I’m looking forward to a March entirely devoted to symphonic works, thanks not just to the programmes I’ve chosen to prepare and the orchestras that I’ll be conducting, but also to its meaning for me at this time. Accompanying me on a creative journey, rather like communicating vessels, it corroborates the great theatrical works that I’ve just had and soon will have the opportunity to conduct and, conversely, encourages me to immerse myself in the purely symphonic, with the desire to speak only through music, in an intense dialogue with my musicians. On 3rd and 22nd March, I will be with the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and on 28th March with the Teatro Comunale di Bologna orchestra. In the first of the concerts, at the Liszt Academy, Budapest, we will embark on a journey through the classical, romantic, and modern, presenting the overture from Ruslan and Ludmila by Glinka, Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, Symphonic Minutes by Ernő Dohnányi (eminent pianist, composer, teacher and founding director in 1943 of our orchestra) and An American in Paris by Gershwin.
On 22nd March at the Müpa, I will again be with my Hungarian orchestra, joined by the chorus prepared by Zoltán Pad, to perform the Verdi Requiem. It is a perfect masterpiece that will allow us to showcase the intimate artistic fellowship that has developed from our work together and from my privileged relationship with this orchestra and chorus, with whom I’ve been honoured to work as chief conductor since Spring 2022. For the occasion, we will be welcoming the soloists Leah Crocetto, Szilvia Vörös, Piero Pretti and Gábor Bretz.
On 28th March, I will be in different country with a different artistic climate, with the orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, performing the treasure that is Arnold Schoenberg’s Sei lieder giovanili in the transcription by Alessandro Solbiati (soloist Monica Bacelli). This work was taken by Solbiati from the original Lieder for voice and piano, and recreated for female voice and orchestra, resulting in a version that fine-tunes the dreamlike nature of the work without disrupting its stylistic form. In the second part, we will be performing Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, a work that marks a turning point in the composer’s poetics, with the abandonment of those fairytale, allegorical inspirations that had previously been the lifeblood of his symphonies. With his Fifth Symphony, Mahler expanded space and time to open up a permanent rift in terms of content, definitively breaking previous rules and creating the last, great Western symphonic style