Milan Symphony Orchestra, Vasily Petrenko conducts Britten's War Requiem

The touching work of the British composer, a very timely warning, was first performed in 1962 on the occasion of the rededication of Coventry Cathedral

Milan Symphony Orchestra

Held from 10 March to 12 March '23

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Ticket from 27€ to 36€.

2022/23 Season – Symphony

Sara Vasily Petrenko to get on the podium ofMilan Symphony Orchestra to direct the War Requiem of Benjamin Britten, Friday 10 is Sunday March 12, 2023 toCariplo Foundation Auditorium.

An appointment of great depth, which sees protagonists thesymphony orchestra, the Symphonic Choir (directed by Massimo Fiocchi Malaspina), the Children's Choir of Milan (directed by Maria Teresa Tramontin), along with a cast of excellent soloists consisting of Heather Engebretson (soprano), Gwilym Bowen (tenor) e Robert Bork (bass-baritone).

War Requiem, intense and touching masterpiece by Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), the May 30, 1962, on the occasion of the celebrations for the rededication of the Coventry Cathedral, razed to the ground along with much of the city center by the terrible bombings of Nazi Germany in 1940.

Britten responded to the commission by creating ad an unprecedented liturgical-musical synthesis; to the text Latin of the Missa pro defunctis are in fact interspersed i verses in English of the soldier-poet Wilfred Owen (who died in battle a week before the end of the Great War), filled with bewilderment at the gruesome horrors of war.

A score of great value, that of Britten, a manifesto against all conflicts, which since the first performance has been configured as a work-event that goes beyond the space-time context to take on universal meanings - a warning and a very current reminder.

In this context it is particularly to be emphasized that Vasily Petrenko, born in St. Petersburg and naturalized British, a few days after the Russian attack firmly condemned the invasion of Ukraine, suspending all his activities in Russia, including his duties as artistic director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia "Evgeni Svetlanov”, until the restoration of peace.

(Vasily Petrenko, photocredit Mark McNulty)

Vasily Petrenko he is music director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London and principal conductor of the European Union Youth Orchestra. Born in 1976, he began his musical education in St. Petersburg at a very young age. He then studied at the Conservatory with such figures as Ilya Musin, Mariss Jansons and Yuri Temirkanov.

He was Chief Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (2006 – 2021), Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra (2013-2020). He has worked with many major international orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra and the San Francisco, Boston, Chicago and Montreal Symphony Orchestras. He has appeared at the Edinburgh Festival, the BBC Proms as well as Glyndebourne, the Opéra National de Paris, the Opernhaus Zürich, the Bayerische Staatsoper and the MET New York.

Vasily Petrenko has established a strongly defined profile also in the recording field. Out of a vast catalog of recordings, his cycles of symphonies by Shostakóvič, Rachmaninov and Elgar with the RoyalLiverpool Philharmonic Orchestra stand out. With the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra he has recently published cycles of symphonies by Alexander Scriabin, poems by Richard Strauss, and selected symphonies by Prokofiev and Myaskovsky.

Highlighted

Friday concert March 10th will be preceded by introductory lecture "A Requiem for the Twentieth Century”, rapporteur Henry Reggiani. The appointment is at 18.30 in the foyer of the balcony.