I return to the Teatro Massimo di Palermo after several years, and I do so with an ambitious symphonic programme, keen to reconnect with the spaces of this beautiful Sicilian theatre and with the voice of its orchestra. To bring together, in a single evening, the swan song of the divine Mozart and the First Symphony of the composer who would go on to revolutionise the language of music at the dawn of the twentieth century is a thrilling challenge. Do we, today, still stand in need of gods or demigods? Of a Jupiter, or of Titans? We need the music of Mozart and Mahler, which — quite apart from the more or less explicit programmatic suggestions implied by the titles of their symphonic works — speaks to us of perfection, of a luminosity both sought and attained, of formal clarity, and of a renewed harmonic assimilation of the legacy of the Greats who preceded them.

I very much look forward to bringing these symphonies to life once again: works that speak to us of the greatness of their creators, of the greatness of music itself, and of the infinite beauty they embody.

Ph. Attila Vörös