Muti and Pollini

Reading the names of Riccardo Muti and Maurizio Pollini on the bill of one same concert can undoubtedly evoke only one feeling: it will be a memorable evening!

LuganoMusica brings together the doyens of Italian pianists and conductors - musicians among the greatest on the international scene in the past half-century - along with the new recruits of the Orchestra Cherubini, the youth orchestra founded by Muti in 2004 whose performances are always more exciting and more perfect. This is a concert that seems to halt in a historical frame: Pollini and Muti met in Milan, performed together when they had not yet turned thirty before Herbert von Karajan invited them to appear in 1971 with the Berliner Philharmoniker, and then in Philadelphia and at La Scala. Since then, the two musicians have reached the highest peaks of their careers. The opportunities to continue to perform music together, however, have been less frequent than one might have hoped for. This new encounter will, therefore, be an eagerly awaited return.

Muti sees this concert as "a demonstration of the symphonic skills of Italian composers who have mainly dedicated themselves to opera and whose instrumental and symphonic qualities have often been overshadowed. These excerpts from operas will put forth the qualities of composers who are generally remembered for an "I will triumph" attitude."

Riccardo Muti chose the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini to paint all the symphonic colours of the so-called "Young School" composers: Alfredo Catalani, Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo, Giacomo Puccini and Umberto Giordano. A virtuoso path that leads to the rediscovery of an Italian repertoire cherished by Riccardo Muti. The conductor is also intent on valorising the Neapolitan School, of which the Overture of I due Figaro by Saverio Mercadante is representative. The last touch will be added by Giuseppe Martucci's crepuscular and sensual cantabile. Much loved by Arturo Toscanini, this composer produced music that Gian Francesco Malipiero recognised as a first step towards the renewal of Italian non-operatic musical production.

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