their itinerant followers moved from city to city praying and singing, alongside liturgical hymns in Latin, songs in the vernacular. From these devotional practices arose the laudi, initially transmitted orally and later collected in special anthologies called Laudari. Formally, thirteenth-century laudi, created to commemorate the life of Christ and, especially, his Passion, were monodic in nature. Their strophic structure with refrain, similar to the ballad of the troubadour tradition, required alternating performances between soloist and chorus. Along with the Laudario Magliabechiano 18 (preserved at the National Central Library of Florence), the main source for reconstructing these melodies is the Laudario 91 of Cortona, dating back to the 13th century and belonging to the Fraternity of Santa Maria delle Laude. Probably copied between 1270 and 1297, this codex, now held at the Cortona Municipal Library, is the oldest known collection of laud melodies. Written in square notation and devoid of illuminations, this codex is distinguished by its austere simplicity. Here, the purity of these profoundly intense and moving songs is revived and expressed through thoughtful instrumental reworkings.

In this concert, the reading of meditations written by Pope Francis merges with the great European sacred musical tradition and the historical memory of Monreale. On the occasion of the seven-hundredth anniversary of the miraculous Crucifix of the Collegiate Church of Monreale, music becomes prayer, following a sonic journey that unfolds through the late-Romantic mysticism of Franz Liszt's Stations of the Cross , the composed and celestial pain of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's Stabat Mater , and the refined intimacy of Luigi Boccherini's, culminating, finally, in the most authentic popular devotion, enshrined in the historic Hymns to the Crucifix of the Monreale tradition.

“And we were in a church, to hear music, which was by Signor Ciccio De Majo, and it was beautiful music.” With these words, the fourteen-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in a letter dated May 29, 1770, to his sister Nannerl, expressed his enthusiasm for the music of Gian Francesco de Majo, known in Neapolitan circles as “Ciccio,” which he had had the opportunity to listen to during his time in Naples. Great-nephew of the famous opera composer Francesco Feo, with whom he studied as a youth, de Majo was a true child prodigy . At the age of 13, he began serving as second harpsichordist at the Teatro di San Carlo in Naples, and from 1747 he assisted his father as maestro of the Royal Chapel, initially as an unpaid supernumerary organist, before becoming second organist in 1758. De Majo was active as an opera composer in various cities across Italy, including Livorno, Venice, and Turin. It was at the Teatro Regio in Turin that he performed his most famous opera, Motezuma , in 1765, with a libretto by Vittorio Amedeo Cigna-Santi. The oratorio Gesù sotto il peso della croce , written in 1764, was erroneously attributed to Metastasio but actually based on a text by an anonymous composer. In this work, Mary, Mary Magdalene, and John, near the gate of Jerusalem leading to Calvary, experience the passion of Jesus Christ, expressing their profound sorrow. This sacred work showcases de Majo's extraordinary vocal writing, notable for the beauty of its melody, which was also praised by the German writer Wilhelm Heinse. In his celebrated novel Hildegard von Hohenthal , Heinse stated that de Majo's melody was superior, in grace and feeling, even to that of Pergolesi and Gluck. All the arias in the oratorio follow the da capo structure, and the final "Chorus" is particularly interesting. Performed by the three main characters, it is distinguished by a contrapuntal and imitative writing of rare refinement.

Sicily has always played a central role in the history of Italian melodrama. This concert celebrates the richness of an extraordinary operatic school, capable of combining the melodic elegance of the early nineteenth century with the dramatic experimentation of the twentieth century. Through a succession of rare arias and precious archive treasures, the programme traces a continuous line that links the land of myths and passions to the great national lyric tradition. The concert opens with Pietro Antonio Coppola with his most famous opera, Nina pazza per amore (1835). The aria “ Mi par che un lungo secolo ” embodies the style of romantic melodrama, where the madness of love is translated into a tender and melancholic melody. This is followed by Giovanni Pacini from Catania with Niobe (1826), an opera from which the aria “ Il soave e bel piacere ” is taken, which demonstrates the extraordinary melodic fluidity of the composer, Bellini's historic rival. The concert then moves on to Pietro Platania with Vendetta slava . The aria “ O care o liete immagini ” evokes strong feelings linked to the native land. The rediscovery continues with Pietro Floridia and La colonia libera (1899), an opera in which the aria “ Ecco perché non vengo” stands out , in which the composer from Modica, who later became a naturalized American, experiments with modern and refined harmonies. The drama becomes intense with the Palermo-born Errico Petrella and his Promessi sposi (1869). The piece “ Addio montagne, sorgenti ” translates the famous words of Alessandro Manzoni into music with great emotional force. With the Trapani-born Antonio Scontrino and his Il sortilegio (1879), the atmosphere is tinged with mystery and fairy tale in the aria “ Del triste mago dietro l'orme ”. The twentieth century is represented by the Palermo-born Giuseppe Savagnone , whose aria “ Un giorno ad un califfo ” can be heard, taken from his masterpiece Millesima seconda (1949). In this aria, the music opens up to modern rhythms, while maintaining a strong connection to traditional opera. The concert closes with Andrea Butera and his Atala , from which the aria " O mie fedeli amiche " is taken, a moment of intimate and intense lyrical expression.

Notes at the Museum

Palazzo Abatellis

A critic of Italian opera and its structure, Wagner, however, always showed great admiration for Vincenzo Bellini, and in particular for Norma , which he considered worthy of comparison with Greek tragedy and the great classical operas of Gluck. In an essay published on the occasion of a performance he conducted in Riga in 1837, the German composer praised it for its attention to the text, its long-drawn-out melodies, and the interplay between music and text, which he deemed intrinsically dramatic and theatrical.

Bellini and Wagner

Teatro Politeama Garibaldi

Theatre Luigi Pirandello

Inspired by some Russian folk tales from Afanasyev's collection, The Soldier's Tale was composed in 1918 while Stravinsky was in Morges, Switzerland, where he had taken refuge in 1914 to escape the First World War and the October Revolution that would overthrow the Tsarist regime in Russia in 1917. According to his autobiography, Chronicles of My Life , this work was conceived as a popular spectacle, to be recited, played, and danced ,  similar to those organized by traveling performers who traveled from city to city with limited means. For this reason, the instrumental lineup is reduced compared to the large orchestral mass of The Rite of Spring  to seven performers who represent all the timbres of the orchestra, belonging to the main orchestral families in the upper registers: the clarinet and bassoon for the woodwinds, violin and double bass for the strings, cornet and trombone for the brass, and a drum kit for the percussion. These instruments are used in a rather original way, being placed in contrast with each other thanks to the exploitation and exaltation of their differences in pitch and timbre in a writing that, in some aspects, recalls the typical sound of jazz.

Having disbanded in 1970 after ten years of activity, the Beatles  not only marked an era, but, in a certain sense, surpassed it, having become a classic of pop-rock song, of which they were the founders and greatest exponents. After more than half a century, the songs of the Liverpool quartet, made up of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, continue to speak with surprising immediacy to different generations who appreciate and sing them. The programme of this concert, in which the songs are presented in original arrangements by Alberto Maniaci, Giuseppe Vasapolli and Giuseppe Ricotta ( Michelle ), is configured as a journey through some of their hits, the first of which is Can't Buy Me Love , released in 1964 during the period of so-called Beatlemania . The song possesses the immediate energy of early American rock 'n' roll , but already reveals the unmistakable melodic ability of McCartney, the main author of the piece together with Lennon. Behind the driving rhythm emerges a simple and universal message, according to which money can't buy love. " Here Comes the Sun" , written in 1969 by George Harrison, is notable for its delicate melody, refined harmonic interweaving and famous guitar arpeggio. According to an anecdote, Harrison drew inspiration from the sun illuminating the garden of Eric Clapton's villa, where he was playing some tapes for him. The lyrics are a celebration of hope and the return of serenity after a long winter. Composed mainly by Lennon and later reworked by McCartney, Ticket to Ride (1965) marks an important transition towards a more mature and introspective sound thanks to its heavy rhythm, almost anticipating hard rock, combined with a new melancholy, far from the carefree optimism of its early days. A great youthful energy characterises A Hard Day's Night (1964), famous from its opening chord, an eleventh without the third. Written for the 1964 film of the same name, the song captures the frenetic pace of the group's life during the years of their worldwide success. Written primarily by McCartney, who composed the melody in a dream while at his girlfriend Jane Asher's house in London, Yesterday (1965), more than 60 years later, still retains the charm of its music, consisting of a delicate encounter between pop and chamber music represented by the string quartet that accompanied McCartney's voice on the first recording. Come Together , one of the iconic pieces of the Abbey Road album, dates back to 1969.Written by the Lennon-McCartney duo, but composed primarily by Lennon, the piece is notable for its hypnotic bass, almost obsessive rhythm, and vocal writing that helps create an enigmatic and magnetic universe, suspended between rock, blues, and experimentation. The irresistible enthusiasm of his early days explodes in She Loves You (1963), perhaps the definitive manifesto of Beatlemania with its famous yeah yeah yeah that became a generational symbol. Released as the B-side of the single Ticket to Ride and composed by John Lennon, Yes It Is (1965) is a splendid ballad, famous for its complex and intense three-part vocal harmonies. Inspired, according to the story of Paul McCartney, who wrote it together with Lennon, by a dream in which his mother Mary appeared, Let It Be  (1970) is configured as a secular prayer, being an invitation to accept life's difficulties with trust and serenity. A Day in the Life (1967) combines a melancholic section by John Lennon with a lively motif by Paul McCartney. The song is famous for its avant-garde orchestral crescendo and the historic final piano chord. The intimate atmospheres of salon music distinguish Michelle , in which the influence of the French chanson is discernible. In this hit, composed mainly by McCartney and completed by Lennon, the contrast between English and French, between the soft melodic line and the sophisticated harmonic taste, testifies to the group's extraordinary openness towards different musical languages. The Long and Winding Road (1970), an intense ballad by McCartney, released shortly before the group's breakup, is simultaneously tragic and nostalgic in tone. The "long and winding road", evoked by the title, seems to become a metaphor for the Beatles' own human and artistic journey, now coming to an end. John Lennon's solo masterpiece, written after leaving the Beatles and co-written with Yoko Ono, Imagine (1971) is a universal pacifist anthem that invites us to dream of a world without barriers, wars, or religions, guided by the notes of a sweet piano. The concert concludes with Hey Jude (1968), the famous ballad written by Paul McCartney to comfort John Lennon's son Julian during his parents' divorce. With its rousing final chorus , "Na-na-na ," it was the band's most successful single.

Beatles, A Symphony Experience

Villa Piccolo - Fondazione Famiglia Piccolo Di Calanovella

Having disbanded in 1970 after ten years of activity, the Beatles  not only marked an era, but, in a certain sense, surpassed it, having become a classic of pop-rock song, of which they were the founders and greatest exponents. After more than half a century, the songs of the Liverpool quartet, made up of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, continue to speak with surprising immediacy to different generations who appreciate and sing them. The programme of this concert, in which the songs are presented in original arrangements by Alberto Maniaci, Giuseppe Vasapolli and Giuseppe Ricotta ( Michelle ), is configured as a journey through some of their hits, the first of which is Can't Buy Me Love , released in 1964 during the period of so-called Beatlemania . The song possesses the immediate energy of early American rock 'n' roll , but already reveals the unmistakable melodic ability of McCartney, the main author of the piece together with Lennon. Behind the driving rhythm emerges a simple and universal message, according to which money can't buy love. " Here Comes the Sun" , written in 1969 by George Harrison, is notable for its delicate melody, refined harmonic interweaving and famous guitar arpeggio. According to an anecdote, Harrison drew inspiration from the sun illuminating the garden of Eric Clapton's villa, where he was playing some tapes for him. The lyrics are a celebration of hope and the return of serenity after a long winter. Composed mainly by Lennon and later reworked by McCartney, Ticket to Ride (1965) marks an important transition towards a more mature and introspective sound thanks to its heavy rhythm, almost anticipating hard rock, combined with a new melancholy, far from the carefree optimism of its early days. A great youthful energy characterises A Hard Day's Night (1964), famous from its opening chord, an eleventh without the third. Written for the 1964 film of the same name, the song captures the frenetic pace of the group's life during the years of their worldwide success. Written primarily by McCartney, who composed the melody in a dream while at his girlfriend Jane Asher's house in London, Yesterday (1965), more than 60 years later, still retains the charm of its music, consisting of a delicate encounter between pop and chamber music represented by the string quartet that accompanied McCartney's voice on the first recording. Come Together , one of the iconic pieces of the Abbey Road album, dates back to 1969.. Firmato dal duo Lennon-McCartney, ma composto principalmente da Lennon, il pezzo si segnala per il basso ipnotico, il ritmo quasi ossessivo e una scrittura vocale che contribuisce a creare un universo enigmatico e magnetico, sospeso tra rock, blues e sperimentazione. L’irresistibile entusiasmo degli esordi esplode in She Loves You (1963), forse il manifesto definitivo della Beatlemania con il suo celebre yeah yeah yeah che divenne un simbolo generazionale. Pubblicata come lato B del singolo Ticket to Ride e composta da John Lennon, Yes It Is (1965) è una splendida ballata, celebre per le sue complesse e intense armonie vocali a tre voci. Ispirata, secondo il racconto di Paul McCartney che l’ha firmata insieme a Lennon, a un sogno in cui appariva sua madre Mary, Let It Be (1970) si configura come una preghiera laica, essendo un invito ad accettare le difficoltà della vita con fiducia e serenità. A Day in the Life (1967) unisce una malinconica sezione di John Lennon a un motivo vivace di Paul McCartney. Il brano è celebre per il suo crescendo orchestrale d'avanguardia e lo storico accordo finale del pianoforte. Le atmosfere intime della musica da salotto contraddistinguono Michelle, nella quale è ravvisabile l’influenza della chanson francese. In questo successo, composto principalmente da McCartney e completato da Lennon, il contrasto tra inglese e francese, tra la linea melodica morbida e il gusto armonico sofisticato testimonia la straordinaria apertura del gruppo verso linguaggi musicali differenti. Di tono tragico e nostalgico al tempo stesso è The Long and Winding Road (1970), intensa ballata di McCartney, pubblicata poco prima dello scioglimento del gruppo. Il “lungo e tortuoso cammino”, evocato dal titolo, sembra diventare metafora della stessa vicenda umana e artistica dei Beatles, giunta ormai al termine. Capolavoro solista di John Lennon scritto dopo l'addio ai Beatles e co-firmato con Yoko Ono, Imagine (1971) è un inno pacifista universale che invita a sognare un mondo senza barriere, guerre o religioni, guidato dalle note di un dolce pianoforte. Il concerto si conclude con Hey Jude (1968), la celebre ballata scritta da Paul McCartney per confortare Julian, il figlio di John Lennon, durante il divorzio dei genitori. Con il suo trascinante coro finale Na-na-na, è stato il singolo di maggior successo della band.

Villa Filippina

The program features two compositions by Antonio Giardina,  Nightscapes  and  Mandorlo in Fiore , both performed for the first time ever. Two profoundly different works in origin and imagery, but united by a highly descriptive conception of music, in which sound often arises from an image, a real or imaginary landscape, or an emotional state transformed into musical material.

Allegro vivace ed impetuoso. Andante misurato. A little more lively. Allegro vivace assai con grande forza. Slower. A little more lively. A little more animated. Più mosso

Hérold/Donizetti/De Falla/Mendelssohn

Allegro vivace ed impetuoso. Andante misurato. A little more lively. Allegro vivace assai con grande forza. Slower. A little more lively. A little more animated. Più lively.

Conceived as a tribute to Whitney Houston, an absolute icon of pop and soul music, the Unforgettable Whitney concert is an emotional journey through her most famous songs, which have influenced entire generations and climbed the charts worldwide. On this occasion, the songs will be presented with orchestral arrangements by maestro Roberto Molinelli, bringing new light and depth to these timeless masterpieces. His respectful and refined interpretations enhance the melodic power and emotional impact of the songs. The program spans the artist's entire career, highlighting her versatility and soulful soul: from unforgettable ballads like " I Will Always Love You" and " One Moment in Time" to overwhelming hits like " I Wanna Dance with Somebody" and " So Emotional ." Each song thus becomes a story, a memory, and a celebration of a unique talent, whose voice lives on in the hearts of audiences.

Unforgettable Whitney Houston

A typical Spanish operatic genre, the zarzuela  was born in the 17th century thanks to the Infante Don Fernando, who promoted the performance of musically-accompanied shows at the Palacio de la Zarzuela, the private residence of the King of Spain in Madrid. Its name probably derives from the Spanish " zarza ," meaning blackberry, whose brambles grew in abundance in the palace gardens. Characterized by a mix of sung and spoken parts, the zarzuela , after experiencing a period of decline in the 18th century, returned to its former splendor in the 19th century following the rise of the nationalist movement, driven primarily by Catalan musicians living abroad. In the 19th century, the zarzuela underwent a significant evolution thanks to Francisco Barbieri, who is credited with the birth of the large-scale zarzuela  with the dramatic opera Jugar con fuego . Among zarzuela composers , Federico Chueca stands out . Although self-taught, he was one of the greatest exponents of the  chico (one-act) genre, to which  La alegría de la huerta (Teatro Eslava, Madrid, 20 January 1900) also belongs. The  Prelude  is a splendid musical fresco of the Murcia region, in which the composer succeeded in condensing the atmosphere of the Spanish popular festival  Romería . Unlike Chueca, Gerónimo Giménez  completed regular studies and in 1901, together with  Manuel Nieto,  who enjoyed a certain popularity both at home and abroad, composed  El barbero de Sevilla . The protagonist, Elena, a young soprano, wishes to make her debut in Rossini's opera and demonstrates her talent in the coloratura aria,  Me llaman la Primorosa. Federico Moreno Torroba , on the other hand, was interested in the  zarzuela grande , an example of which is  Luisa Fernanda (Teatro Calderón in Madrid, 26 March 1932), set in 1868, during the revolutionary unrest against Isabella II. De este apacible rincón de Madrid, sung by Javier who reflects on his love for Luisa Fernanda and the peace that that "quiet corner of Madrid" inspires in him, is a poignant romanza for tenor, while Luche la fe por el triunfo is sung by Vidal, a rich farmer who loves Luisa Fernanda, despite knowing that his love is not reciprocated. Finally, Caballero del alto plumero  is a duet from the second act between Carolina and Javier. A precocious talent, who sadly died at the young age of 37,  Antonio Álvarez Alonso  It didn't  even enjoy the success of  Suspiros de España , a Pasodoble , which for the Spanish today is almost a second national anthem. The piece, performed for the first time in Cartagena in May 1902, is notable for its noble and solemn theme, entrusted to trumpets and clarinets. The scores of Pablo Sorozábal , a Basque by birth who studied in Leipzig and Berlin, have a modern character. This is evident in his masterpiece La del manojo de rosas  (Fuencarral Theatre, Madrid, 13 November 1934), a modern musical comedy set in a Madrid square, where Ascensión, a young florist who is being fought over by two men, also has her shop. Among its most notable works is the duet " Hace tiempo que vengo al taller" from the first act between the protagonist and Joaquín, one of her suitors, while "Madrileña bonita " ( Beautiful Madrid woman ) is a praise of the beauty of the Madrilenian woman. Another masterpiece by Moreno Torroba is "La Chulapona" (Teatro Calderón, Madrid, March 31, 1934), whose title refers to "La Chulapona," the elegant and proud woman of Madrid. Sung by Juan José, a man torn between two women, Manuela (La Chulapona) and Rosario, the romance " Tienes razón amigo" (I Have a Friend) is a psychological monologue that reveals the character's fragility. Catalan by birth,  Amadeo Vives , who studied in Barcelona and was one of the founders of the Orfeó Català, was an extremely refined composer whose technically demanding music is rich in orchestral nuances. His masterpiece is Doña Francisquita (Teatro Apolo, Madrid, October 17, 1923), one of whose most famous pieces is the  Canción del ruiseñor , a technically demanding aria sung by the eponymous protagonist.  El Bateo  (Teatro de la Zarzuela, Madrid, November 7, 1901) is one of Chueca 's last works . Its  Prelude , in which some themes from the opera can be heard, is notable for its rhythm and liveliness.  La Maravilla (Teatro Fontalba, Madrid, April 12, 1941) is one of Moreno Torroba 's most mature works , in which the romanza Adiós dijiste...Amor de mi vida stands out,  in which the protagonist expresses his pain for an impossible love. The fruit of the collaboration between Reveriano Soutullo  and Juan Bautista Vert Carbonell  is the  zarzuela La leyenda del beso   (Teatro Apolo in Madrid, 18 January 1924), considered by critics to be a true opera both for its treatment of the voices and the richness of the orchestral instrumentation, the latter evident in the splendid  Intermezzo , a famous piece in which, in the central section, a lyrical theme emerges, exposed by the strings. Basque by origin but Italian by adoption, having studied at the Milan Conservatory, Pascual Emilio Arrieta  showed an Italian influence in his works. This is also evident in  Marina , which, created in 1855 as a zarzuela, was reworked with the addition of a third act in 1871, so much so that it became a true opera. A bel canto-style writing characterizes the melody of  Feliz Morada . Among the vast oeuvre of  Gerónimo Giménez,  La boda de Luis Alonso  (Teatro de la Zarzuela, 27 January 1897) achieved a certain fame . The intermezzo is notable for its lively writing, which incorporates the rhythms of various dances, including that of a seguidilla , the theme of which would later be used by De Falla in The Three-Cornered Hat . A contemporary of Giménez,  Ruperto Chapí  was a particularly versatile composer who also experimented with symphonic music, chamber music, and opera. Las hijas del Zebedeo  (Teatro Maravillas, Madrid, 9 July 1889) is a classic comedy of errors, in which the aria "Carceleras" (Jailer) stands out for its technical difficulty .  A work of great emotional force and a signature tune of great tenors,  Non puede ser is the most famous romance from  Sorozábal's La tabernera del puerto (Tivoli Theatre, Barcelona, ​​May 6, 1936). El gato montés (The Little Cat, Valencia, February 23, 1916) is the masterpiece of Manuel Penella Moreno , a well-rounded theater man who wrote the librettos and also directed the plays. The duet  Vaya una tarde bonita (What a beautiful surprise) , sung by Rafael and Soleá, is a work of intense lyricism. 

Zarzuela: The Magic of Spain

Myrtle - Piazza Duomo

"Modern Chamber Music" (Modern Chamber Music) is a project that promises to be a musical event of rare prestige and profound innovation. The artistic proposal is built on the fusion of different sound worlds: the improvisational dynamism of the Jazz Quartet (vibraphone, piano, double bass, and drums) and the structural refinement of the String Octet. The goal is clear: to create a contemporary musical language that transcends rigid genre labels, spanning jazz, classical, and pop harmonies.

“This composition displays extraordinary talent, for it shows a young composer with aims that go beyond those of his genre, wrestling with a form of which he is far from master. Yet he has expressed himself in a significant and, overall, highly original form… His first theme… is not a mere dance… it is an idea, or several ideas, related and combined in varying and contrasting rhythms that immediately intrigue the listener.” This precise, well-articulated, and, overall, exhilarating critical judgment, expressed by Olin Downes in his review in the New York Times following the first performance of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue at the Aeolian Concert Hall on February 12, 1924, is an important testament to the great success that this composition, an experimental work that seamlessly blends jazz and the great European symphonic tradition, has enjoyed and continues to enjoy among a very wide audience, despite the passage of more than a century. The work fit perfectly with the plan of Paul Whiteman, director of the Palais Royal Orchestra in New York, to elevate the quality of jazz music by incorporating elements of the European symphonic tradition. To this end, he organized an experimental concert whose program included, along with works by composers of the classical tradition such as Purcell ,  Schoenberg ,  Bartók, and Hindemith, works by Gershwin himself, Kern, and Berlin, composers of light music. The concert, performed by French-Canadian singer Eva Gauthier at the Aeolian Concert Hall on November 1, 1923, was so successful that Whiteman asked Gershwin to write a piece for piano and jazz band that blended jazz with classical symphony. Thus was born Rhapsody in Blue , the music for which was composed in a very short time between the end of 1923 and January 1924. The orchestration was handled by Ferde Grofé, who wrote the score simultaneously with the composition of the music he gradually received from the composer. The historic premiere, attended by important figures of the New York cultural world, such as Heifetz, Kresler, Sousa, Stravinsky, and Rachmaninov, was a huge success for the very young composer, who from that moment on established himself on the world music scene. From a formal point of view, Rhapsody in Blue avrebbe dovuto essere, almeno nelle intenzioni del committente, un concerto di musica jazz, ma, sebbene la presenza di uno strumento solista, il pianoforte, avvicinasse la composizione a questa forma, il titolo faceva pensare piuttosto a un lavoro in un unico movimento di carattere rapsodico, quindi, di struttura irregolare e, per certi aspetti, improvvisata. Tutti i temi, complessivamente cinque, secondo quanto evidenziato da David Schiff, sono presentati nelle prime 14 misure ed evidenziano la straordinaria fantasia di Gershwin che, a proposito di questo suo lavoro, ebbe modo di manifestare le impressioni uditive e immaginifiche che sembravano scaturire non già dalla creatività di un solo compositore ma dalla sorgente nazionale e popolare della musica americana. Ecco le sue parole: “La udii come una sorta di multicroma fantasia, un caleidoscopio musicale che venisse dal nostro paese, da quel crogiolo di razze e di costumi, da quella incomparabile follia metropolitana che è la sintesi della nostra America”.

Gershwin/Bernstein

area archeologica contrada stretto

Ciminna - Piazza Matrice

Teatro Pollina

“If you go to see Le boeuf sur le toit , you will enjoy it. You just have to look and listen without making the slightest effort. Don't look for an idea, a plot, an intention, a plot, a symbol in this farce. There's none of that. So, what happens? Nothing. Nothing happens. Get this into your head and don't tire yourself out needlessly. The curtain rises on the interior of a bar. Lively café-concert music is played, made more abundant by the use of modern musical sources. Amusing characters, their simple human heads replaced by large painted cardboard heads, enter one by one. All these characters—there are eight of them, I think—sway and dance slowly to lively music that doesn't lack verve and frankness.” With these words, the critic of «Le Ménestrel» (announcement 82, no. 11, March 12, 1920, p. 107) reviewed the first performance of Darius Milhaud's Le boeuf sur le toit , which took place on February 21, 1920, at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, with sets by Raoul Dufy and the collaboration of the clowns of the Medrano circus, the famous Fratellini. Composed in 1919, Le boeuf sur le toit (The Ox on the Roof) expresses the composer's nostalgia for Brazil, a country where he had stayed during the Great War as secretary to the poet Paul Claudel, then French ambassador to Rio de Janeiro. Having returned to Paris, Milhaud decided to assemble, as the composer himself stated, “a few popular melodies, tangos, sambas and even a Portuguese fado and transcribe them as the theme of a rondo that recurs between each successive pair”.

Milhaud/Galliano

Collegio dei Gesuiti

On December 28, 1895, thanks to the Lumière brothers Auguste and Louis, who screened around ten short films in the Salon Indien of the Grand Café in Paris, including the famous La sortie de l'usine Lumière ( Exit from the Lumière Factory ), cinema became not only a means of entertainment but also a vehicle for scientific knowledge, cultural expression, and philosophical reflection. A constant companion since the very beginning, music, which in the first silent films replaced words along with the famous posters that were interspersed between scenes, remained the undisputed protagonist even after the advent of sound, underscoring, accompanying, anticipating, and amplifying the film's images and words. Great composers have written for the seventh art, some of whom are featured in this concert, whose program celebrates over half a century of cinema history through some of the most famous and beloved soundtracks. The evening could only open with Alfred Newman's celebrated 20th Century Fanfare . Composed in 1933, this brief but dazzling piece, characterized by the roll of drums and the radiant blare of brass, has become the very symbol of Hollywood's golden age and, on this occasion, serves as a universal sonic curtain that prepares the viewer for the film or, in this case, for the other pieces on the program. The opening part of the concert will feature melodies written for the Indiana Jones saga , collected in a rich Super Indiana Medley by John Williams, a giant of film music and winner of no less than five Academy Awards for Best Original Score. Williams will also be featured on the program, including Harry Potter's Magical Tune , drawn primarily from the famous Hedwig's Theme , in which the composer evokes a fantastical world using the enchanting timbre of the celesta to introduce the listener to a mysterious, magical universe steeped in childlike wonder. From the magic of Harry Potter we move on to the equally immortal magic of the world of animation with Disney's Dream Wishing Medley , a true mosaic of songs that brings together the most famous themes born from the genius of various authors who have made the history of the house of Mickey Mouse. The pages of this selection are: Disney main theme , the theme song of Disney productions, Cruella De Vil , Bella Notte and Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?, taken respectively from the animated films 101 Dalmatians (1961), Lady and the Tramp (1955) and The Three Little Pigs.(1933). The profound bond between music and great Italian auteur cinema is inaugurated by the Nino Rota Suite . Known to the general public above all for his film scores, Nino Rota actually dedicated himself to all musical genres with the same commitment, composing around 150 works. Gifted with extraordinary talent, at the very precocious age of eight, after only one year of studying solfeggio, he was already able to fill music notebooks with drafts of symphonies and oratorios. The fact that he was born into a family of musicians certainly contributed to the precocious manifestation of his genius. His mother, an excellent pianist, was, in fact, the daughter of Giovanni Rinaldi, a late nineteenth-century composer who, together with other musicians, had attempted to counter the hegemony of melodrama in Italy by reevaluating instrumental music. Although he was a student of Pizzetti and Casella, and a great admirer of Stravinsky, whom he knew personally, Rota was a completely original composer in the twentieth-century panorama. Convinced that music should be an immediate and naive form of expression, he stayed away from the avant-garde, never arguing with its proponents, remaining faithful to a concept based on the primacy of melody and a clear tonal structure. In the film world, he made his mark with the stunning soundtracks he wrote for Luchino Visconti, Federico Fellini, and Francis Ford Coppola. This suite features excerpts from the soundtracks of Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1968), Coppola's The Godfather (1972), and Fellini's 8½ . Following in this great tradition is Nicola Piovani, a multifaceted musician who has composed over two hundred scores for directors such as Federico Fellini, Marco Bellocchio, Mario Monicelli, the Taviani brothers, Nanni Moretti, and Roberto Benigni. Composed for Roberto Benigni's 1997 film Life Is Beautiful , the soundtrack, for which the composer won an Oscar in 1999, is a delicate and poignant commentary on the poetic film by the Tuscan actor and director. A multiple Oscar nominee, winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007 and the Best Original Score Award in 2016 for The Hateful Eight , Ennio Morricone has scored over 400 films since 1961, the year of his debut with The Federal.by Luciano Salce. Morricone has written a fundamental chapter in international musical culture thanks to historic collaborations with directors such as Sergio Leone, Gillo Pontecorvo, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Bernardo Bertolucci, Giuliano Montaldo, Lina Wertmüller, Giuseppe Tornatore, Brian De Palma, Roman Polanski, Warren Beatty, Oliver Stone, and Pedro Almodóvar. With the soundtrack to Sergio Leone's film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Morricone reached the pinnacle of epic symphonic music applied to the Western, revolutionizing the genre by introducing ambient sounds, human screams imitating coyote calls, whistles, and electric guitars into the orchestra. A powerful digression into symphonic rock is represented by Queen's Medley , in which the British band's rousing hits, also celebrated in the cinema in the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody , are reinterpreted in an orchestral key, highlighting the intrinsically theatrical nature of the compositions of Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon. The medley includes listening to Bohemian Rhapsody (1975), Bicycle Race (1978), We Are the Champions (1977), which was written by Freddie Mercury, and The Show Must Go On (1991), written by Queen but mainly credited to Brian May's ideation. The modern epic and digital sound textures of the 21st century are instead represented by Hans Zimmer, multiple Oscar winner for the films The Lion King (1995) and Dune (2022). In the film Gladiator ( 2000), directed by Ridley Scott, the German composer depicts ancient Rome through a muscular and dramatic score, where the pressing and martial rhythms alternate with the poignant lyricism of the famous final theme, Now We Are Free . The myth of the world's most famous secret agent lives on, however, in the James Bond Medley , which reworks the historic original theme by Monty Norman and John Barry together with the most iconic motifs of the saga. Characterized by an irresistible mix of jazz, scratchy brass and electric guitar riffs, the medley perfectly conveys that atmosphere of elegance, danger and suspense that distinguishes 007's style. The concert continues with the suite from Star Wars . Initially, George Lucas, the father of the famous film saga, had intended to include classical and operatic music in the 1977 film, following the model of what Stanley Kubrick did in 2001: A Space Odyssey.It was only at the suggestion of his friend and colleague Steven Spielberg that the director decided to entrust the task to John Williams. The composer chose the path of great late-Romantic symphony and made use of Wagner's technique of the leitmotif to musically characterize characters, people, and situations. The concert concludes with the overwhelming sounds created by Hans Zimmer for the Pirates of the Caribbean saga , the first three installments of which were conducted by Gore Verbinski. With its syncopated, compelling, and unstoppable three-quarter rhythm, the Medley evokes Jack Sparrow's pirate adventures of boardings, storms, and courage.

Colossal Time

Comune di Bolognetta

Anfiteatro Comunale

Tonight's program offers a refined musical journey through the 19th and 20th centuries, highlighting the extraordinary expressive possibilities of the flute and harp duo. The combination of the two instruments, among the most evocative in chamber music, allows for the exploration of a rich palette of sound, capable of evoking intimate and contemplative atmospheres, but also virtuosic impulses and accents of intense theatricality.

Between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, a new genre of theatrical performance emerged in the United States: the musical . Its birth dates back to September 12, 1866, when The Black Crook premiered at Niblo's Garden Theatre in New York . It was the result of a collaboration between two companies that had previously been unable to perform: the first, a singing and dancing company from Europe, unable to find a suitable venue, and the second, a drama company, due to excessive production costs. Derived from European operetta and adapted to American tastes, this show consists of a comedy, generally brilliant, set in America, whose onstage action is enhanced by acting, singing, dancing, and music—elements that are not fused but rather integrated and harmonized with one another. The musical is the protagonist of this concert in which we will be able to listen to some hits starting from All That Jazz , the opening song of Chicago  (1975) by  John Kander , which became so famous that it gave its title to the 1979 film All That Jazz.   Equally famous is the song  Being Alive , sung at the end of the second act by Robert, a thirty-five year old bachelor, the protagonist of the musical  Company  (1970) by  Stephen Joshua Sondheim . Sung by the character Albin Mougeotte at the end of the first act of the musical Cage aux folles (1983) by Jerry Herman , is I am what I am, whose lyrics, which exalt diversity, have become a sort of anthem for the LGBT community, while, inspired by the famous novel by Gaston Leroux, The Phantom of the Opera (1986) was composed by  Andrew Lloyd Webber , in collaboration with Charles Hart, author of the songs' lyrics, and Richard Stilgoe, who wrote the libretto and additional lyrics. On this occasion, a medley of the musical's main songs will be performed. The musical Guys and Dolls ,  set in the picturesque and sinful New York of the 1940s, dates back to 1950, and was composed by  Frank Henry Loesser  , who also wrote the lyrics . It is simply the namesake of the great composer and founder of the Second Viennese School, Claude-Michel Schönberg.   è, invece, un cantante, produttore teatrale e compositore francese, che si è dedicato alla composizione di musical dalla fine degli anni ’70. In questo periodo Alain Boublil propose a Schönberg di scrivere le musiche per un suo adattamento teatrale del celebre romanzo di Hugo, Les misérables che debuttò a Parigi nel 1980, attirando l’attenzione del produttore Cameron Mackintosh. Questi propose a Schönberg di mettere in musica una versione inglese dello stesso musical, che debuttò a Londra nel 1985 e a Broadway nel 1986. Non presente nella versione francese, ma collocata nel cuore del secondo atto di quella inglese, Bring him home è uno dei brani vocalmente più complessi del mondo del musical, nel quale il protagonista Jean Valjean prega Dio di salvare il giovane Marius Montmercy dai pericoli della rivolta. Basato sul libro di Thomas Stearns Elliot, Il libro dei gatti tuttofare, una raccolta di poesie che avevano come protagonisti i gatti, il musical Cats (1981) di Andrew Lloyd Webber è uno dei più grandi successi della storia del genere. La sua canzone più famosa, Memory, nota anche grazie alle incisioni di Elaine Paige e di Barbara Streisand, però, si avvale di un testo scritto da Trevor Nunn che si ispirò alla poesia di Eliot, Rapsodia su una notte di vento. In quest’occasione sarà eseguita anche l’ouverture, che si presenta come un medley dei principali brani. Già nel 1949 Leonard Bernstein e i suoi amici Jerome Robbins e Arthur Laurents avevano pensato di scrivere un musical che avesse per soggetto la shakespeariana storia di Giulietta e Romeo ambientata in una moderna New York. Il progetto del musical, il cui libretto fu scritto da Arthur Laurents, fu realizzato solo otto anni dopo e la prima rappresentazione, avvenuta al Winter Gardens Theater di Broadway, il 26 settembre del 1957, fu un tale successo da assicurare una fama imperitura come compositore a Bernstein. In questo concerto sarà possibile ascoltare un medley dei principali brani di West Side Story. Composto da Stephen Joshua Sondheim nel 1973, A little Night Music, ambientato in Svezia, dove si assiste a un intreccio di relazioni sentimentali che si consumano durante un weekend estivo, è il suo musical più famoso. Send in the clowns è una pagina piena di malinconia e di autoironia. Famoso per le sue elegantissime melodie, Richard Charles Rodgers fu uno dei più grandi compositori di musical. Tra i suoi lavori spiccano Carousel, composto nel 1945 su libretto di Oscar Hammerstein e ambientato sulla costa del Maine, dove si assiste a una storia d’amore e di redenzione, e South Pacific (1949) che, ambientato, invece, durante la Seconda Guerra Mondiale, esplora l’incontro tra culture diverse del Pacifico. Composto su testi di Tim Rice da Benny Andersson e Björn Ulvaeus, importanti membri del gruppo svedese degli ABBA e rappresentato per la prima volta a Londra e a Broadway nel 1986, Chess si basa su una partita di scacchi tra un campione statunitense e uno sovietico. Posto alla fine del primo atto, Anthem è una delle pagine più intense, nelle quali il campione russo Anatoly in fuga cerca di distinguere tra lo Stato e la Patria. Conclude il concerto il brano Superstar, la pagina più iconica a chiusura del musical Jesus Christ Superstar (1971) di Andrew Lloyd-Webber su testo di Tim Rice, nel quale è espresso il senso filosofico dell’intero spettacolo.

Musical Passion

Real Cantina Borbonica

Program Notes at the Museum at Palazzo Abatellis

Austrian-born American composer and famous film score composer, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, despite his great popularity with a wide audience, was not always appreciated by critics. A precocious genius, Korngold, who had already written small piano pieces at the age of 8, made his debut as a composer at just 13 with the two-act pantomime Der Schneemann , performed at the Vienna State Opera to great success, and as a conductor a few years later in 1920. Meanwhile, Korngold had also established himself as an opera composer, when in 1934 he was invited to the United States by the famous director Max Reinhardt, who entrusted him with the task of arranging Mendelssohn's incidental music for his film version of A Midsummer Night's Dream . From then on, Korngold devoted himself to composing film scores for Warner Bros., which in 1938 also commissioned this score for the film  The Adventures of Robin Hood , directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley. Korngold was initially hesitant to accept this commission, as he didn't consider himself particularly suited to composing music for an action film, seeing himself more as a "composer of drama and heart." Following the insistence of producer Hal B. Wallis, Korngold finally agreed, setting as his conditions, first of all, that he not sign a contract and that he work week after week, so that he could decide to withdraw at any time if the score he was composing didn't convince him. In fact, it seems that the worsening political situation in Austria also influenced Korngold's decision, especially following Hitler's meeting with Austrian ministers in 1937. Indeed, as the composer had feared, Austria would be annexed by Nazi Germany on 12 March 1938. Korngold's concerns about his music were completely disproved by the beauty of the score which, according to music historian Laurence E. MacDonald, was one of the aspects that determined the success of this film, set in 12th century England. Moreover, the score, which resembles a late-Romantic symphonic poem, earned the composer his second Oscar, after the one he won in 1937 for the soundtrack of  Black Ivory . Consisting of four movements, the  Suite opens with a piece entitled  Alt England ( Old England ), in which, through solemn and ceremonial music, the Norman court is evoked and at the same time a feeling of nostalgia for ancient England shines through. The second movement,Robin Hood and His Merry Company (Robin Hood and His Merry Company) is a lively march that captures the spirit of Sherwood Forest and Robin Hood, while the third movement, "Love Scene" (Liebes-Szene) is the lyrical heart of the score, as, thanks to a writing characterized by broad string melodies and woodwind solos  , it evokes the love between the eponymous protagonist and Lady Marian. The final movement, "Struggle, Victory and Epilogue" (Kampf, Sieg und Epilog) is a frenetic piece full of dynamic contrasts, in which, thanks to the triumphant reprise of the Robin Hood theme, Richard's return to the throne at the expense of his usurping brother John is celebrated.

Korngold/Schreker/ Casella/Weill

Church of Saint Mary 'Maggiore'

"La Gazza Ladra is one of Rossini's masterpieces. He composed it in Milan in 1817, for the spring season . " With these concise and vivid words, Stendhal, in his biography of Rossini, defined Rossini's La Gazza ladra as a masterpiece , an opera that was received triumphantly by the public at its first performance at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan on 31 May 1817.

EPSG:4326

Rossini/Tchaikovsky/Dvořák

A Swiss composer born into a farming family, Paul Huber was raised by his adoptive Stolz family after his parents' death. She supported his desire to pursue musical studies. A student of Nadia Boulanger in Paris, Huber was organist at the Church of St. Nicholas in Wil and, from 1951 to 1983, head of the voice and piano department at the Cantonal School of St. Gallen. It was precisely in the post-World War II period that Huber achieved his first successes as a composer. His modest output, stylistically speaking, appears to be tied, as far as possible, to a tradition rooted in Bruckner. Among his works, this  Concerto for dulcimer  (a percussion instrument used at folk festivals in Switzerland) and strings , composed in 1993, stands out. Opening with a slow introduction,  Andante sostenuto , of intense lyricism, the first movement continues with an  Allegro giocoso in sonata form, in which virtuosic passages alternate with others marked in a lyrical sense. The emotional heart of the concerto, the second movement ( Variations. Adagio ), unfolds in the form of a theme and variations, while the third movement is a virtuosic  rondo. 

Huber/Hummel/ Beethoven

A Swiss composer born into a farming family, Paul Huber was raised by his adoptive Stolz family after his parents' death. She supported his desire to pursue musical studies. A student of Nadia Boulanger in Paris, Huber was organist at the Church of St. Nicholas in Wil and, from 1951 to 1983, head of the voice and piano department at the Cantonal School of St. Gallen. It was precisely in the post-World War II period that Huber achieved his first successes as a composer. His modest output, stylistically speaking, appears to be tied, as far as possible, to a tradition rooted in Bruckner. Among his works, this  Concerto for dulcimer  (a percussion instrument used at folk festivals in Switzerland) and strings , composed in 1993, stands out. Opening with a slow introduction,  Andante sostenuto , of intense lyricism, the first movement continues with an  Allegro giocoso in sonata form, in which virtuosic passages alternate with others marked in a lyrical sense. The emotional heart of the concerto, the second movement ( Variations. Adagio ), unfolds in the form of a theme and variations, while the third movement is a virtuosic  rondo.

Huber/Hummel/Beethoven

The Hérodiade  project began to take shape in 1878 when Hartmann, Massenet's publisher, after rejecting Milliet's and the composer's own idea of ​​writing a love poem evoking the Song of Songs , proposed composing a play  inspired by Gustave Flaubert's famous work, Trois contes , published that year. The character of Salome had attracted many writers, including the poet Stéphane Mallarmé, who had considered a play  dedicated to his mother, Hérodiade, but had never completed the work, leaving fragments that others used as models. Following in his footsteps, other authors, including Oscar Wilde, Richard Strauss, and Paul Hindemith, had written about the perverse young girl Salome and her mother, Hérodiade. However, for Massenet's work, the model was undoubtedly that of Gustave Flaubert, to which he likely added excerpts from Renan's La Vie de Jésus  , particularly those relating to the story of John the Baptist and Herod's lineage, found in chapters six and twelve. When Hartmann proposed this subject, however, he asked that he himself sign the libretto under the pseudonym Grémont, also claiming the rights to it. After a few days, Massenet, Hartmann, and Milliet left for Milan not only to attend the production of Le roi de Lahore  at La Scala, but also to arrange with Ricordi for the performance of Hérodiade in Italy. It was decided that the opera would be performed simultaneously at La Scala and the Paris Opera, and at this point, a new signature was added to the libretto, that of Zanardini as translator. Massenet then worked for two and a half years on the opera, which he orchestrated in Pourville, and in 1881 he was able to show it to the new director of the Paris Opera, Vaucorbeil, who rejected it because he had little confidence in the quality of the libretto. The disappointed composer took back the score and left without any hope of seeing his opera performed, but, as he wrote in Mes souvenirs , fortune came to his aid in the person of Calabrési, director of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, who asked him precisely for Hérodiade . Massenet himself recalled this meeting and the related proposal:

Massenet/Strauss/Bonis/Schmitt

Trapani-born composer and double bass player Antonio Scontrino, who studied in Palermo from 1861 to 1870 with Pietro Platania, then continued his studies at the Munich Musikschule between 1872 and 1874, established himself as a virtuoso on the double bass from a very young age. He later taught composition at the Palermo Conservatory and, from 1897, at the Reale Istituto Musicale in Florence, the city where he died in 1922. His remarkable output ranges from symphonic and chamber music to opera, a genre in which he composed no fewer than five works between 1879, the year of his operatic debut with Matelda , and 1896 with La cortigiana , an opera in four acts, which he had begun composing in 1887.

Receipt

Tribute to Antonio Scontrino

Two great masters of counterpoint meet in this transcription by Anton Webern of the six-part ricercare from  Das Musikalische Opfer  ( The Musical Offering ) by Johann Sebastian Bach. This transcription, written between November 1934 and January 1935, made a notable contribution to the knowledge and dissemination of the Musical Offering  , which had unfortunately fallen into oblivion, as had other works by Bach. While Mendelssohn's celebrated performance of the  Matthäus Passion  ( St. Matthew Passion ) in Berlin on March 11, 1829,  had sparked the so-called  Bach Renaissance  and, thus, the rediscovery of the great German composer's work,  the Musical Offering  had remained largely forgotten. This may find some justification in the intellectualistic nature of this work, born almost by chance on a theme composed by the monarch Frederick II of Prussia, a flautist and composer of good calibre, at whose court Bach's second son, Carl Philipp Emanuel, had worked as a harpsichordist since 1741. The meeting with the sovereign musician is described in a chronicle published in a Potsdam newspaper on May 11, 1747: "We learn that last Sunday, May 7, the famous Kapellmeister of Leipzig, Herr Bach, arrived with the intention of enjoying and listening to the excellent music of the local royal court. In the evening, around the time when the usual chamber music usually begins in the royal apartments, His Majesty was informed that Herr Bach had arrived in Potsdam and was now in His Majesty's antechamber, where he was awaiting the most gracious permission to listen to the music. His Majesty immediately gave the order to have him enter, and once inside, he went to the so-called  Forte and Piano  and was pleased to play himself, without any preparation, a theme that  Kappellmeister  Bach was to develop into a fugue. This was done so skillfully by the aforementioned  Kappellmeister  that not only His Majesty wanted to demonstrate his most gracious satisfaction, but also everyone else." Those present were amazed. Mr. Bach found the theme given to him so extraordinarily beautiful that he intends to put it on paper and develop it into a regular fugue, and then engrave it on a plate. On Monday, this famous man performed on the organ of the Church of the Holy Spirit, winning general approval from the large audience. In the evening, His Majesty again commissioned him to perform a six-part fugue, which, to His Majesty's delight and everyone's amazement, he executed as skillfully as before.

Bach-Webern/Berg /Mahler

“The great success of the opera [ Radamisto , 1720] hastened the project of founding an academy, which had already been conceived. It had not been possible to realize it at one stroke, since many important people had contributed to supporting Bononcini and Attilio [Ariosti]. These foreigners were all the less inclined to give in because they were actually very skilled in their profession. It may be that both sides pushed the rivalries higher than the importance of the object of contention deserved. But I cannot agree with those who consider them of no importance and treat them as something ridiculous. As for those who made it a point of honor to support the older composers, or who really preferred them to Handel, or who considered it inhumane and injustice to dismiss them not because they were unequal to their task but simply because another foreigner considered superior had arrived, they certainly had good reason and good right to take a warm interest in their defense at a time when they were in such great need of assistance.

Handel/ Julius Caesar in Egypt

The composition of the Ninth Symphony , begun in 1889 but completed only in the first three movements, coincided with Bruckner's final years, marked by solitude and a progressive decline. He seemed to escape both the triumphant premieres of his compositions and new love affairs, such as Karoline, daughter of Josephine Lang, an old flame of 25 years earlier, who had wanted to marry him but refused to convert to Catholicism, and Adele, the daughter of a decorator, known as the veiled lady at his funeral. Despite this, worsening nervous problems forced the composer, in the autumn of 1890, to ask the emperor for retirement as court organist and for a six-month sick leave from the Conservatory, which granted him a pension on 15 January. Other public honors, such as the appointment of Doctor Honoris Causa at the University of Vienna on November 7, 1891, brought some moments of joy in the difficult final years of Bruckner's life. As if foreseeing his approaching death, he was gripped by the frantic desire to complete his Ninth Symphony . In the last three years of his life, Bruckner's health worsened, and despite everything, he resumed his university classes on October 29, 1894, in dramatic condition. Despite his precarious physical condition, Bruckner continued to compose, and on November 30, he completed the Adagio and began the Finale of the Ninth . On Christmas Eve, he sat at the organ for the last time in Klosternburg, concluding his performance with a false note after his foot slipped on the pedalboard. On October 11, 1896, while sitting at the piano, he was working on the Finale of the Ninth , when he felt a strong shiver, asked for hot tea, took to his bed and died, without being able to complete this last symphonic work. The Symphony , performed posthumously in Vienna on February 11, 1903 under the direction of Ferdinand Löwe, who had prepared a revision of the first three movements, was revived in the original version, this time revised by Robert Haas, under the direction of Siegmund von Hausegger in Munich on April 2, 1932.  As for the last movement, the “SPCM” Finale will be performed, about which Dr. John Philips, author of the present edition, wrote in his program notes:

Bruckner

Composed in just 17 days in the spring of 1868, the Second Piano Concerto is certainly Saint-Saëns's most famous work in this genre, having been commissioned by Anton Rubinstein. At the time, the great Russian pianist and conductor was in Paris for a series of eight concerts in which he was to perform as pianist with Saint-Saëns on the podium. Wanting to make his debut in the French capital as a conductor as well, he asked the French composer to compose a Piano Concerto . Given the extremely tight schedule, Saint-Saëns wanted to include his First Piano Concerto in the program , but ultimately decided to perform the Second Piano Concerto , which he had composed in the meantime in a very short time. His solo performance, however, at the premiere on May 13, 1868, in Paris, was not among his finest, as the French composer had not had much time to study the piano part thoroughly. Despite this setback, the Concerto was appreciated by Liszt who, after receiving a copy, wrote to Saint-Saëns in a letter dated 19 July 1869: « The form is new and very happy. The interest in the three pieces is growing ». Liszt had understood the novelty of the Concerto which, according to a famous statement by the Polish pianist Zygmunt Stojowski , begins with the name of Bach and ends with that of Offenbach .

Saint-Saëns/Bartók/Enescu

Thus wrote Poulenc in 1945 to the French singer Pierre Bernac, whom he often accompanied on the piano, about his The Tale of Babar the Elephant , the composition of which had been begun almost by chance five years earlier, following a protest from one of his nieces. On a dull, sleepy afternoon in the summer of 1940, Poulenc, in the company of his family, was playing one of his compositions, Melancolie , on the piano , without much success with his four-year-old niece. The little girl, bored by the music, said sincerely and even a little impertinently to her uncle: " Uncle Francis, what boring music. Play this instead ." So saying, the little girl took an album with the tale of Babar the Elephant and placed it on the piano stand, ordering him to play. Poulenc, amused, began to improvise chords, pretending to read music from the album. Thus was born the idea of ​​composing a series of pieces to be organized into a cycle, which in its unified structure became The Story of Babar the Elephant . Originally composed for voice and piano, The Story was orchestrated in 1962, shortly before the composer's death, by Jean Françaix and enjoyed considerable success in this form. On this occasion, it is presented in the chamber orchestra version by David Matthews.

Poulenc's L'HISTOIRE DE BABAR & Campogrande's THE TWO NIGHTINGALES

“This Paganini is a strange man. He is the most inexplicable enigma that has ever been presented to men who have gathered to enjoy themselves. There is nothing human about him. His long, bony head, covered with disheveled hair, can barely contain the prolonged fire of that dark gaze of his, which no human gaze would be able to sustain. One cannot tell, looking at him like this, whether he is a walking resurrected man, so much does he resemble Rembrandt's Lazarus freed from his shroud. His two arms hang to the ground, and only by seeing these bony hands bound by these steel tendons can one guess through what horrible struggles this man has come to master his violin, that tormented soul enclosed between four pieces of wood. For my part, I am always afraid of this man, whether he comes to greet the audience with that cold, heavy marble smile, or whether he breaks the three strings of his violin playing a fantastic caprice for which he has never given an account, or whether he finally abandon yourself freely and proudly to that very galvanic inspiration that found us silent and transported”.

Paganini/Janàček /Martinů

Glinka's second opera, Ruslan and Lyudmila, had a rather long and troubled gestation, also caused by some difficulties that arose in drafting the libretto, in which as many as five people participated. The subject, suggested by the director of the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, who had staged the opera A Life for the Tsar to great acclaim in 1836 , was based on the epic poem of the same name by Alexander Pushkin, who was unable to work on the libretto due to his premature death on February 10, 1837, following complications from an abdominal wound suffered in a duel. The opera's writing was therefore rather long and troubled, occupying a full five years, from 1837 to 1842, of the composer's life. However, at its premiere, which took place on December 9, 1842, it failed to achieve the same success as his previous opera. Now one of the most popular operas in Russia, Ruslan and Lyudmila , whose plot revolves around the knight Ruslan who, after overcoming several trials, manages to free his fiancée, Princess Lyudmila, previously kidnapped by a sorcerer, draws its musical material from Russian, Finnish, Tatar, and Persian folk repertoire. Extremely concise and far removed from Italianate patterns, the overture , in sonata form, is based on two themes, the first of which, joyful and thunderous, is, as the composer himself testified, most likely inspired by a strange noise made by cutlery during a wedding dinner: “I was outside on the balcony, and the clatter of knives, forks, and plates made such an impression on me that I had the idea of ​​imitating them in the prelude to Ruslan. I later did so with extraordinary success.”

Glinka/Babadžanjan /Chačaturjan

“How can I explain to you the sweetest, indefinable, new sensation aroused in me by the presence of that Saint, as you call him? I would have knelt before him if one could adore men. They say one shouldn't, even though we venerate on our altars so many who lacked Manzoni's talent or virtue, and who were, in fact, the very best of scoundrels! When you see him, kiss his hand for me and tell him how much I adore him. Tell him everything your deepest admiration can suggest, and I will never be able to say it. It's strange; I was once very shy, but I am no longer; but before Manzoni I feel so small (and note well that I am as proud as Lucifer) that I never, or almost never, find the words.” Thus, Verdi, in a letter addressed to Clarina Maffei on July 7, 1868, described his first meeting with Manzoni, for whom he harbored a feeling of veneration. Moreover, the composer from Busseto, in another letter, also addressed to Clarina Maffei, on May 24, 1867, had defined The Betrothed as "not only the greatest book of our time, but one of the greatest books ever to come from the human mind. And it is not just a book, but a consolation for humanity. I was sixteen when I read it for the first time. Since then, I have read many others, on which, rereading, advanced age has modified or erased […] the judgments of my youth; but for that book, my enthusiasm remains the same; indeed, as I have come to know men better, it has grown."

Easter Concert/Verdi-Requiem Mass

Haydn, on the evening of the first performance of Symphony No. 104 “London” , which took place at the King's Theatre in Haymarket, London, on 13 April 1795, for the Opera Concerts organisation under his personal direction, was certainly satisfied not only with the large profit to which he referred in this note in his diary, but also with the resounding success, destined to be repeated just under a month later, on 4 May 1795, at a farewell concert which featured only his compositions, including this Symphony No. 104. The symphony, in effect, is a true farewell not only to the English public, but also to the symphonic genre in the broader sense, since, in addition to being the last of the 12 London symphonies, it is also the last composition written in this form. It has three titles, the first of which, London , refers to the city that had given him the greatest success in his last years, to the point of tempting him to take English citizenship, while the second, Salomon , is in honor of the impresario Peter Salomon who in 1790 had commissioned Haydn to compose the first six London symphonies. Finally, the third title, della zampogna , refers to the long pedal of the initial part of the Finale , entrusted to the basses and horns, which recalls the effect of the bagpipes.

Haydn/Mendelssohn

Born in Tbilisi in 1935, Giya Kancheli was undoubtedly Georgia's most famous composer, despite being a relatively latecomer to so-called "artistic" music, having cultivated jazz until his twenties. It was only under the presidency of Nikita Khrushchev, who implemented a policy of thaw, that the Soviet Union began to perform works by both Russian composers, such as Stravinsky—who, however, had left their country before the October Revolution—and Western composers, such as Charles Ives, whose Unanswered Question  had a profound effect on Kancheli, who was struck by the work's spiritual and mystical character. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Kancheli moved first to Berlin and then to Antwerp in 1995. During his time in his homeland, Kancheli shaped his musical world, imbued with profound spirituality, through the symphonic genre. He contributed to it, in fact, with no less than seven symphonies composed over a twenty-year period from 1967, the year of his First Symphony , to 1986, the year of his Seventh , which he entitled Epilogue to demonstrate his desire not to write any more compositions in this genre, which, however, had given him so much satisfaction, culminating in the recognition paid to his Fourth Symphony, “In Memory of Michelangelo” , dating back to 1976. In this symphonic production of his, elements drawn from the Georgian tradition coexist with others from 20th-century Russian symphonism. If, on the one hand, in fact, Kancheli always manifested a strong connection with the Georgian tradition and with the choral polyphony of the Orthodox liturgy, which, although never directly cited, influenced his tones, sometimes contemplative, sometimes sublime, on the other, he remained faithful to the formal characteristics and compositional techniques used by Russian composers.

Kancheli

In 1913, Sibelius received several commissions, the first of which came from the United States and in particular from the composer Horatio Parker, professor of composition at Yale University since 1894. In the spring of 1913, Parker had asked Sibelius for some songs to be sent to American schools, receiving three of them, Autumn Song , The Sun upon the Lake is low and A Cavalry Catch , which would be published by the American composer in 1915 in the collection The Progressive Music Series under the title Three Songs for American Schools . It was Parker himself who later put Sibelius in touch with the wealthy patron Carl Stoeckel, whose father, Gustav Jacob, had been the first professor of music at Yale from 1855 to his retirement in 1896. Stoeckel and his wife, Ellen, were the daughter of Robbins Battell, one of Connecticut's most influential men, both economically and culturally. Their father, Joseph, had built a sumptuous residence in Norfolk, which he named the White House, after the official residence of the President of the United States. Extremely cultured and passionate about music and painting, the couple had created and financed a festival in Norfolk, which is still held every summer under the name of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and is currently managed by Yale University. To host the events, a 2,000-seat concert hall was inaugurated on June 6, 1906. Among the composers whose music was performed on that occasion was Parker, who, in early summer 1913, sent Stoeckel a list of musicians to invite to Norfolk. The patron responded on August 18, saying he would be pleased to begin with Sibelius, to whom Parker sent an invitation to travel to Norfolk in June 1914 to conduct several works, including one, intended to last no more than 15 minutes, which he had composed especially for the occasion. Gripped by financial constraints, Sibelius accepted the commission, as can be seen from what he wrote to his publisher Breitkopf & Härtel on 24 October 1913: “You will not be angry if I speak to you frankly. As you no doubt know, I am working on new major works for a series of concerts which I will probably give in Europe within a year. I have therefore refused all offers to conduct. Having had to face large expenses this year, I have been forced, contrary to my principles, to accept commissions. I especially needed 20,000 marks for the accommodation of my eldest daughter, who has married. I have obtained this sum through two works – a symphonic poem for America [ The Oceanides ] and a pantomime for Denmark [ Scaramouche ].”

Sibelius/Strauss/Skrjabin

June 7, 1945, marked the dawn of a new era in the history of English musical theater, finally celebrating its emancipation from its centuries-long subservience to European opera, especially Italian opera, which had dominated all English theaters. The architect of this rebirth was Benjamin Britten, who, on that very June 7, 1945, had achieved great success at Sadler's Wells in London with Peter Grimes , with a libretto by Montagu Slater based on the poem "The Borough " by George Crabbe, a poet who served as a source of inspiration for his musical world. In 1948, Britten moved to Aldeburgh, Suffolk, a town particularly beloved by Crabbe, which became the ideal setting for many of his works. Here, in the same year, the English composer founded a Festival with the collaboration of the tenor Peter Pears, the first interpreter of his Peter Grimes , and in 1949 he composed, on a text by Eric Crozier, The little Sweep , written for a rather small ensemble made up of a string quartet, a piano four hands and percussion.

THE LITTLE CHIMNEY SWEEP by Benjamin Britten

Published posthumously in 1842 in an edition full of errors, the collection Gaspard de la nuit by Aloysius Bertrand had a rather troubled editorial history, despite having been appreciated by a poet like Charles Baudelaire who, in the preface of his Spleen de Paris , also known by the title Petits poèmes en prose , had stated:

Ravel/Qigang/Petitgirard

The wonderful world of  One Thousand and One Nights , which had already inspired  Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Shahrazad  , had attracted, in 1898, the attention of the twenty-three-year-old Maurice Ravel, who had composed an overture which, however, at its first performance on 27 May 1899 at the Salle du Nouveau Théâtre in Paris, received a less than favourable reception, especially from the critics. Indeed, while Pierre Lalo, in his review in Le Temps on June 13, 1899, cited the section of the program written by Ravel that outlined the structure of the overture, he declared, "If you look for what the program indicates in the music, you will have a hard time perceiving it." The anonymous reviewer of "L'Ouvreuse du cirque d'été" was even harsher, calling Ravel "a mediocrely gifted debutante." This overture, Ravel's earliest surviving orchestral work, was not published during his lifetime by the French composer, whose imagination, however, would be once again stimulated, five years later, by the world evoked in the famous collection of short stories. On this occasion, his imagination was stimulated by an encounter with the poet Tristan Klingsor, who in 1903 had published a collection of free verse poems inspired not so much by One  Thousand and One Nights  as by Rimsky-Korsakov's famous orchestral suite. From these poems, Ravel chose three that, strangely, have no connection to  One Thousand and One Nights  and in which the eponymous protagonist, Scheherazade, is not named. Klingsor offered an interesting explanation for this choice:

Ravel

Composed in 1806, around the same time as the Fourth Piano Concerto , the Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, shares its serene and tender cantabile quality. The Concerto was composed, in fact, during a particularly happy period in Beethoven's life, when he was a guest at the Martonvasar estate of the Counts of Brunsvick, where he was able to work, with a certain serenity due to his contact with nature and his reciprocated love for Josephine von Brunsvick, also on some of his masterpieces such as the Razumowsky Quartets , completed in November, and the Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major , finished in the autumn of the same year.

Beethoven

"I've never belonged to any specific stylistic movement. One could say that the musical material I choose sets the stylistic direction for each individual work."

Freidlin/Debussy/Wagner

Even the most modern biographers have failed to dispel the cloud of uncertainty surrounding Verdi's first opera regarding its genesis and literary sources. The composer himself, moreover, was rather vague on the subject in his memoirs dictated to Giulio Ricordi in 1879, in which he recounted how his friendship with Pietro Massini began. Massini, whom he relied on to establish himself in the Milanese theater world, played an important role in the composition of this first opera. While studying in Milan, his teacher Lavigna had introduced him to the Philharmonic Society, one of those associations where amateur musicians performed concerts after the decline of musical evenings held in the salons of aristocratic homes. One day, when one of the resident conductors was absent from rehearsals for Haydn's oratorio, The Creation , Massini asked Verdi to take the harpsichord and conduct the orchestra. Having overcome the initial mistrust of the Philharmonic, the young composer enjoyed such success that he was entrusted with the direction of the concert. Verdi had thus earned the esteem and friendship of Massini, who entrusted him with the composition of an opera and provided him with the libretto. However, nothing more is known about the opera until 1836, when, from the correspondence Verdi exchanged with Massini from Busseto, where he had returned to take up the direction of the School of Music, we learn that by September it was already completed "except for those small gaps that needed to be fixed by the poet." Another letter from 1837 mentions the title Rocester and the name of the librettist, Antonio Piazza, for the first time. In 1839, when Verdi returned to Milan with his score, Rocester was no longer mentioned , but Oberto conte di San Bonifacio . Beyond the composer's expectations, the opera was rehearsed for performance at Milan's most prestigious theater, thanks to the practice of annually featuring a debutant's work. That very year, the choice, sponsored by Massini, fell on Oberto , which was supposed to have an exceptional cast that included soprano Giuseppina Strepponi, tenor Napoleone Moriani, baritone Giorgio Ronconi, and bass Ignazio Marini. However, before the opera was performed, a real twist occurred, as Verdi himself recounted, according to Arthur Pugin's account in his book Verdi: Anecdotal History of His Life and Works.: «The parts were distributed and some singing rehearsals had just begun, when Moriani became seriously ill! […] so everything was interrupted and I could no longer think about performing my opera! […] I was left in the lurch and was thinking of returning to Busseto, when one morning a servant from La Scala came to me and brusquely said: «Are you that maestro from Parma who was supposed to perform an opera for the Pio Istituto? […] Come to the theatre, the impresario is calling you». – And I went.

Verdi/Mozart/Prokofiev

This is how Alban Berg described Mahler's Sixth Symphony , composed between 1903 and 1905 during the breaks the Bohemian composer managed to find during his years as director of the Vienna State Opera. Specifically, he found the time and serenity to write this symphony in the chalet he had built in the enchanting village of Maiernigg am Wörthersee in Carinthia, right on the shore of the lake of the same name. Here, during the summer months, Mahler, surrounded by the affection of his loved ones—his wife Alma and his two daughters—had reserved a personal space for himself in a cabin separate from the main building, where he regularly retreated to compose. As a friend of Alma's, who frequented her house, recounted, the composer's stay in Carinthia in the summer of 1904 was particularly peaceful. In addition to dedicating himself to composing this symphony, he played Bach on the piano, read and quoted passages from Goethe, and took a few boat trips on the lake. At the end of the summer of 1904, as he was preparing to return to Vienna, Mahler was able to announce to his friends Guido Adler and Bruno Walter that he had completed his Sixth Symphony . He himself conducted its first performance on May 27, 1907, in Essen, during the celebrations of the Allgemeinen Deutschen Musikverein. Despite the particularly happy family situation and the enchanting location in which it was composed, the Symphony has a strong pessimistic connotation, so much so that it was later given the subtitle "Tragic . " Indeed, as musicologist Luigi Bellingardi stated, "it is a hallucinatory dance of death, strewn with desperate symbols pointing to catastrophe." It is therefore somewhat surprising that the apparent family serenity Mahler experienced when he wrote this symphony should have inspired such a pessimistic work, which, according to his wife Alma, contains autobiographical elements. According to her, her husband almost foresaw misfortunes that would soon befall him, both personally and professionally, such as the premature death of his firstborn, Maria Anna, at the age of five in 1907 from diphtheria, the imminent break with the Vienna State Opera, and the illness that would lead to his premature death a few years later. These omens are effectively captured in the symphony by the hammer blows of the finale.

Malher

Called Concerto for Small Orchestra in the original manuscript , the Danses concertantes , which Stravinsky intended to be “abstract” compositions, were composed by him in 1941 when the composer was in the United States, where he had gone in 1939, initially only to hold a course in musical poetics at Harvard, but where he would settle for the rest of his life, also acquiring American citizenship in 1945. The outbreak of war in Europe, in fact, had induced Stravinsky to remain in the United States, where he established his residence, first in Los Angeles and, then, in West Hollywood, in a house located a few blocks from the intersection of Sunset and Doheny and which would become his home for the next 30 years. He was already living in West Hollywood, where many European artists and intellectuals had taken refuge to escape the tragedy of war, when he received the commission for this work from Werner Janssen, composer and conductor, who in 1940 had founded an orchestra with the aim of promoting contemporary music and rivaling the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. Completed on January 13, 1942 and performed for the first time at the Philharmonic Auditorium in Hollywood on February 8, 1942, under the direction of Stravinsky, although they were conceived as abstract dances, they were, however, transformed into choreography, two years later, by George Balanchine and, in the form of a ballet, they saw the stage at the City Center Theater of Music Drama in New York, on September 10, 1944. Opened and closed by two Marches , which set a Rondo ( Pas d'action ), a Theme and 4 Variations ( Thème varié ) and a solo dance ( Pas de deux ), these dances are full of self-quotations starting from the Concerto in E flat "Dumbarton Oaks" of 1938, whose echoes appear in the first march, opened, moreover, by a rhythmic gesture that recalls the Rite , a Jeu de cartes , a Histoire du soldat and in Pribautki.

Stravinsky/Mendelssohn/Dvořák

Considered the key musician of the Polish avant-garde, Krzysztof Penderecki, despite his adoption of an atonal musical "grammar," is among the few contemporary composers to have achieved widespread popularity, thanks primarily to the use of some of his music in the soundtracks of films such as  William David Friedkin's The Exorcist  and  Stanley Kubrick's The Shining  . A student of Artur Malawski and Stanisław Wiechowicz at the Kraków Academy of Music, where he was appointed professor in 1958, he achieved his first major musical success in 1959 by winning all three prizes at the Second Warsaw Competition for Young Composers. His international recognition came the following year with the first performance of  Anaklasis  at the Donaueschingen Festival, followed by the performance of the  Luke Passion , considered one of his masterpieces, which saw the light in 1966 in Münster Cathedral, and his first opera,  The Devils of Loudun , performed at the Hamburg State Opera in 1968. His remarkable output, inspired by his deep Catholic faith, embraces all genres, from opera to symphonic music, chamber music and concerts. The latter constitute a substantial portion of his catalog, which includes approximately 20 works for solo instrument and orchestra, composed between 1961 and 2015, the year in which this  Concertino for Trumpet and Orchestra dates back  . It demonstrates Penderecki's predilection for a musical form that, in the contrast between solo instrument and orchestra, rediscovers the dramatic character of musical theater, a genre in which the Polish composer excelled. Inspired by his admiration for the great technical skill demonstrated by trumpeter Gábor Boldoczki in his performance of  Haydn's Concerto in E-flat  , for which Penderecki also wrote the cadenzas, the  Concertino  demonstrates the Polish composer's interest in the sound of the trumpet in its various forms. Already in 1997, for his  Seventh Symphony , inspired by the prophecy of Ezekiel, the bass trumpet had been used by him to symbolize the voice of God. In this concerto, consisting of four movements performed without interruption, the soloist, who plays alternately the trumpet and the flugelhorn, initially approaches, progressively, the stage completing the interrupted phrases of the orchestra. Once this first part ( Andante ) of the short first movement, which is notable for its great agogic variety, has concluded, the soloist, who has now reached the stage, presents the first theme (Allegro scherzondo ) characterized by dotted rhythms and wide intervals. This section is followed by a   lyrical  Andante and a demonic Allegro  that lead to the cadenza played on the flugelhorn, the protagonist of the second movement,  Larghetto , which, characterized by a splendid cantilena from the soloist who dialogues with the other instruments, concludes with a thunderous  fortissimo  and a pause. In the third movement,  Intermezzo , the trumpet takes center stage again, muting it in dialogue with the bass clarinet. The fourth movement,  Vivo ma non troppo , is a brilliant piece in which the theme of the first is reprised.

Penderecki/Piazzolla/Beethoven

Tchaikovsky's passion for Mozart and the eighteenth century in general is the source of inspiration for the  Variations on a Rococo Theme  for Cello and Orchestra , the genesis of which appears, in reality, rather troubled. Not being a cellist, as is demonstrated by the small number of works he composed for this instrument—four in total—of which two, the Andante cantabile  from the  Quartet No. 1, Op. 11  , and the  Nocturne , the fourth of the  Six Morceaux, Op. 19,  for piano, are transcriptions, and another solo,  Pezzo capriccioso, Op. 62 , is an original composition, Tchaikovsky turned for advice to Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, a German cellist who, in addition to being a teacher at the Moscow Conservatory, was also director of the Moscow Musical and Orchestral Society. A friend of Tchaikovsky, whose first three  String Quartets he had performed , Fitzenhagen not only gave the composer important advice but also made substantial changes to the score, which, composed in 1876, saw its first performance in this revised version in Moscow on 30 November 1877, with the German cellist as soloist and Nikolai Rubinstein on the podium. Ironically, Fitzenhagen's version, which some time later, without consulting the musician, made further changes to the score, having this work published twice, in 1878 (reduction for cello and piano) and in 1889, was the one known and commonly performed for over 70 years. It was only in 1956 that Russian cellist Victor Kubatsky, after x-raying Tchaikovsky's manuscript, managed to reconstruct the original version, in which the score's eighteenth-century inspiration, overshadowed by Fitzenhagen's virtuosic intentions, including the order of the variations, can be more clearly perceived. Despite being recorded by great cellists such as Steven Isserlis and Julian Lloyd Webber, the original version has not fully established itself in the repertoire. Most cellists, in fact, still prefer to perform the one with Fitzenhagen's modifications, which, despite some irritation, was never openly contested by the composer. Indeed, it is said that when Anatoliy Brandukov, a student of Fitzenhagen, asked him whether it was appropriate to return to the original version, Tchaikovsky replied that it was best to leave things as they were.

Tchaikovsky/Sollima/Beethoven

As is tradition, this year too, with the exception of Offenbach, whose famous Can-can will be performed , the New Year's concert will feature Viennese waltz and operetta composers, particularly Johann Strauss Jr., Franz Lehár, Eduard Künneke, Emmerich Kálmán , and Robert Stolz. Johann Strauss Jr. will open the concert with the Overture to Die Fledermaus (The Fledermaus ), which, premiered on April 5, 1874, to great acclaim at the Theater an-der Wien, is his most famous and important operetta. Indeed, Strauss, the famous waltz king , had, before this work, devoted himself to the theater with little success. The resounding failure of the first performance of his operetta Der Karneval in Rom  ( Carnival in Rome ) in 1873 had discouraged Strauss to the point of leading him to stop writing for the theatre, despite Offenbach having predicted great success in this field as well ten years earlier. It was most likely the high quality of Richard Genée's libretto that convinced Strauss, who, immediately attracted by the text, composed the operetta in just 43 days. The libretto by Richard Genée and Carl Haffner draws its inspiration from the vaudeville play Le reveillon ( The New Year's Eve Party ), written by the duo Meilhac and Halévy and translated into German by Karl Haffner at the request of the director of the Carltheater, Maximilian Steiner. At the first performance, the audience gave unanimous approval to the overture . In it, in a musical structure that only apparently recalls sonata form, all the main motifs of the operetta appear, especially that of the trio from Act III that runs through it from beginning to end. The rhythm of dance dominates the composition, and in particular that of the waltz, which reaches its climax in the reprise of the rousing theme from the ball scene that concludes Act II. The duet " Komm mit mir zum Souper" ( Come to Dinner with Me ) is taken from Act I, in which Falke, the bat, invites the landowner Eisenstein to the ball to be held at Prince Orlofsky's villa. The theme of this duet would be used by Strauss in the Fledermaus-Polka  of 1874. Richard Genée, this time together with Friedrich Zell, provided Strauss with the libretto of Eine Nacht in Venedig ( A Night in Venice).) which, however, was a real fiasco at its first performance in Berlin on 3 October 1883. The libretto, set in 18th-century Venice, was the one most criticised. Guido, Duke of Urbino, had organized a party in the ducal palace, where love and mockery were intertwined. Among the most beautiful passages is Ach, wie so herrlich zu schaun ( Ah, how splendid it is to behold ), sung in the third act by the duke, whose melody would later be used by Strauss in the Lagunen-Walzer , in a mutual interchange between his instrumental and theatrical production, which characterised other works by the Austrian composer. An example of this is the waltz Rosen aus dem Süden (Roses of the South) , which is melodically related to the operetta Das Spitzentuch der Königin ( The Queen's Lace Handkerchief ), which was first performed to considerable acclaim on 1 October 1880 at the Theater an der Wien. The waltz was a greater success than the operetta itself at its premiere on 7 November 1880 at the Musikverein, conducted by his brother Eduard, and was appreciated above all for the poetic nature of its music, rich in a typically Viennese charm, which was already present in the introduction. Published in two different versions, the second of which is dedicated to King Umberto I with the deepest respect , this work draws its melodic material precisely from two arias from the operetta, including the king's aria from the first act, Stets kommt mir Wieder in den Sinn (Always come back to me ), the famous refrain that Strauss claimed to have rewritten 12 times, and from the romance from the second act, Wo die wilde Rose erblüht (Where the wild rose blooms) . Perpetuum mobile (Perpetual motion) , op. 257, on the other hand, has no relation to the production of operettas, the composition of which should instead be linked to Strauss's concert activity. In 1861, the Austrian composer, riding the wave of successes achieved during the Carnival of 1859 and 1860, in the benefit concerts conducted by himself and his brother Josef, who, leading two different orchestras, performed around fifty dances, organized an even more ambitious show with three balls in a single evening which was announced by the newspaper « Fremden-Blatt » : “For the first time in Vienna.

New Year's Concert

Da Bellini in poi

Villa Bellini

Convinced by the successes he had achieved at the Société Nationale de Musique with his Violin Sonata and Quartet in C minor that chamber music suited him particularly well, in 1880 Fauré considered writing a sonata for cello and piano, starting, as he often did, with the second movement. Performed for the first time on June 21, 1880, at Saint-Saëns's house, this piece received a warm reception, which, however, was not sufficient to encourage Fauré to complete the sonata. In 1883, the composer therefore published this single movement, which shares the key of C minor with the preceding quartet, under the title Élégie . The work's immediate popularity prompted conductor Édouard Colonne to ask Fauré, in 1895, to compose a version for cello and orchestra. It was first performed in Paris at the Société Nationale de Musique on April 26, 1901, with Pablo Casals as soloist. It is a piece of intense lyricism, in which the cello, supported by repeated chords from the orchestra, creates a kind of funereal melody. In the central section, however, a softer and more passionate theme emerges, building to an expressive climax before fading away in the reprise of the opening melody.

La Vita D'eroe

"I wanted to write a work about our men, who will become heroes in the battle they are engaged in against the enemy for victory… While working on this new symphony, I thought about the greatness of our people, their heroism, their wonderful humanist ideas, their human values, our superb nature, our humanity, our beauty. […] I dedicate my Seventh Symphony to our battle against fascism, to our inevitable victory over the enemy, and to Leningrad, my hometown." 

Musica Contro La Guerra

Attesa, for strings, piano, two horns and percussion (100th anniversary of his birth)


Eliodoro Sollima, whose birth centenary falls this year,  has been a key figure in Sicilian musical life for over half a century. This fact means that his name, much less his music, has been widely distributed beyond the region, with major Italian and international publishers (Schott, Heinrichshofen, Curci, Ricordi, Sonzogno, Berbén, and Sifd) publishing his works. Many of his works were commissioned by prestigious institutions and associations (RAI for the Scarlatti Orchestra of Naples, ARC for the Teatro Nuovo in Milan, AIDEM for the Pitti Palace in Florence, INDA for the Greek Theatre of Syracuse, the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, EAOSS, and the Orestiadi in Gibellina) and have been conducted by such masters as E. Gracis, Z. Pesko, M. Inoue, G. Ferro, A. Ceccato, F. Scaglia, O. Ziino, P. Bellugi, and N. Wiss. His compositional output includes over 300 works, spanning symphonic and chamber music, sacred, stage, and ballet music, and children's piano pieces to compositions conceived as homages to great musicians of the past. His works have received significant recognition, including the Variazioni concertanti for orchestra (1962), which was honored at the Trieste International Competition; the Quartet  for flute, clarinet, violin, and cello, which won first prize at the 1965 Rome National Composers' Exhibition; and the Piano Sonata , which won first prize overall at the 1966 Treviso National Competition. Since 1978, Eliodoro Sollima has been a member of SIAE (Italian Society of Authors and Publishers) for the quantity and quality of performances of his music. In addition to his work as a composer, Sollima always maintained a fruitful relationship between his roles as pianist and teacher. The culmination of this intertwining of experiences is the didactic work Come nasce la musica (Curci, 1987).

Forme Della Libertà

A true child prodigy , Erich Wolfgang Korngold was just 11 years old when, in 1909, he composed the pantomime ballet Der Schneemann. According to his son George, the piano score was published in a limited, private edition by his father Julius, a renowned music critic for the prestigious newspaper "Neue Freie Presse." Immediately afterward, Julius Korngold sent copies of the score, originally written for piano four hands, to some of his friends in the Viennese musical world, including Gustav Mahler, whom he called the young genius, and Alexander von Zemlinsky, Erich's teacher, who orchestrated it. This work, which already proved to be a mature work and not simply a compositional exercise by a gifted student, had such a resonance that Emperor Franz Joseph himself ordered its performance at a gala evening on October 4, 1910, at the Vienna Hofper. Korngold's precocious musical talents emerge already in the Prelude to this work, based on a theatrical fable conceived by the composer himself. The plot revolves around Pierrot's love for Colombina, which is thwarted by her stern uncle, Pantalone. The tale's theatrical, wintry setting is evocatively rendered in the Prelude , which is notable for the lyricism that would distinguish Korngold's later film scores. Placed in the second act of the opera, the Serenade constitutes one of the most lyrical moments of the entire composition, as the composer gave a musical form to the passionate singing of Pierrot, who, disguised as a snowman and positioned under his beloved's window, woos the young woman with a poignant and melancholy melody, entrusted now to the solo violin and now to the woodwinds. 

Vienna 1900

"I kept the title Symphonie Espagnole first because it captured my thoughts well—namely, a solo violin soaring above the rigid form of an old symphony—and second because the title was much less banal than those that had been proposed. The outcry and criticism have subsided; the title will remain." 

Thus an annoyed Édouard Lalo responded to the objections of his contemporaries regarding this composition, which, in reality, does not follow the classical canons of a symphony, but rather approaches the structure of a violin concerto. A skilled violinist himself, Lalo composed this work in 1874 for Pablo de Sarasate. Sarasate, who at a young age had become one of the greatest virtuosos on the European musical scene, was eager to expand his repertoire with compositions by celebrated composers that could showcase his extraordinary technical skills; he therefore asked eminent composers, including Saint-Saëns and Lalo himself, to write concertos specifically for him. First performed at the Concerts Populaires in Paris on February 7, 1875, with Sarasate as soloist, this Symphonie is effectively a concerto in which Spain is evoked through the inclusion of rhythms and melodies drawn from the Iberian musical tradition. 

Romanticismo Infinito

In the summer of 1878, Brahms, returning from Italy, stopped in the village of Pörtschach, in Carinthia. His initial intention was to reach Vienna quickly, but drawn by the beauty and serenity of the place, he remained longer, as he himself wrote to his friend Theodor Billroth: “I stopped in this village on my way back from Italy, intending to continue on to Vienna. But the first day was so beautiful that I decided to stay the second; the second so beautiful that I decided to stay the third, and so on. Snow-white mountains, the blue lake, the trees covered in a tender green... no one could argue with me.”

It was in this splendid setting that the composer conceived his new work. His contemplation of a grand symphonic-instrumental work is also evident from his request for a large amount of music paper to be sent from Vienna, and from a letter to the critic Eduard Hanslick, in which he wrote: "So many melodies wander around this village that one must be careful not to trample on them." 

La Magia Della Danza

This year, too, the Sicilian Symphony Orchestra will celebrate Christmas with its audience through a special event. The program offers a fascinating and rich musical journey through the universal soundtrack of this important Christian holiday. The concert opens with Leroy Anderson's rousing " Sleigh Ride" (1946), renowned for his descriptive use of percussion, evoking the sound of horses trotting and the cracking of whips on the snow. Later, the same composer will perform " A Christmas Festival ," a rhapsodic overture that interweaves the most famous traditional carols. A profound sense of intimacy and nostalgia emanates from the pieces created during the dramatic years of the Second World War. This is the case of White Christmas , composed by Irving Berlin in 1940 and performed for the first time the following year during the program The Kraft Music Hall , and of I'll Be Home for Christmas  (1943) by Walter Kent, whose lyrics feature a soldier stationed abroad who writes to his family. This trend is joined by the poignant sweetness of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas  by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane, originally introduced by Judy Garland in the famous musical film Meet Me in St. Louis  (1944).

Concerto Di Natale

This year, too, the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana invites its audiences on a fascinating journey into the heart of Viennese musical culture between the 19th and 20th centuries. The opening performance features the overture to Johann Strauss Jr.'s three-act operetta, Der Zigeunerbaron ( The Gypsy Baron ), based on a text by Ignaz Schnitzer, which premiered to great acclaim on October 24, 1885, at the Theater an der Wien. The overture, which previews the operetta's main themes, is notable for its orchestration, which vividly evokes Hungarian exoticism, alternating proud gypsy rhythms with seductive waltz movements. Composed in 1902 at the behest of Princess Pauline von Metternich for a sumptuous masked ball, the waltz Gold und Silber,  Op. 79 ( Gold and Silver ) by Franz Lehár stands out for its perfectly balanced thematic writing and a series of emotional contrasts, while the triangle gives a “silvery” touch. The polka repertoire was inaugurated by Im Krapfenwald'l  op. 336 ( In the Krapfen Forest , 1869) by Johann Strauss Jr., which recreates the bucolic atmosphere of the Viennese woods by introducing toy instruments that perfectly imitate the calls of birds, among which the obstinate and humorous call of the cuckoo stands out. His younger brother Eduard composed the popular Ohne Bremse  ( Without Brakes ), a fast polka Op. 238  , composed in 1874, which is notable for its pressing rhythm that evokes, precisely, a mad race without brakes.

Concerto Di Capodanno

Born in Yerevan, Alexander Grigoryevich Arutiunian studied piano and composition at his hometown Conservatory, graduating on the eve of World War II. In 1946, he moved to Moscow to study composition with Litinsky and in 1949 received the Stalin Prize for a cantata. Returning to Yerevan in 1954, he taught at the Conservatory and became artistic director of the Armenian State Philharmonic. Considered by Aram Khachaturyan as a promising Soviet composer, Arutiunian achieved widespread acclaim thanks to a body of work that emphasized the Armenian musical tradition, which also influenced the melodies of his 1950 Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra. The work had initially been conceived in 1943 for Zsolak Vartasarian, principal trumpet of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, who died during the war. The Concerto was then premiered by Aykaz Messlayan, while Timofei Dokschitzer promoted its international fame by introducing it to the United States. Having become a permanent fixture in the repertoire, the piece has also become a recurring audition piece at the Juilliard School.

Prospettive Sonore

Abun for male voice, violin and orchestra


Composed in 2018 and performed for the first time on September 16 of the same year at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Palermo on the occasion of the VIII International Festival of Palermo Classica — with Rocco Tarantino (vocals), Gioacchino Di Stefano (violin) and the Palermo Classica Symphony Orchestra conducted by Carmelo Caruso —,  Abun , the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic (the same language spoken by Jesus Christ), musically and humanly reflects the poetics of the Palermo-born composer Simone Piraino, whose Canto notturno was performed in its world premiere by the Sinfonica Siciliana last year .

Memoria E Modernità


A journey into the heart of Sicily through the music and voice of Rosa Balistreri, an authentic and unforgettable interpreter of the soul of our land.

Her songs are given new life through the power of the Sicilian Symphony Orchestra, the protagonist of a musical reinterpretation that intertwines symphonic language with the richness of folk tradition, under the direction of Maestro Alberto Maniaci. Salvatore Nogare's arrangements and music restore a new orchestral dimension to Rosa's repertoire, enhancing its power, poetry, and profoundly Sicilian character.

Giving voice to this story are soloists Simona Di Gregorio and Noa Flandina, along with the Children's Choir of the Fondazione Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, led by Maestro Vincenzo Marino. Traditional Sicilian folk dances, choreographed by Pietro Tutone, bring to the stage the body, rhythm, and gestures of an ancient and still vibrant culture.

Giovanni Parrinello's sound research plays a special role, introducing traditional Sicilian sounds, rhythms, and influences into the musical structure, creating an original dialogue between popular heritage and the orchestra's sound.

Elisa Parrinello's direction and dramaturgy create a grand scenic narrative of music, song, and dance, exploring traditions, memory, and history. Stefano Canzoneri's sets and Elisa Parrinello, Marja Hoffmann, and Patrizia Aiello's costumes help recreate the atmospheres, places, and images of Sicily on stage, transforming the show into a visual journey into the island's identity.

A Sicily made of work and celebrations, of pain and hope, of sea and land, of voices and silences.

SICILY, THE LAND OF ROSE is a meeting of symphony orchestra, folk singing, choir, folk dances, traditional sounds, scenography and costumes, in which each element contributes to the identity of a land.

Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana

6 - 7 Nov, 2026

La Vita D'eroe

13 - 14 Nov, 2026

Musica Contro La Guerra

19 - 20 Nov, 2026

Forme Della Libertà

27 - 28 Nov, 2026

Vienna 1900

4 - 5 Dec, 2026

Romanticismo Infinito

30 - 31 Oct, 2026

Parabola Romantica

Oct 24, 2026

Incontri Musicali Del Terzo Tipo - "foss Late Night"

Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana