The prestigious international ensembles led by some of the most successful conductors, the excellent soloists and young talents, the music that intertwines with other artistic languages. The 74th edition of the Sagra Musicale Malatestiana arrives in September, preceded by a series of special events between spring and summer. It is one of the oldest classical music festivals on the Italian scene and has always been a cultural institution of the city.

Symphony concerts
The program offered by the cycle of symphonic concerts of the Sagra Musicale Malatestiana is vast, presenting on the stage of the Teatro Galli a rich proposal of international artists and modern and contemporary authors.

It starts with the musicians of the Peace Orchestra Project (September 7) directed by Riccardo Castro accompanied by a soloist of the standing of Marta Argerich. with the first Piano Concerto by Ludwig van Beethoven and a program that is enriched by the second Piano Concerto by Dmitri Šostakóvič, soloist Federico Gad Crema, by the Symphony ‘A New World’ by Nicola Campogrande and by the overture from the Candide by Leonard Bernstein.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra returns to Rimini (September 13) led by the baton of Vasily Petrenko for the Second Symphony by Sergej Rachmaninov and the Violin Concerto by Piotr Ilic Cajkovskij entrusted to the talent of Julia Fischer.

Music of the great North is proposed by the program of the Baltic Symphonic Orchestra conducted by Kristjan Jarvi (September 22) with a program where the contemporary music of Arvo Part and Jarvi himself resonates with Grieg's ‘Peer Gynt’ and the suite from the ‘Uccello di Fuoco’  by Stravinsky. Prestigious is the presence of Goto Midori in the concert of the Festival Strings Lucerne Orchestra (October 23) dedicated to violin pages by Robert Schumann and Ludwig van Beethoven, ideal for enhancing the virtuosity of the renowned Japanese soloist.

Dedicated to Gustav Mahler is the concert that marks the return of the Scala Philharmonic Orchestra with Riccardo Chailly (October 29) on the podium for Symphony No. 1 called Titano preceded by the performance of the symphonic Prelude composed by Anton Bruckner.

Finally, the debut in Rimini of the young and successful pianist Beatrice Rana (November 28) is an exceptional artistic convergence that will involve the musicians of the Chamber Orchestra Europe and sir Antonio Pappano on the podium in a program which, in addition to the Schumann concert, offers pages by Elgar and Dvorak.

Chamber music

Wide variety of proposals for the chamber music cycle hosted at the Galli Theater. In the Sala Ressi, formations with variable numbers will alternate starting with the viola, clarinet and piano trio composed by Danusha Waskiewicz, Tommaso Lonquich and Andrea Rebaudengo (September 24) in an itinerary that goes from Mozart to Kurtag's twentieth century.

The String Duo la Toscanini moves from fantasies on themes by Verdi and tangos by Piazzolla; Mihaela Costea and Antonio Mercurio propose (October 1) an original combination of violin and double bass.

The La Scala String Quartet (October 15) will offer a program where the Quartet op. 44 by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy will be joined by the Quartet in B flat major by Ludwig van Beethoven, one of the last masterpieces of the Bonn genius.

Exceptional is the duo formed by Mario Brunello and Giovanni Sollima (October 27) who will alternate on the small and large cello together in a concert inspired by Stravinsky's Suite italienne, oscillating between the universe of Bach and the world of pop.

World premiere of the piano concert composed by Beethoven at the age of fourteen with an arrangement by Paolo Marzocchi is at the center of a program designed to highlight the value of the soloists of the WunderkammerOrchestra (November 12) with Carlo Tenan on the podium and Marco Vergini at the piano .

New production: Perseus and Andromeda

The new production project of the Sagra Musicale Malatestiana, presented on October 20 at the Teatro degli Atti, is signed by Daniele Spanò and Luca Brinchi who will face Perseus and Andromeda by Salvatore Sciarrino, conceived as a video and sound installation.

Perseus and Andromeda is Salvatore Sciarrino's first opera and among the first in the entire history of musical theater in which traditional acoustic instruments are completely abandoned in favor of electronic sounds. The libretto is made up of fragments taken from the Moralités légendaires written at the end of the 19th century by Jules Laforgue.

Commissioned by the Stuttgart Opera in 1991, the opera was presented the following year at La Scala in Milan and at the Orestiadi in Gibellina. In Rimini it will count on the voices of Eleonora Benetti, Arianna Lanci, Giacomo Pieracci and Paolo Leonardi conducted by Fabio Sperandio and with live electronics curated by Alessandro Fiordelmondo.

Dance

Exceptional dance appointment with (November 18) Natalia Osipova, superstar of international ballet who makes her debut at the Galli Theater with the show Force of Nature conceived as a crescendo of choreographies signed by Marius Petipa, Frederick Ashton, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Alexei Ratmansky, Jason Kittelberger, Bryan Arias and Mikhail Fokine, flanked on stage by the ‘primi ballerini’ of the Royal Ballet and Rambert Ballet in London.

Ancient music

Two appointments dedicated to music, both commissioned by the Sagra Musicale Malatestiana and dedicated to vocal rarities. The first concert will be proposed by the ArsEmble group (July 2), with the voices of the soprano Santa Tomasello and the contralto Marcella Ventura and with the direction of Roberto Cascio, who will perform chamber cantatas composed at the beginning of the eighteenth century by Mario Bianchelli - original author of a noble and wealthy Rimini family.

With the voice of mezzo-soprano Arianna Lanci (November 4), the second appointment is dedicated to the performance of Cassandra, a dramatic cantata composed by Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach on a text that the poet and scholar Antonio Conti had written at the beginning of the eighteenth century for the composer Benedetto Marcello accompanied on this occasion by a new score composed by Rossella Spino for the same ensemble of the eighteenth-century work.

Organ concerts

The enhancement of Rimini's organ heritage includes the double appointment with Matteo Imbruno (June 15) who will play the recently restored organ of the Chiesa dei Servi in ​​a recital ranging from Bach to Regher and with Francesco Tasini (June 22) at the Church of Santa Rita ranging between the music of Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti.

Music and young people

Many initiatives promoted by the Sagra Musicale Malatestiana give space to young talents, starting with the Music Week which from 15 May offers concerts, workshops, seminars, photographic exhibitions with performances by soloists, ensembles, orchestras and choirs from primary and secondary schools second degree.

A tribute to the great conductor Angelo Mariani on the 150th anniversary of his death is scheduled at the Teatro di Sant'Agata Feltria (June 14) entrusted to the young performers of the Accademia della Scala in Milan. The Summer School of the Lettimi Conservatory of Rimini in concert on 22 July.

The music of the 2000s is the title of the event (October 10) which will involve the young musicians of the Rimini Youth Orchestra on the stage of the Galli Theater. A collaboration between the Einstein Liceo Musicale, the Lettimi Conservatory, the City of Rimini Youth Band. Under the direction of Davide Tura and Andrea Brugnettini the program ranges from classical to pop, from film music to electronic influences.

At the Galli Theater (10 December) a very young talent, the pianist Nicolò Ferdinando Cafaro, winner of the 2022 Venice Prize.

Contemporary music
The collaboration with the San Marino International Music Summer Courses is also renewed for an important proposal of contemporary music (August 1) at the Teatro degli Atti which includes a large set of percussionists and percussionists with the Ensemble Ars Ludi – Silver Lion at the Biennale of Venice – and their students engaged in a concert with works by John Cage, Guo Wenjing, Tori Takemitsu.

The music of Friedrick Hollaender and Irving Berlin will be proposed in the original show by the Ruggiero composed by Emanuela Marcante and by Daniele Tonini

(September 20) during a tribute to the multifaceted genius of director Billy Wilder.

Words for Music – Mentor Project

The calendar of the Parole per la musica/ Words for Music proposes twelve meetings aimed at deepening the proposals on the program of the Sagra Musicale Malatestiana thanks to the participation of music historians, authoritative popularizers, philosophers.

The Mentor Project, offers to young people up to the age of 25 the opportunity not only to participate in concerts for free, but to be involved in a structured approach to the music that provides listening guides, conferences and trips.

Tickets

From 6 May (from 10 am at the Galli Theater ticket office) the presale starts for the concerts scheduled from 14 June to 15 October. Online presale is active from 7 May at https://biglietteria.comune.rimini.it. For the appointments scheduled in the second part of the season, from 18 October to December, presale starts on 2 September at the ticket office, from 3 also online.

Information: www.sagramusicalemalatestiana.it, www.teatrogalli.it