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The 86th Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, one of the first Italian festivals, together with that of Contemporary Music of the Venice Biennale, opens with a symphony concert with the main director of the festival, Daniele Gatti; the first opera is “Turandot”, directed by Mehta, rightly taking up the beautiful staging designed by Zhang Yimou. Change of genre between Milan and Venice, where quartet writing for strings shines.
Firenze
On April 13th at the Teatro del Maggio opening of the 86th Maggio Musicale Fiorentino with a concert by the Orchestra and Choir of the Maggio, conducted by Daniele Gatti. A beautiful programme, filled with themes linked to transcendence, choosing equally related authors, such as Bruckner, Mahler, Zemlinsky. The first author opens “Ecce Sacerdos magnus” composed in 1885 to celebrate the thousand years of the diocese of Linz; then Zemlinsky’s “Psalm 13”, a song of protest and hope composed during the years of Nazism; then Symphony no. 4 by Mahler, which includes the text “The Celestial Life”. Concert broadcast live on Rai Radio 3.
The Festival, which continues until June 13th, presents its first opera on April 21st, with performances until May 3rd, and it is “Turandot”, by Puccini, on the podium Zubin Mehta, honorary director for life of the Festival. The direction is the one that the Festival commissioned from Zhang Yimou. In the singing company in the title role Olga Maslova, winner of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition 2023; in Calaf the Italian debut of the tenor Angelos Samartzis; Liù is played by Valeria Sepe. The performance on the 21st will be broadcast live on Rai Radio 3.
Venezia
On the 13th at the “Lo Squero” Auditorium of the Cini Foundation, the backdrop of the stage is a window overlooking the Venetian waters, a good opportunity to listen to young quartettists who explore the link between the musical style of Gabriel Fauré and that of Georges Enesco, who had studied with him. Of the first here is the Quartet op. 15; of the second the Quartet op.16, which we can read as a tribute to the figure of the master. Concert of the Asolo Musica Season Veneto Musica, in co-production with the Palazzetto Bru Zane – Center de musique romantique française, which this spring celebrates the centenary of the death of the great French composer with numerous concerts and initiatives and allows us to rediscover two rare works I listen by entrusting them to young musicians from the Belgian Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth.
Milano
On the 9th at the Conservatory the Cremona Quartet, together with Miguel Da Silva (viola) and Gustav Rivinius (cello) with two very beautiful works, such as “Notte trasfigurata” by Schönberg and “Souvenir de Florence, by Tchaikovsky; for the Quartet Society Season, which continues until June 13th.