THE 58th EDITION OF THE FESTIVAL BEGINS: CHOPIN. THE VOICE OF THE INFINITE. .
From May 24 to July 11, the International Festival of Bergamo and Brescia returns to its historic venues, with the Donizetti Theatre restored and reopened to the public after three years of renovation.
Fondazione Pesenti has historically supported this important event with international acclaim, always attentive to initiatives aimed at protecting and promoting Italy’s artistic and cultural heritage.
“This year will be an extraordinary one: in my first Festival as president, we are finally returning to our historic venues, to the Donizetti, finally restored to its full splendor, and to the Grande,” adds the new president Daniela Gennaro Guadalupi, recently appointed after 20 years of work by Andrea Gibellini. “In such a difficult moment, we are proud to have managed to organize a live festival. We did it because we firmly believe in the founding values of work and culture, values that have always characterized our lands so deeply affected by the pandemic. We launch this 58th edition with our gaze already directed toward 2023, a year that will see the Festival and the two cities as protagonists of a major cultural project for our communities.”
“We are very happy to restart,” says the artistic director Pier Carlo Orizio. “We have been working for several months with significant uncertainties. Our priority is to guarantee that the greatest possible number of spectators can attend the concerts safely. We wanted to make an organizational effort to stage a Festival that artistically is as little affected as possible by the past year and can thus meet the expectations of our audience.”
THE PROGRAM
The Festival Orchestra, conducted by Pier Carlo Orizio with soloist Jan Lisiecki, the internationally renowned 25-year-old Canadian pianist and a guest of the Festival in 2013, opens the Festival on May 24 at the Grande and May 25 at the Sociale in Bergamo. The program includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 and Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Jan Lisiecki was the youngest artist ever to receive a Gramophone “Young Artist” Award, as well as the Leonard Bernstein Award from the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival.
Another eagerly awaited return is that of the Apulian pianist Beatrice Rana, now considered a star of the concert scene. She will appear in a dual role: in recital with a program focused on Chopin on June 15 at the Sociale in Brescia and June 16 at the Donizetti; and in a duo with Massimo Spada paying homage to one of the greatest composers of the last century, Igor Stravinsky, on June 17 at the Sociale in Brescia and June 18 in Città Alta at the Sociale in Bergamo.
Historically significant artists such as Mikhail Pletnev (at the Grande on June 1 and at the Donizetti on June 3) and Grigory Sokolov (at the Donizetti on June 9 and at the Grande on June 11) will alternate with young but established pianists like Federico Colli and Alexander Romanovsky (at the Sociale in Brescia on June 25 and at the Donizetti on June 28). The talented Russian pianist Alexandra Dovgan returns to both cities (at the Donizetti on June 7 and at the Grande on June 9); now fourteen years old, she was first presented in Italy by the Festival in 2019. Pietro De Maria, the first Italian pianist to publicly perform the complete works of Chopin in six concerts, will appear on the Bergamo program on June 12 at the Donizetti.
Regarding orchestras, Federico Colli will be accompanied by the Orchestra della Toscana, conducted by Orizio with programs including Schumann and Mendelssohn at the Grande on June 13 and at the Donizetti on June 14. The program closes with La Fil – Filarmonica di Milano, conducted by Marco Seco, performing Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ Symphony on Saturday, July 10 at the Teatro Sociale in Bergamo and the following day in Piazza Loggia in Brescia.
BERGAMO
In the first week of July, the conference-concert “Affetti e miti nella poetica di Chopin” (“Affections and Myths in Chopin’s Poetics”) by Piero Rattalino and Ilia Kim will take place, along with a recital by Josef Mossali featuring music by Chopin and Stravinsky.
Collaboration with the Donizetti Conservatory continues in the series of concerts with young talents. The Tremaglia Hall of the Donizetti Theatre will host three concerts dedicated to Chopin, performed by the best students at 6 PM on Monday, June 21, Wednesday, June 23, and Tuesday, June 29.
In the province of Bergamo, the Festival e dintorni (Festival and surroundings) returns to bring great performers to the municipalities of San Pellegrino Terme, Vertova, Nembro, Mozzo, and Cene. Among the involved artists are Theodosia Ntokou, protégé of the ‘divine’ Martha Argerich, Mariangela Vacatello, Gloria Campaner, Anna Kravtchenko, and Carlo Guaitoli.
PIANO FESTIVAL
The International Piano Festival of Brescia and Bergamo is one of the world’s leading events dedicated specifically to the piano, considered both as a solo instrument and a prestigious partner of great orchestras.
Born in 1964 on the initiative of Maestro Agostino Orizio, the Festival has, for fifty years, hosted the most famous orchestras and soloists on the splendid stages of the Teatro Grande in Brescia and the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo.
INSIGHTS
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