Foron, Emanuel Ax

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At the height of his success in Vienna, Mozart found himself managing a large body of subscribers eager to hear the latest additions to his catalogue. Among them, the concerto for piano and orchestra was one of the most keenly awaited occasions. And it is no accident that it was Mozart himself who sat at the piano, displaying his astounding technique. Under his hands, though, even a brilliant genre like the eighteenth-century piano concerto was enriched by the depth and nobility of its invention, becoming something far more solid and lasting than a passing fashion. The Concerto no. 22 K. 482, which appeared in 1785, still bears the traces of the piano writing typical of these private academies, full as it is of passages barely sketched in, which only a first-rate pianist can fill with his virtuosity, calling if need be on the most daring powers of improvisation. Jean Sibelius
Symphony no. 1 in E minor op. 39

The Finn Jean Sibelius presented his First Symphony at the twilight of the nineteenth century and of his country’s hopes of independence. It was in those years that the Tsarist noose tightened further around Finland, forced to adopt Russian as a compulsory language and to send its sons to five years of military service. Europe’s intellectual class rose against this prospect; even Giosuè Carducci, from Bologna, signed an appeal that went unheeded. Sibelius detached his symphony from this context, denying extra-musical references and patriotic aims. And yet his name is by now inseparable from the awakening of Finnish feeling for independence. His seven symphonies, after all, are a frank attempt to remain independent of the upheavals that were overtaking the music of the twentieth century. To listen to Sibelius is to be enchanted by bare landscapes flooded with light, a musical universe with rules of its own. A world whose keys it is good to hold. Philharmonic Orchestra of Teatro Comunale di Bologna

45 min. before the concert begins, the audience is invited to an introduction to the programme by Prof. Guido Giannuzzi, on the lower floor of the Theatre. SECTOR 1
Full price: €45
Over 65: €35
Reduced 30-35: €30
U30: €25