Press release - Stresa Festival 2008

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The 47th edition of Settimane Musicali di Stresa e del Lago Maggiore has been organized under the High Patronage (Alto Patronato) of the President of the Italian Republic. For the second year in a row, the Head of State prized the Festival, through the attribution of this important acknowledgement, and confirmed its being among the musical institutions of national and international importance; a fundamental event for the territory’s touristic and cultural promotion.
In 2008 the Festival has enriched its program, including the Spring Concerts, organized with the contribution of Regione Piemonte and of the Province of Verbano Cusio Ossola. This year programme is so made up of Easter Concerts (March 15 and 22), Spring Concerts (from May 2 to 11), Musical Meditations and the main programme.
Musical Meditations (1 - 10 August), as usual, offer works composed between the Renaissance and the Baroque periods. Climax of the programme is the “Bach Project” , during which the complete cycles of Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin will be played, together with the traditional performance of the Suites for cello solo at the Hermitage Santa Caterina del Sasso di Leggiuno. The protagonists will be Christian Tetzlaff and Daniel Müller-Schott.
The theme of 2008, 900: shadows and lights, intends to underline the stylistic contrasts in the music of the past century, echoes of the profound contradictions of a tormented and divided society. There are several important themes of twentieth century history that are still part of our culture: beginning from Bohème, sketch of the late nineteenth century, to the provocative and neo classical Rake’s progress by Stravinsky (actually, he was a great admirer of Puccini’s music, in particular of the scores written at the end of the century), to the mitteleuropean atmospheres of Jean Paul and Clemens Brentano, that have inspired the symphonies by Mahler which are in the programme, to the theme of death based on the texts of Apollinaire, Rilke and Garcia Lorca in the extraordinary Symphony no. 14 by Shostakovich (1969).
The Festival’s main programme, made up of fifteen concerts from August 23 to September 6, will be inaugurated by the Orchestra delle Settimane Musicali di Stresa, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. The evening’s repertoire will include two Symphonies, Beethoven’s Seventh and Shostakovich’s Fourteenth, entrusted to the voices of the soprano Nicola Beller Carbone and of the bass Arutjun Kotchinian.
Another Symphony, Mahler’s Fourth, will again have as protagonist the Orchestra delle Settimane Musicali di Stresa (August 28) with the soprano Sally Matthews. The evening shall end with Stravinsky’s Violin concerto, entrusted to the Austrian Thomas Zehetmair. Gianandrea Noseda, Artistic Director of the Festival, shall once again conduct this masterpiece.
In the September 1 concert at Stresa Congress Hall two more Symphonies will be performed by Filarmonica della Scala conducted by Myung-Whun Chung: Mahler’s Titano and Mendelssohn’s Italiana.
The second symphonic concert of the Festival, again at the Congress Palace, will be performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit. The programme foresees Sibelius’s Finlandia, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet and Saint-Saëns’ Concerto no. 5, with the pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet ( September 3).
Among the internationally renowned musicians who will perform in this Festival, Zehetmair Quartet (on August 26), the Choir of King’s College of Cambridge (August 27), the Cellists of La Scala with Giovanni Sollima (August 29), Lars Vogt (September 5).
BIT20 Ensemble shall once again play at the Festival, during two different soirées: at the Rocca Borromeo in Angera, in which, as usual, contemporary music will be performed (August 31) and at the Palazzina Liberty when it will end the third edition of the Masterclasses of Stresa Music Academy with the violin player Irvine Arditti (September 4).
The true innovation of 2008 is the production of two semi-staged operas, both conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.
During the first one, the Orchestra delle Settimane Musicali will perform Stravinsky’s The rake’s progress, with an international cast of soloists and Ars Cantica Choir prepared by Marco Berrini (August 30).
The second event, in celebration of the 150th year since Puccini’s birth, is La bohème, co-produced by Fondazione Teatro Regio di Torino and MiTo - Settembre Musica. This opera, that will conclude the Festival on September 6, will be staged at the Congress Hall by the Orchestra del Teatro Regio di Torino and its own Choir, prepared by Roberto Gabbiani, and soloists, among which some Stresa habitués such as Tomislav Muek and Nicola Ulivieri.
Vennues are also protagonists of the Festival. Among the most beautiful locations for the concerts the Hermitage Santa Caterina del Sasso, the three Borromean Islands, the Isola di S. Giulio (Lake Orta), the Rocca Borromeo in Angera, the Villa San Remigio in Verbania, Villa Ponti in Arona, and some “new entries” such as Villa Pallavicino in Stresa, Piroscafo Piemonte and Sacro Monte della SS. Trinità in Ghiffa.

Stresa, July 3rd 2008