Maestro Zubin Mehta will be on the podium for the 86th edition of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Festival

Author:

by Opera Charm Team

June 12, 2024

On Thursday 13th June at 8 p.m., maestro Zubin Mehta will be on the podium of the hall dedicated to him - conducting the Maggio Orchestra and Chorus - for the choral symphonic concert that closes the 86th edition of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Festival.

The programme includes music by Hugo Wolf, Frédéric Chopin and Antonín Dvořák. Soloist at the piano Alexander Gadjiev. The concert will be broadcast live on Rai Radio 3.

We thank Ferragamo for its support of the 86th Maggio Festival. We inform the audience that the concert is sold out in every order.

Florence, 12 June 2024 – Exactly after three months of intense lyrical and symphonic programming, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Festival, which began on 13 April, comes to an end: on Thursday 13 June at 8 p.m., in the hall named after him, the director emeritus for life Zubin Mehta will take the podium, conducting the Maggio Orchestra and Chorus, for the final choral symphonic concert of the 86th edition of the Festival. The maestro of the Maggio Choir is Lorenzo Fratini.

Maestro Mehta’s concert – just a few days away from the two prestigious tours that will see him and the Maggio Orchestra and Chorus perform first in China in Tianjin and Beijing (19, 20, 21, 22, 23 June 9 and then in July at the Ljubljana Festival – also marks another sold-out event for this edition of the Maggio Festival.

Opening the evening is Hugo Wolf’s Gothic ballad Der Feuerreiter, taken from his collection Zwölf Lieder nach Gedichten von Eduard Mörike and composed in 1892: the piece tells of the mad race of a mysterious ‘fire knight’ called upon to put out a mill fire, where he finds death.

This is followed by one of Frédéric Chopin’s best-loved compositions, the Concerto No. 2 in F minor for piano and orchestra op. 21: it was written between 1829 and early 1830 and first performed in Warsaw on 17 March of the same year, when Chopin had just turned 19. Although the score bears the dedication to Countess Delphine Potocka, Concerto No. 2 was inspired by the composer’s platonic love for Konstancja Gladkowoska, a singing pupil at the Warsaw Conservatory.

Alexander Gadjiev stars on the piano in Concerto No. 2. He is one of the most talented pianists on the international scene and the winner of numerous prizes during his already intense career – including first prize at the Sydney International Competition 2021, the Terence Judd Award 2022, the Monte Carlo ‘World Piano Masters’ and the 42nd Abbiati Prize as best soloist for the year 2022 – this is his absolute debut at the Teatro del Maggio. Gadjiev plays a Shigeru Kawai SK-EX piano.

Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70, closes the concert. This was born at the time of its composer’s first international successes; and it was the London Philharmonic Society that commissioned the Bohemian maestro to write this new symphony in the wake of the successes he achieved during a series of concerts in the English capital in 1884, a city where Dvořák was known and esteemed above all for his orchestral transposition of the Slavonic Dances, a distinctly folkloric composition that was particularly appreciated by English audiences.

The programme

Hugo Wolf
From Mörike Lieder: ‘Der Feuerreiter’.

Like other composers from the Germanic area, Hugo Wolf devoted himself passionately to the Lied, the genre that more than any other represented the ideal meeting point between music and poetry. Almost the entirety of his artistic production is represented by Lieder, over three hundred pages often inspired en bloc by individual authors such as Mörike, Eichendorff and Goethe. Among these, the name Eduard Mörike undoubtedly stands out with no less than fifty-three texts all set to music in 1888, a particularly happy and productive year for the Austrian composer. It was Wolf himself who declared that it was Mörike who had opened the doors of the Lied to him with the beauty of the poetic word. In the collection of Zwölf Lieder nach Gedichten von Eduard Mörike, a prominent place is occupied by the Gothic ballad Der Feuerreiter, of which Wolf also prepared a version for choir and orchestra in 1892. The ballad, which takes on the contours of a macabre dance in the perfect symbiosis of musical descriptivism and symbolism, narrates the mad race of a mysterious ‘fire knight’ called upon to put out a mill fire where he finds death.

Frédéric Chopin
Concerto No. 2 in F minor op. 21

The work of a 19-year-old Chopin, the Concerto No. 2 in F minor Op. 21 was composed between 1829 and early 1830 and first performed in Warsaw on 17th March of the same year. Although the score bears the dedication to Countess Delphine Potocka, Concerto No. 2 was inspired by the composer’s platonic love for Konstancja Gladkowoska, a singing pupil at the Warsaw Conservatory. In the first movement, Maestoso, after the orchestral exposition, the piano makes its entrance, and with an improvisational trend becomes the absolute protagonist of the musical discourse, leaving the orchestra only the function of accompaniment. In the Larghetto, Chopin indulges in dreamy, sentimental phrasing of a melodramatic nature, while in the Allegro finale he chooses to seal the concerto with the enthralling rhythm of the mazurka, a Polish dance of popular origin that rightfully entered 19th-century salons. In addition to being a favourite of Chopin, who performed it more frequently than Concerto No. 1, the Concerto in F minor was also a favourite of Clara Schumann, who performed it throughout her career.

Antonín Dvořák
Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70

An exemplary synthesis of cultured tradition and Slavic folk spirit, Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70 was born at the time of the composer’s first international successes. It was the London Philharmonic Society that commissioned the Bohemian maestro to write this new symphony, in the wake of the successes achieved during a series of concerts in the English capital in 1884, where Dvořák was known and esteemed above all for his orchestral transposition of the Slavonic Dances, pages with marked folkloric traits that were particularly appreciated by English audiences. Produced in the space of a few months, between December 1884 and March 1885, Symphony No. 7 premiered at St. James Hall in London on 22 April 1885 under the composer’s baton. Close to the symphonic model of Brahms – whose Third Symphony Dvořák had listened to a short time before and was strongly impressed by – Symphony No. 7 shows an austere and balanced character, especially in the first movement, but also typically Slavic traits that can be found in the expansive melodies that animate the second movement (Poco Adagio), in the wild Bohemian dance rhythm of the Scherzo, up to the passionate Gypsy theme that gives life and triumphantly closes the final Allegro.

Poster

HUGO WOLF
From Mörike Lieder: ‘Der Feuerreiter’ for choir and orchestra

FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN
Concerto No. 2 in F minor for piano and orchestra op. 21
Maestoso/Larghetto/Allegro vivace

ANTONIN DVORÁK
Symphony No. 7 in D minor op. 70
Allegro maestoso/Poco adagio/Scherzo: Vivace. Poco meno mosso/Finale: Allegro

Conductor, Zubin Mehta
Piano, Alexander Gadjiev
Orchestra and Chorus of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
Choirmaster Lorenzo Fratini
Alexander Gadjiev plays a Shigeru Kawai SK-EX piano provided by Kawai Europa

Prices

Sector D: 20€
Sector C: 35€
Sector B: 50€
Sector A: 70€

Total duration approx. 1 hour and 20 minutes (plus interval)

DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE A L'OPÉRA DE PARIS

October 2024

OPERA CHARM TEAM

PREMIERE OF ‘DON CARLO’ AT WIENER STAATSOPER

September 2024

Opera Charm Team

Alice Lechner

Alice Lechner comes from a music-loving family. Her first encounter with the opera universe was at the tender age of six. The grandeur of the stage productions and costumes, the backstage chatter, and last, but definitely not least, the music left her in awe, beginning with Mozart’s Don Giovanni. The overall feeling that opera awakens in anyone who gets a glimpse into this part of artistic eternity, that each and every day passes the test of time, was what drew her to stay and be a part of this world. The Opera House of Brașov became her second home, and the people who worked there were her second family.

Since then, Alice has devoted her spare time to maximising her musical knowledge through instrumental studies, studying both piano and violin for a short time. In the following years, her number one passion stepped out of the limelight and graciously gave way to Law Studies.
Since 2018 she has been studying Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Her passion for opera, even if it is no longer her top professional priority in terms of career, it has most definitely become her priority during her free time. Wanting to experience the best of both worlds and extend her musical horizons, she regularly attends opera performances throughout Romania and abroad.
With OPERA Charm Magazine, Alice aims to nurture her creative side to help it flourish and bloom and to discover, alongside the magazine’s readers, the fascinatingly complex world of opera.

Currently, she is an LL.M. in Business Law at “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in Iași.

Oana Zamfir

Oana Zamfir is a second year MA student at the “George Enescu” National University of Arts, at the Department of Musicology.

She studied violin for 12 years at the “Stefan Luchian” High School of Art in Botosani, later focusing on the theoretical aspects of music. In 2019 she completed her bachelor studies in Musicology as a student of the National Academy of Music “Gheorghe Dima” in Cluj-Napoca. Her research during 2018-2019 brought to the forefront elements of the archaic ritual within works of composers who activated during the communist period, giving her the opportunity to start a research internship at the “Carl von Ossietzky” University in Germany. In this context, she recorded conversations with members of the Sophie Drinker Institute in Bremen, and had access to documents directly from the Myriam Marbé archive.

Since 2019 she has been a teacher of Music Education and Theoretical Music Studies, making full use of interactive methods in the musical training of students and working, at the same time, with the children’s choir founded in the first year of her activity.

Her interests include pursuing a degree in interior design in 2020.

Alexandru Suciu

Alexandru Suciu inherited his passion for art growing up in a family of several generations of musicians. He began his musical studies at the “Augustin Bena” School of Music in Cluj, where he studied piano and guitar. Even though his main study direction was philological, his passion for music prevailed. He began his academical journey at the Faculty of Letters of the “Babeș-Bolyai” University, studying Comparative literature and English. He continued by studying Opera Singing at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy. He also graduated the Musical Education section, followed by Artistic Directing at the Musical Performing Arts department.

His multidisciplinary education opened the doors towards research, which is seen both through his participation in national and international conferences and symposia, such as the Salzburg Easter School PhD-forum, organized by the Salzburg Universität or the Silesian Meeting of Young Scholars, organized by the Institute of English at the University of Silesia, as well as the collaboration with Opera Charm Magazine.

During his student years, he won several prizes, including the Grand Prize at the “Paul Constantinescu” National Musical Interpretation Competition, the Romanian Composers and Musicologists’ Union Prize at the same competition, the First Prize and the Schubert Prize at the “Ada Ulubeanu” Competition.

He further developed his artistic skills by specializing in courses and masterclasses held by personalities such as Vittorio Terranova, Giuseppe Sabbatini, Marian Pop, Ines Salazar, Riccardo Zanellato, Paolo Bosisio, Valentina Farcaș and Manuel Lange in contexts such as the Internationale Sommerakademie für Operngesang Deutschlandsberg, Corso Internazionale di Canto Lirico I.M.C. Licata or the Europäische Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst Montepulciano. Besides his activity on-stage, he currently teaches Opera Singing Didactics, and Pedagogical Practice within the Department for Teacher Education and Training at the “Gheorghe Dima” National Music Academy.

Cristina Fieraru

Cristina is a 24 year-old Romanian soprano & a student at the National University of Music Bucharest, where she pursues the MA program in Vocal Performance.

She made her debut in Pamina from “Die Zauberflöte” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at only 19 years old at the Bucharest National Opera House, as a member of the Ludovic Spiess Experimental Opera Studio. Over the years she made her debut in roles such as Contessa d’Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Mimì & Musetta (La Bohème), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte) in her university’s opera productions.
Her passion and experience extends in the field of choral music, too.

She has been part of our dream team since the fall of 2021. For a good period of time she took care of OPERA Charm’s social media and took you on the monthly journey through the history of opera through our Legends rubric – and a few times through the Theaters around the World rubric.

Her little soul rubric – from 2021 to present – is definitely the Conductors of the Future, where, every month, she gives you the chance to meet a young star of the world of conducting and, of course, to find out what’s the most charming feature of opera in these artists’ views.

BIANCA L. NICA

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur sadipscing elitr, sed diam nonumy eirmod tempor invidunt ut labore et dolore magna aliquyam erat, sed diam voluptua. At vero eos et accusam et justo duo dolores et ea rebum. Stet clita kasd gubergren, no sea takimata sanctus est Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consetetur