Giulio Prandi in the Great Mass in C minor by Mozart: 24 January 2025
On January 24th, 2025, at 8 pm, Giulio Prandi will conduct the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra and Choir in the Zubin Mehta Hall. On the programme: "Sinfonia milanese n. 5/I in G minor" by Niccolò Zingarelli and "Great Mass in C minor for solos, choir and orchestra" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Soloists: Nikoletta Hertsak; Giuseppina Bridelli; Krystian Adam and Alessandro Ravasio.
The concert will be broadcast on Rai Radio 3
Florence, January 22nd, 2025 - On Friday, January 24th, at 8 pm, the first symphonic concert of the new year with the maestro Giulio Prandi on the podium of the Mehta Hall at the helm of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra and Choir. On the program: "Sinfonia milanese n. 5/I in G minor" by Niccolò Zingarelli and "Great Mass in C minor for solos, choir and orchestra" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Soloists during the performance of the Great Mass in C minor soprano Nikoletta Hertsak, recently trained at the Accademia del Maggio; Giuseppina Bridelli, mezzo-soprano, valour interpreter of the Mozart repertoire and returning at Maggio after the 2019 La clemenza di Tito ; the tenor Krystian Adam, who made his debut at Maggio in November 2014 with J.S.Bach’s "Mass in B minor BWV 232" and bass Alessandro Ravasio.
Lorenzo Fratini is the Maggio Choir's maestro.
The evening starts with "Sinfonia milanese n. 5/I in G minor" by Niccolò Zingarelli: The “Milan Symphonies” by Zingarelli are so called because they were recovered by the musicologist Ray Longyear in the so-called “Noseda fund” in Milan and there are twelve in all even if apparently thought as two series of six symphonies each. The "Symphony n. 5", one of two in minor key, is written for the orchestral ensemble of two oboes, two horns, strings and a continuo typical of the Milanese environment.
The "Great Mass in C minor for solos, choir and orchestra" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, also known as "The great mass", which follows, is one of the greatest and most admirable compositions of sacred music of all time and as great as the other greatest sacred masterpiece by Mozartian, the famous Requiem in D minor K. 626 (both left unfinished). Mozart had begun to compose it for his own decision, leaving the system of ‘committenza’ that regulated the musical production of the time; was conceived as an offering to overcome the difficulties that stood in the way of his marriage and at the same time as a gift for the beloved Constanze. In a letter sent to his father from Vienna in January 1783, the 27-year-old Wolfgang reveals that he has made "a promise in his heart" and that "the best proof of this promise is the score of a Mass which is still waiting to be completed". From this same letter it is deduced that Mozart had intended to have his Mass performed in Salzburg from the very beginning. Indeed, the first time he travelled from Vienna to Salzburg after his marriage he brought the score with him and continued working on it, but on the day scheduled for the performance, at the end of October 1783, This was still unfinished and probably supplemented with pieces from other Mozart's masses.
On the podium, maestro Giulio Prandi, on his debut at Maggio: graduated in conducting with Donato Renzetti, was a student of Bruno Zanolini for composition and Domenico Zingaro for choral direction at the Milan Conservatory and is also a teacher of choral training at the Conservatory of Pavia. He founded the Ghislieri Choir and Orchestra, which he regularly conducts in some of the major European festivals and venues, and collaborates with orchestras and foundations such as La Scala Chamber Music Association, Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, the Arena Foundation in Verona and the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa. His recordings with the Ghislieri Choir and Orchestra for "Sony/Deutsche Harmonia mundi" and "Arcana/Outhere Music" have obtained numerous awards such as the "International Classical Music Award" 2022 and the "Diapason découverte". Among his successes we also remember the debut at Teatro La Scala in a concert with music by Pergolesi and Vinci with the Cameristi della Scala and the Coro Ghislieri; Les Incas du Pérou by Rameau at the Malatestiana Festival in Rimini and the premiere of the opera De bello gallico by Nicola Campogrande at the Teatro Pergolesi in Jesi.
The concert is preceded by a listening by Maddalena Bonechi 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 program:
Niccolò Zingarelli
Sinfonia milanese n. 5/I in G minor
Antonio Nicola Zingarelli was born in Naples in 1752 and was one of the greatest exponents of the glorious Neapolitan school. After graduating from the Conservatory of Santa Maria di Loreto, he worked as a chapel master in major Italian centres but was also a prolific author of works performed in Italy and France. The Milan Symphony n. 5 in G minor belongs to a group of twelve symphonies kept in the library of the Conservatory of Milan probably made by Zingarelli during his stay in the city of Milan. In the middle decades of the eighteenth century, Milan was an important musical center where the Milan symphony flourished and developed, a composition of entertainment derived from the overture in three movements of Italian style. This genre was not only explored by local authors such as Sammartini, Brioschi and Galimberti but also by many other Italian and foreign masters of the second eighteenth century who stayed and worked in the Lombard area assimilating the musical style, such as Zingarelli. The Symphony n. 5 employs an orchestral body consisting of two oboes, two horns, strings and basso continuo and is divided into a first movement Allegro very in bipartite form, a pastoral tone Larghetto and a third movement, Allegro fair, with dancing character.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Great Mass in C minor for solos, choir and orchestra K. 427 (completed by Helmut Eder)
The Great Mass in C minor for solos, choir and orchestra K. 427 was composed by Mozart after his move to Vienna. From 1781 Mozart had freed himself from the constraints that tied him to the grumpy archbishop of Colloredo - whose musical expectations he must necessarily respond to as long as he worked at his service - and could decide independently what and how to compose. The Mass in C minor, in fact, is not a commissioned work but is the result of a vow made by the Salzburg Mayor that the engagement with Constanze Weber would be successful and would end with the long-awaited wedding. An opera born by his own decision, which Mozart worked on between 1782 and 1783, until other more urgent and paid compositions distracted him from finishing it. Of the sections that make it up, only Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus and Benedictus were completed, the Credo was unfinished while the Agnus Dei is totally missing. The Mass was however performed in Salzburg on 26 October 1783 (Constanze sang among the soloists) with the addition of excerpts from other compositions to fill in the missing parts. Of monumental and complex structure, the Mass in C minor is a perfect example of baroque polyphony. The masterful contrapuntal writing exhibited by Mozart finds its reference models in the past masters Bach and Handel, known and studied in the rich library of Baron van Swieten, while the sections of flower singing - the soprano solo in Kyrie and Laudamus te and the duet of Domine Deus - they refer to the Italian vocal tradition that Mozart had perfectly assimilated and made his own.