February 7th, 2025: symphonic concert conducted by Alejo Pérez
On Friday, February 7th at 8 pm, the debut of maestro Alejo Pérez on the podium of the Zubin Mehta Hall at the head of the Maggio Orchestra.
The music of Sergej Rachmaninov, Manuel De Falla and the famous "Boléro" by Maurice Ravel are on the program.
The concert will be broadcast on Rai Radio 3
Florence, February 5th 2025 - On Friday, February 7th at 8 pm, in Zubin Mehta Hall - at the head of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra - maestro Alejo Pérez on the podium, marking his debut at Maggio.
On the line a program with marked Latin nuances: opening the Symphony n. 2 in E minor op. 27 by Sergei Rachmaninov, followed by El sombrero de tres picos (Suite no. 1 and no. 2) by Manuel De Falla and the famous Boléro by Maurice Ravel.
The concert opens with the Symphony no. 2 in E minor op. 27 by Sergei Rachmaninov: after the bitter disappointment due to the meager success of his First Symphony - which resulted in three years of inactivity - during the two-year period 1906-1907, spent largely in Dresden, the composer came up with the idea of writing a symphony again. The score was finished in 1907 and performed for the first time in Petersburg on 26 January 1908 under the direction of the author himself.
Suites n. 1 and n. 2 by Manuel De Falla are next on the line, taken from El sombrero de tres picos, ballet in one act by the spanish composer on a libretto by Gregorio Martínez Sierra and inspired by the homonymous novel by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón. Composed at the request of Sergej Djagilev, it was first performed at the Alhambra theatre in London in july 1919. The composition was commissioned by the founder of the Ballets Russes to Manuel De Falla two years earlier, in 1917, asking for a "truly Spanish" ballet. The composer took him to attend the performance of his El corregidor y la molinera, a mimic farce with singing always on libretto by Gregorio Martìnez Sierra and taken from the novel by Pedro Antonio de Alarcón. From the original for small orchestra, having been pleased by Djagilev, Falla took the larger version for ballet (1918-19), re-orchestrating the existing one, adding songs and working again on the dance part, Not without having travelled through Andalusia in search of popular music materials.
At the end of the concert one of the most famous compositions of the whole 20th century, the Boléro by Maurice Ravel. At the origin of Boléro there is the request to the composer, from Ida Rubinstein, a score for a short Spanish-style ballet. The first performance was held at the Paris Opera in November 1928, with the choreography of Bronislava Nijinska and the scenes of Alexandre Benois. But the composition began to have a huge success in concert and it was especially Arturo Toscanini who gave it glory, Even if the author himself did not agree with the great conductor because he considered his execution too fast.
Alejo Pérez was music director of the Teatro Argentino de La Plata from 2009 to 2012; he was also one of the principal conductors of the Teatro Real in Madrid and guest of several internationally renowned orchestras such as the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester in Berlin, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie in Bremen and the Ensemble Intercontemporain. Has long-standing working relationships with the Stuttgart Opera; the Opéra de Lyon and the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma). More recently, his engagements have led him to the Lyric Opera in Chicago, the Salzburg Festival, the Wiener Staatsoper and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.
The concert is preceded by a listening by Katiuscia Manetta in the Gallery Foyer of the Zubin Mehta Hall. It is reserved for ticket holders and takes place 45 minutes before the start of the show (duration: 30 minutes).
The concert:
Sergej Rachmaninov
Symphony no. 2 in E minor op. 2
The failure of his First Symphony in 1897 had thrown Sergej Rachmaninov into a state of frustration that would have kept him away from composition for some years. However, thanks to the care of psychologist Nikolay Dahl the musician overcame that sad period by returning to writing music. Within a few years some of the most iconic pages of his production were released, such as Concerto n. 2 for piano and orchestra and Symphony n. 2 in E minor op. 27. In 1906, after leaving the management of Moscow’s Bolsoj, Rachmaninov decided to move to Dresden to devote himself serenely to composition. There, between the autumn of 1906 and the spring of 1907, he made the Symphony No. 2, which was then performed on 26 January of the following year in Saint Petersburg under the same author’s direction. Received kindly by both the public and critics, the Second Symphony is distinguished by its cyclic system based on a melody of few notes, a kind of motto, which returns in a varied form within the four movements. Among the strengths of the Symphony n. 2 stand out the expressiveness and chanting of the themes used and an orchestral writing capable of highlighting very refined timbre; just think for example of the slow movement, the heart of the composition placed in third position, which with the poignant and famous melody intoned by the clarinet on the plush accompaniment of the strings is one of the moments of greatest emotional involvement of the opera.
Manuel De Falla
El sombrero de tres picos, Suites n. 1 and n. 2 from the ballet
Like many musicians of his generation, Manuel de Falla also did not fail to measure himself with the extraordinary artistic experience of the Russian Ballets led by Sergej Djagilev. The Russian impresario had long hoped for a collaboration with the Spanish composer and the opportunity came in 1917 when he invited Manuel de Falla to transform into ballet the pantomime entitled El Corregidor y la molinera. Leonide Massine were also involved in the project for the choreography and Pablo Picasso for the scenes and costumes and the ballet El sombrero de tres picos (The hat with three points) debuted in London on 22 July 1919 reporting an extraordinary success. Years later, the composer decided to draw two concert suites that collect some of the most famous numbers of the ballet. In the Suite n. 1, after an energetic opening fanfare, the orchestra transports the listener into a warm Spanish afternoon (La tarde) to then drag him into the sensual rhythm of Frasquita’s fandango (Danza de la molinera). The ridiculous and pompous magistrate who courted the beautiful mugnaia moves instead to the mannered step of a minuet (Dance of the Corregidor), while the suite closes with the brilliant dance of Las uvas. Andalusian rhythms and bright orchestral colors are the master also in Suite n. 2 that impagina a roundup of popular dances: the allegra seguidilla (Dance of Los vecinos), the energetic and virile farruca starring the husband of Frasquita (Dance of the miller), to the exuberant jota, an ancient dance of Aragonese origin that engages the orchestra in a virtuoso crescendo of rhythm and color (Final Dance).
Maurice Ravel
Boléro
The Boléro by Ravel was 'born' at the request of the dancer Ida Rubinstein, who in 1927 asked her friend the composer for a score for a short ballet with Spanish setting. The first performance took place the following year, but already two years later, with the performance in concert form directed by the same author, the Boléro went beyond the boundaries of dance to become one of the works that symbolized orchestral literature. "There are no contrasts and practically no invention, except for the initial project and the way of putting it into practice," explained Ravel about his work. The author uses few simple elements: the rhythm of ancient Spanish dance of the eighteenth century, the bolero, characterized by a ternary rhythm played by percussion and moderate pace, and a conturbating melody of Arabic-flavorThe growing process is subtracted from development but obsessively repeated until saturation. The basic idea is that of a gradual and calibrated dynamic and timbral crescendo that sees each repetition of the theme the entry into the field of a new instrument that enriches the palette of sounds raveliana: First the flute only accompanied by the pulsation of the drum, then gradually all the other instruments of the various orchestral families that superimposing themselves create an ever greater sound thickness and a melodic and rhythmic tension that explodes in the concluding beats.