The symphonic appointments of the 85th Maggio Fiorentino Festival continue: maestro Diego Ceretta, on his debut at Maggio on Friday, May 19, at 8pm on the podium of the Zubin Mehta Hall.

In collaboration with Orchestra della Toscana

On the programme, compositions by Dmitrij Šostakovich and Antonín Dvořák.
On cello Julia Hagen.

The concert will be broadcast on Rai Radio 3 on a delayed basis

Florence, May 16, 2023 - After the concert held by the principal conductor Daniele Gatti for the "Viva Verdi" project, the symphonic shows of the 85th Maggio Musicale Festival continue: on friday, May 19, at 8 pm, in Zubin Mehta Hall, on his debut at Maggio, the maestro Diego Ceretta, recently appointed principal conductor of the Orchestra della Toscana. The collaboration between the Maggio and the Orchestra della Toscana is therefore renewed after four years, confirming what was stated by the Commissioner of the Maggio Onofrio Cutaia who had expressed his will to restore collaborations between the most important cultural and didactics realities of the Florentine and Tuscan territory.

Speaking of his debut, maestro Ceretta highlighted the emotion of taking part in the Festival del Maggio for his very first time: "The Festival del Maggio is historic: being part of it for the first time is truly exciting, knowing also who the two directors are 'at home', two extraordinary masters such as Daniele Gatti, of whom I had the good fortune to be a pupil, and Zubin Mehta. Furthermore, this renewal of the collaboration between the Orchestra della Toscana and the Maggio is splendid, in this way two important Florentine artistic-musical realities return to communicate; this invitation from Maggio was an opening that was truly appreciated and enthusiastically welcomed by the entire ORT"

On the lecterns of the Orchestra del Maggio Fiorentino a program - broadcast delayed by Rai Radio 3 - dedicated to the compositions of Dmitrij Šostakovič and Antonín Dvořák: opening the evening with Concerto n. 1 in E flat major op. 107 for cello and orchestra by Shostakovich, composed in just forty days in 1959 and dedicated to the great cellist Mstislav Rostropovic, who presented it to the public on October 4 of the same year in the Great Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic. During the performance of the Concerto n. 1, together with maestro Ceretta, the cellist Julia Hagen, returning to the Maggio one year after the concert held last April along with Theodor Guschlbauer.

Closing the show, the Symphony n. 9 in E minor op. 95, known as From the New World by Dvořák, so called because it was composed between 1892 and the following year in the United States, during the bohemian composer's stay in New York.
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Maestro Diego Ceretta, who is also making his debut at the helm of the Orchestra del Maggio, is one of the most promising talents on the international music scene: he graduated at the age of eighteen in violin from the "Giuseppe Verdi" Conservatory in Milan. He made his debut in December 2016 with the Italian Philharmonic Orchestra. Subsequently he conducted the Sanremo Philharmonic Orchestra in various concerts and tours, the City of Grosseto Symphony Orchestra and the Ecomusic Big Band at Carnegie Hall in New York, conducting a world premiere of Girolamo Deraco. In the Sala Verdi of the Milan Conservatory he conducted the opera Billy Budd by Federico Ghedini, with the reciting voice of Alessandro Quasimodo. In 2019 he made his debut in the Milano Classica Season and at the MiTo Festival, conducting the Conservatory Orchestra. He also conducted the world premiere of Alberto Cara's opera La notte di Natale in the operatic circuit of the Savona and Modena theaters. In 2020 he made his debut with the Orchestra of Padua and the Veneto and was the only Italian finalist at the "Guido Cantelli" Conducting Competition in Novara, winning the City Prize and an engagement at the Rossini Festival in Bad Wildbad .

Daniele Gatti's assistant at the Rome Opera House for the world premiere of Giorgio Battistelli's opera Julius Caesar, he was also engaged in Cagliari in a series of symphonic concerts with the Cagliari Lyric Theater Orchestra in Pesaro with the Rossini Symphony Orchestra and in Bolzano for the recording of a CD with the Haydn Orchestra.

He also worked alongside with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra for the performance of Symphony n. 2 by Mahler with Fabio Luisi. He then conducted La Sonnambula at the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari; a series of concerts with the Haydn Orchestra of Bolzano and Trento as part of the Sacred Music Festival; concerts with the Krakow Philharmonic in Krakow and at the Rossini Festival in Bad Wildbad; Il matrimonio segreto in Ancona; a new production of Macbeth (directed by Pierluigi Pizzi) for the Marche Opera Network in Ascoli Piceno, Fano and Fermo and a series of symphonic concerts in the ORT-Orchestra della Toscana season, of which, on 2 March last, became chief conductor.

Julia Hagen made her debut at the Brucknerhaus Linz at the age of 14, playing as a soloist with the Wiener Jeunesse Orchester. Since then she has played extensively throughout Europe and Japan, including in venues such as Wiener Konzerthaus, Wiener Musikverein, Tonhalle Zürich, Barbican Hall and Suntory Hall. She has performed with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, she has worked with conductors such as Ivor Bolton, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Ingo Metzmacher, Markus Poschner and Kristiina Poska. The young cellist has a close artistic collaboration with the Bruckner Orchester Linz, with which she appeared in Salzburg and Linz at the beginning of the season and she will perform at the Isarphilharmonie in Munich. From the 2021/22 season she is also in the Debut Program of the Nikolaisaal Potsdam. Between 2014 and 2016, Julia Hagen was one of six carefully selected young cellists who took part in the “Classe d'Excellence de Violoncelle” held by Gautier Capuçon and supported by the Louis Vuitton Foundation. Numerous Masterclasses with Gábor Takács-Nagy, Pamela Frank, Lawrence Power, Nobuko Imai, Torleif Thedéen, Laurence Lesser and Claudio Bohorquez complete her training. Winner of the “International Cello Competition” in Liezen and the “Mazzacurati Competition” she was also awarded the “Hajek-Boss-Wagner Cultural Prize” and the “Nicolas-Firmenich Prize” of the Verbier Festival Academy.

The program:

Dmitrij Šostakovič
Concert no. 1 in E flat major op. 107 for cello and orchestra

Concert No. 1 for cello and orchestra op. 107 was composed by Šostakóvič in 1959 and owes its origin to the meeting with the cellist Mstislav Rostropovič, who will be its dedicatee and first interpreter on October 4th of the same year in Leningrad. The legendary cellist had already inspired Prokofiev a few years earlier, who had dedicated his Sinfonia concertante to him, a work known to Šostakóvič and held in high esteem. Moreover, the choice of a reduced orchestral staff in the Concerto n. 1 - with strings, woodwinds, single horn, timpani and celesta - was dictated by the desire to put Rostropovič's exceptional virtuosic skills in the foreground. Divided into four movements, the Concerto opens with a first movement that respects the rules of sonata form. Without any orchestral introduction, the cello immediately exposes a first theme, short and incisive which acts as a musical motto, then subject to numerous variations, which is followed by a second more melodic theme of folklore inspiration. The second movement, characterized by the lyrical effusion of the cello in the highest registers, sees the particular use of some instruments such as the celesta and the horn, which establishes a dialogue on an equal footing with the soloist. A third movement follows for the exclusive use of the cello, which maneuvers in a broad and impervious solo cadenza, to which the final movement in the form of a rondo is connected without interruption, where Šostakóvič employs melodies full of impetus and rhythmic vitality taken from the rich heritage of Russian folk music.

Antonín Dvořák
Symphony no. 9 in E minor op. 95 From the New World

Composed during his American stay in 1893, the Symphony no. 9 in E minor op. 95 is Dvořák's last symphonic creature as well as the most famous, also due to the attractive subtitle 'From the new world' with which it went down in history. Only two years earlier the Bohemian composer had accepted the position of director of the New York Conservatory, an unmissable opportunity to consolidate his glorious career also overseas, which initially started on the sly but then resulted in a long series of international awards and triumphs , including an honorary degree from the University of Cambridge. In the three years spent in the United States, Dvořák developed a passion for indigenous musical traditions, listening to and studying the spirituals of the African-American community and the songs of the Indians, drawing inspiration from them for Symphony n. 9, in which the numerous suggestions that recall American folklore are incorporated into a markedly European symphonic language. In fact, Dvořák looks to that rich musical heritage filtering it through his sensitivity to create a classical-style symphony dressed in American clothes. The structure is in four movements connected to each other by thematic returns and motif affinities that give solidity to the symphonic system, where the seductive themes brought into play by Dvořák emerge from a refined writing rich in orchestral colours. A perfect mix of classical form and folklore-inspired content that made it a success without setbacks right from its debut - December 16, 1893 at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Anton Seidl.