The Sagra Musicale Malatestiana reaches the finish line of the 75th edition with a program that hosts prestigious ensembles, great directors and soloists, offering the spotlight to young talents and projects that intersect music with other artistic languages and ranging from ancient music to contemporary repertoire. This year too, the presence of excellent artists from our area in the network of musical paths of the program is particularly numerous.
An expanded program both in the proposals and in the calendar, which in its 75th year of life confirms how the Festival is not only a flagship event of the city’s cultural proposal, but an event capable of accompanying the public through the seasons, from spring to winter.
Symphonic concerts
Of great prestige is the inauguration of the cycle of symphonic concerts (1 September) with a renowned formation such as the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam entrusted to the direction of Myung-Whun Chung who will tackle the Fourth Symphony by Johannes Brahms and the Fourth Concerto for piano and orchestra by Ludwig van Beethoven with a soloist of the caliber of Andras Schiff.
An eclectic director like Vladimir Jurowski returns to the Galli Theater (12 September) at the head of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin in a program largely dedicated to Brahms with the famous Variations on a theme by Haydn for orchestra, the First Symphony and as a central page the Concerto for violin and orchestra by Mendelssohn, soloist Augustin Hadelich.
With a page by the contemporary composer Jorg Widman the evening opens with the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia conducted by Gianandrea Noseda (17 September) which before the finale with Beethoven’s Fifth includes the participation of two pianists, Jan Lisiecki and Francesco Piemontesi performing the Concerto for two pianos and orchestra in E flat major by Wolfgan Amadeus Mozart.
Teodor Currentzis, one of the most original, non-conformist, visionary and discussed performers on the international music scene, makes his debut in Rimini (13 October). Together with him, the musicians of his MusicAeterna orchestra propose a program in which Dmitri Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony stands out.
The two hundredth anniversary of the first performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony will be the opportunity to listen for the first time in Rimini (28 October) to the musicians of the Leonore Orchestra, an internationally oriented ensemble founded and directed by Daniele Giorgi. With the Philharmonischer Chor Műnchen he will revive one of Beethoven’s greatest and most influential masterpieces, that Ninth Symphony which will mark a turning point in the history of music as well as being a very current symbol of universal brotherhood. The program allows the Sagra Malatestiana to give shape to a new docufilm in co-production with the Kublai film company.
Dance
The presence of the Tokyo Ballet (November 29) is of global standing, fresh from successes in the most prestigious European theaters including the Paris Opéra, the Teatro alla Scala, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, as well as the Bolshoi, the Mariinsky and in numerous theaters in South America. A company that admirably possesses repertoires of contemporary Eastern and Western authors together with milestones in the Olympus of classical dance.
For its original choreography and the subject by the great Marius Petipa, the second act of La Bayadère, “The Kingdom of Shadows”, is one of the most celebrated pieces of classical ballet, with its exotic landscapes, betrayed promises of love, sentimentality and tragedy together with supernatural evocations.
The second painting is Romeo and Juliet Pas de deux, in the choreography of Maurice Béjart and the music of Berlioz. “I created this work in which both love and hate are intertwined, ultimately bringing together the carefree romanticism of Berlioz and the magic and tragedy of Shakespeare” (Maurice Béjart).
Third painting, The Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky, also with choreography by Béjart in his memorable avant-garde version which has always shocked the public with its wild sensuality and ritual dynamism.
Chamber music
The range of proposals in the chamber music cycle hosted at the Galli Theater is very varied. It begins with the Italian Youth Guitar Orchestra (5 September) conducted by Pierluigi Colonna and with the participation of the soprano Ilona Mataradze.
The horizon changes with the sixteenth-century polyphonic music proposed by the Tallis Scholars (20 September), the most famous vocal ensemble in the world which will see the presence of its founder and director Peter Phillips in Rimini.
A concert dedicated to the music of Johannes Brahms and Paul Hindemith (23 September) will feature clarinetist Claudio Conti with a string quartet composed of Alessandro Perpich, Cecilia Cartoceti, Thomas Cavuoto and Francesco Stefanelli.
The great pianist Beatrice Rana’s return to the Galli Theater is highly anticipated (2 October) in a recital that will put her virtuosity and sensitivity, now appreciated throughout the world, at the service of the works of Brahms and Ravel.
The perspective with which the Sagra Musicale Malatestiana celebrates the work of Arnold Schoenberg on the sesquicentennial of his birth is unprecedented. The Serenade op 24 for baritone and chamber orchestra (with baritone Davide Damiani as soloist) is the masterpiece around which the program of the concert commissioned to the soloists of the WunderkammerOrchestra conducted by Carlo Tenan will revolve (18 October). In this concert Schoenberg’s avant-garde will reveal the close relationship with the Viennese popular repertoire.
At the Galli Theater two masters of the bow, the violinist Giuliano Carmignola and the cellist Mario Brunello will meet (13 December) with the Aquila Soloists for a concert that explores the sound universe forged by generations of the Bach family.
Finally, the Galli Theater opens up to young talents (15 December) with the recital of the very young pianist Giacomo Menegardi, the latest winner of the prestigious Venezia Prize.
New film production
A documentary film on Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is the new film production which sees the creation of a new co-production with Kublai Film to present one of the most iconic pages in the history of music – proposed in Rimini by the Leonore Orchestra from an original perspective, through the writings by Luigi Magnani, a refined scholar divided between a passion for art and music. The original path of meeting between music and image that accompanied the latest editions of the Sagra Musicale Malatestiana continues, a path rewarded by international recognition and by the presence of the films on platforms such as Medici TV and Rai 5.
Special projects
The Sagra Malatestiana contributes to giving original prominence to the exhibition to be held in Rimini, as part of the Biennale del Disegno, an inspiration born from an extraordinary event of civil and military news which took place in 1778, when the Westmorland ship set sail from Livorno and loaded with works of art, purchased by English baronets during their Grand Tour in Italy, is captured by the French navy. In addition to the drawings, the collection presents scores and manuscripts by Christian Joseph Lidarti and Franz Joseph Haydn proposed during an evening (19 June) framed by the dramaturgy of Massimo Pulini with the participation of Silvio Castiglioni and the live music of the Westmorland and Rimini Ensembles Classic.
A tribute to Giacomo Manzoni, among the most influential composers on the Italian scene in recent decades, will be proposed (1 August) by the masters involved in the San Marino International Music Summer Courses, with authentic specialists such as John Kenny, Marco Ignoti, Lorenzo Paglei, Liga Liedskalnina , Andrea Corazzari.
The choice to think about works in which different languages appear and intersect, around “cultured” scores, with projects prepared for the Italian theatrical avant-garde remains as enlightened as ever. In the first of the two productions we present, the OHT theater company, led by its mentor director Filippo Andreatta, is inspired by the music of Arvo Pärt. The only protagonist of the stage is the bell tower of the church of the village of Curon, completely submerged, which plays the role of the bell in the song Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten, which follows the performance of songs performed live by Sentieri Selvaggi. In the second work OHT gives life to Nuvolario, an invitation to look upwards, at the visual power of clouds in the simplest of theatrical games, that of seeing what is not there. An air theatre. And Nuvolario’s visual dramaturgy dialogues with Music for 18 Musicians, one of the masterpieces of the New York composer Steve Reich, performed live by the Ensemble Sentieri Selvaggi.
The protagonist of a performance that crosses music, words and images is the show An die Unerkannte (19 October) proposed by Nicoletta Magalotti, at the Teatro degli Atti, combining sound suggestions that range from the music of Schumann to the poetry of Holderlin.
Ancient music
The Sagra Musicale Malatestiana confirms its attention to the repertoire of ancient music with two events proposed in the courtyard of the Gambalunga Library. The voice of Giovanni Cantarini and the lute of Ariel Abramovich will offer a repertoire of frottola, madrigals and ballads taken from the sixteenth-century First Book of the Cross (10 July).
The masters and best students of the San Marino International Music Summer Courses will be the protagonists of a concert production of the opera Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell (21 August) which will involve the voices of the Norwegian Ensemble Earlyvoces, with the direction of the harpsichordist Lars Henrik Johansen.
The concert proposed at the Mariani Theater in Santa Agata Feltria (27 August) is dedicated to the Baroque Cantata in Bologna with the participation of the soprano Lucia Cortese, the theorb player Giangiacomo Pinardi, the cellist Mauro Valli and Riccardo Doni on the harpsichord.
Organ concerts
Also for this edition, the Sagra Malatestiana enhances the organ heritage of the Rimini area with two events featuring Luca Scandali (13 June) on the instrument of the Church of Santa Rita with the percussion of Mauro Occhionero and Mauro Ferrante (27 June) at the Chiesa del Suffragio with Marco Bellini’s trumpet and Laura Catrani’s voice.
Music and young people
The Sagra Musicale Malatestiana offers its prestigious spotlight to young musicians with a wide range of appointments. The music of the 2000s is the title of the concert (9 October) involving the Grand Orchestra and the Youth Choir of Rimini conducted by Davide Tura and Andrea Brugnettini, preceded by an intense week of music at the end of May which brings together the four educational institutions of the city with many dozens of young student musicians. With Andrea Dieci on the podium at the Galli Theater the Pizzico National Orchestra will perform (2 November), while the very young elements of the Suzuki National Symphony Orchestra (3 November) will be able to count on the presence of a star of ancient music, the violinist and conductor Fabio Blonde.
Words for music – Mentor Project
The calendar of meetings aimed at in-depth analysis of the proposals present in the program of the Sagra Musicale Malatestiana 2024 is extensive thanks to the participation of music historians and authoritative popularizers, starting with the homage to Puccini conducted by Fabio Sartorelli in which the young students of the Accademia della Scala, as well as a concert conference conducted by Paolo Patrizi dedicated to the tenor voice starring Danilo Formaggia and Catia Capua on the piano.
Organized by GATM scholars, 2 days of study and research on 18 and 19 October dedicated to the work of Arnold Schönberg, in the 150th anniversary of his birth.
A look at the public of tomorrow is confirmed with the Mentor Project, through which young people up to the age of 25 are offered the opportunity not only to participate in concerts for free through a real musical adoption, but to be involved in a complex path of approach to music which includes listening guides, conferences and learning journeys of different artistic languages.
Pre-sale starting from Saturday 4 May at 10am for the shows scheduled until 6 October. From May 5th also online on biglietteria.comune.rimini.it. Tickets for the second part of the billboard will go on sale from September.
Info: www.sagramusicalemalatestiana.it, teatrogalli.it
Tags: Rimini program spans seasons #75th edition Sagra Musicale Malatestiana
