On Friday, March 28th 2025, the last symphonic event on the calendar before the start of the 87th Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Festival.

On the podium of the Main Hall maestro Zubin Mehta; the program includes music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Gustav Mahler.

Soloist in the performance of the Mozart piece, on the clarinet, Edoardo Di Cicco.

The concert will be broadcast on Rai Radio 3

Florence, March 26th, 2025 – Last stop on the calendar before the start of the 87th Maggio Festival.

On Friday, March 28, at 8:00 pm, conductor emeritus Zubin Mehta returns to the podium of the Main Hall leading the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Orchestra for an important symphonic event. The opening piece will be the “Concerto in A major for clarinet and orchestra K. 622” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with clarinet soloist Edoardo Di Cicco; the evening will close with the famous “Symphony no. 1 in D major”, known as Titan, by Gustav Mahler. Maestro Mehta and the Maggio Orchestra will also be, on Saturday, March 29th, 2025 at 5:30 pm, in Orvieto, as part of the project “Omaggio all’Umbria”, for the traditional Easter Concert. The concert from Maggio will be broadcast on Rai Radio 3 and the concert from Orvieto will be broadcast on Rai 1 on Good Friday after the Via Crucis and on Rai 5 in the days following the broadcast.

Maestro Zubin Mehta will then conduct the last symphonic concert before the curtain rises on the 87th edition of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Festival, and he will conduct the first choral symphonic concert of the Festival on April 18th with the monumental “Messa da Requiem” by Giuseppe Verdi. During the Festival, the maestro will then conduct Aida, by Giuseppe Verdi - on stage from June 19th to July 1st 2025 - and will close the Festival’s symphonic programme with the concert scheduled for June 21st.

The March 28th show starts with the “Concerto in A major for clarinet and orchestra K. 622” by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composed in the autumn of 1791: the dedicatee was his friend, the clarinetist Anton Stadler, a great virtuoso of the instrument. The clarinet was an instrument particularly loved by the genius from Salzburg because of its soft timbre, and in the Concerto KV 622 he is accompanied by an orchestra with chamber sounds (therefore without oboes, trumpets and timpani) that leaves ample space for the soloist’s interventions, highlighting his versatility and expressiveness in the various registers. The soloist is Edoardo Di Cicco, first clarinet of the Orchestra del Maggio.

Closing the concert one of the most famous compositions by Gustav Mahler, the “Symphony No. 1 in D major”, well known as Titan: Mahler was busy writing it for much of his career, from the first drafts in 1884 to the final and definitive touches in 1909. A composition with a troubled genesis, marked by continuous rethinking and revisions, it was performed in three different versions over the years. In the first performance in Budapest in 1888 he presented it as a symphonic poem; five years later in the Hamburg performance he renamed it “Titan, symphonic poem in the form of a symphony”, inspired by a novel by Jean Paul. Finally, in the Berlin version of 1896 he deleted every title and every stage direction, definitively naming it Symphony No. 1 in D major.

The concert:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Concerto in A major for clarinet and orchestra K. 622

After spending a few weeks in Prague for the staging of La Clemenza di Tito, Mozart returned to Vienna and on October 7th 1791 he released the Concerto in A major for clarinet and orchestra KV 622. The dedicatee was his friend, the clarinetist and brother Mason Anton Stadler, a great virtuoso of the instrument. It was not the first time that Mozart composed with Stadler’s extraordinary interpretative skills in mind, for whom he had already created the Trio K. 498, the Clarinet Quintet K. 581, as well as some concertante interventions in La Clemenza di Tito. An instrument particularly loved by Mozart for its soft and velvety timbre, the clarinet is accompanied in the Concerto KV 622 by an orchestra with chamber sounds (there are no oboes, trumpets or timpani) that leaves ample space for the soloist’s interventions, highlighting his versatility and expressiveness in the various registers. In the three canonical movements into which the Concerto is divided - Allegro, Adagio, Rondo - Mozart exploits all the timbral resources of the instrument, from the melodic surges of the final movements to the moments of sublime lyricism of the central Adagio.

Gustav Mahler
Symphony No. 1 in D major, Titan

The first of his nine Symphonies occupied Mahler for much of his career, from the first drafts in 1884 to the final and definitive adjustments in 1909. A composition with a troubled genesis, marked by constant rethinking and revisions, Symphony No. 1 was performed in three different versions over the years. The doubt about what form to give to his first symphonic work tormented Mahler for a long time, uncertain whether to follow the path of absolute music or programme music, the two trends of his time. In the first performance in Budapest in 1888 he presented it as a symphonic poem, without however giving precise indications of its programmatic content; five years later in the Hamburg performance he renamed it “Titan, symphonic poem in the form of a symphony”, inspired by a novel by Jean Paul. Finally, in the Berlin version of 1896 he deleted every title and every stage direction, definitively naming it Symphony No. 1 in D major, fearing that the extramusical content could be overvalued and misunderstood by the public. Among the most radical changes that occurred over the years were also the reduction from five to four movements and the expansion of the orchestral staff. But despite the removal of all textual references, the symphony betrays its original roots in the abundance of elements dear to Mahler's poetics: the musical memory of his childhood (rhythms of military marches, trumpet blasts, melodies of popular flavor), the privileged relationship with Romantic literature in the self-quotations of contemporary Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, the contemplation of the immensity of Nature, the feeling of man's estrangement from the mystery of life; all enclosed between moments of suspension, desperation and final triumph.