It is to the privileged relationship that binds the city of Ravenna and its festival to Riccardo Muti that we owe the opportunity to be able to witness, once again, the performance of what is perhaps the best orchestra in the world: the Vienna Philharmonic. The famous Viennese team has the task of inaugurating the XXXV edition of Ravenna FestivalSaturday May 11that 9pm in a Altarpiece De André packed with more 3500 spectators (the concert is in fact already sold out). On the podium, of course, Maestro Muti who has collaborated with the Vienna Philharmonic for over half a century. Two masterpieces on the program, those capable of best highlighting the peculiarities of that unique, unmistakably “Viennese” sound that distinguishes this extraordinary orchestra: first Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Symphony no. 35 in D major “Haffner” K 385; Then Franz Schubert, with Symphony no. 9 in C major “The big” D 944. The concert is possible thanks to the support of Eni, main partner of Ravenna Festival.
The Wiener Philharmoniker in Ravenna again, therefore: the last time was in 2021 (two concerts when the “Covid protocols” were still active), but the first performance in Ravenna dates back to many years earlier, to 1992, while a few years later , in 1996, in Ravenna they would have gone into the hole for the first time outside their own theater, with That’s what they all do, the first piece of the Mozart-Da Ponte trilogy which was completed within a few years. Always on the podium is Riccardo Muti who, as we said, has been linked to the Viennese Philharmonic Orchestra by deep mutual respect and friendship since 1971, when Herbert von Karajan called him to conduct them in Salzburg. Since then Muti has led them on more than 500 occasions, including operas and concerts: it is certainly no coincidence that on January 1st Muti will be called for his seventh New Year’s Eve at the Musikverein and above all that in recent days he has been chosen by the philharmonic musicians Vienna to celebrate the bicentenary of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Because if, on the one hand, President of the Orchestra Daniel Froschauer he does not hesitate to recognize Muti «an exceptional role in the history of the Wiener» and to underline how he «with his work has shaped their repertoire and sound in a unique way»; on the other, Riccardo Muti (who is also an honorary member) has reiterated on several occasions «that he has learned a lot from the Wieners: the sense of phrasing, the timbre, the color, the Central European culture, a type of sound which, combined with my Italian culture, constitutes that combination that I have always tried to convey this to all the orchestras I have conducted.”
Speaking of the music on the program, the “Viennese” nature is already all in the names: Mozart and Schubert. The Symphony “Haffner”from 1762, initially conceived as a Serenade commissioned by the Haffner family of Salzburg (but Mozart had already freed himself from the archbishop of that city), perhaps owes its carefree panache and luminous orchestral color to its original form, in short, an irresistible brightness that does not does not crack even in the most delicate and poetic folds ofAndante. Mozart wrote it in a few days and then retouched it (and cut it), giving it the definitive guise of a symphony and performed it in the main Viennese theatre. Certainly the process of composition, but also of dissemination, was longer and more painful “Great”: Schubert’s last symphony, completed in 1828 a few months before his death, found by Schumann in his papers only in 1839 and finally performed for the first time under the direction of Mendelssohn. An ambitious score in which the composer “forces” the balance of the classical form from within to prefigure moods of romantic symphonism – loosens the traditional thematic contrast by moving the narrative coherence onto a level of underground tonal relationships, immersed in an inexorable rhythmic fabric.
Free shuttle to the concert with three departures from the station (7.40pm, 8pm and 8.20pm) and return
Further information: 0544 249244 – www.ravennafestival.org
Photo Terry Linke
