Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia,
Antonio Pappano,
Barbara Hannigan
Closing concert
conductor Antonio Pappano
soprano Barbara Hannigan
TICKETS
gold sector € 130,00
I sector piazza € 110,00
II sector piazza € 90,00
I sector stairs € 70,00
II sector stairs € 55,00
standing places € 20,00
Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
conductor
Antonio Pappano
soprano
Barbara Hannigan
Knoxville: Summer of 1915
for soprano and orchestra
Sinfonia n. 3
Molto moderato
Allegro molto
Andantino quasi allegretto
Molto deliberato
Gustav Mahler, Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky, Arturo Toscanini, Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado, Leonard Bernstein and Kirill Petrenko are just some of the greats who have conducted the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia since it was the first in Italy in 1908 to focus exclusively on the symphonic repertoire. A history of great names and great performances that is now in the hands of Antonio Pappano, music director since 2005. Guest of the major international festivals and winner of numerous record awards, in recent years under Pappano’s direction the orchestra has reaffirmed its role among international orchestras (in 2020 it was named among the top ten according to BBC Music Magazine).
This year Antonio Pappano will once again conduct the final concert in Piazza Duomo, the highlight that brings the curtain down on every edition of the Festival. Barbara Hannigan accompanies him on this evening as the soloist in Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, a particularly beautiful and rarely performed work based on James Agee’s novel A Death in the Family: a child lying in the grass in summer, in Knoxville, Tennessee, looks up at the sky and lets his thoughts chase the joys and sorrows of life. The suggestions from overseas, a theme that runs through the two worlds of the 2022 programme, are also echoed in the second part of the concert with a performance of the “American” symphony par excellence, Aaron Copland’s Third.
Please note that dates and times may be subject to change.
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Biographies
Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia
The Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia was the first orchestra in Italy to devote itself exclusively to the symphonic repertoire, giving premieres of major masterpieces of the 1900, such as Respighi’s Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome. Founded in 1908, the Orchestra has been conducted by some of the major musical figures of the 20th century: from Mahler, Debussy, Saint-Saëns, Strauss, Stravinsky, Sibelius, Hindemith, Toscanini, Furtwängler, De Sabata, Karajan and Abbado to the most impressive performers of our day including Gergiev, Thielemann, Dudamel, Temirkanov while Bernardino Molinari, Franco Ferrara, Fernando Previtali, Igor Markevitch, Thomas Schippers, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Daniele Gatti, and Myung-Whun Chung have been its Music Directors. Leonard Bernstein was Honorary President from 1983 to 1990. With Sir Antonio Pappano in the role of Music Director since 2005, the stature of the Orchestra has enjoyed extraordinary success, building an international reputation for itself. With Pappano at the helm, the Orchestra has appeared at some of the major music festivals including the Proms in London, White Nights in St. Petersburg, Lucerne Festival, Salzburg Festival and has performed in some of the most world’s best-known venues, including the Philharmonie in Berlin, Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Royal Albert Hall in London, Salle Pleyel in Paris, La Scala in Milan, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Semperoper in Dresden, Carnegie Hall in New York.
Santa Cecilia Orchestra records extensively for Warner Classic. Recent releases, under Pappano, include Nessun Dorma, The Puccini Album with tenor Jonas Kaufmann (Best Classical Music Recordings of 2015 for The New York Times), which made the world charts, Schumann’s Symphonies no. 2 and no. 4, Elgar’s Symphony no. 1 (ICA Classics), the cd “Anna Netrebko. Verismo” (DGG), Le Carnaval des Animaux with Martha Argerich, the Bernstein’s Symphonies (Warner Classics), Verdi’s Otello with Jonas Kaufmann (Sony Classical), Tudor Queens with Diana Damrau (Warner Classics) and Strauss: Ein Heldenleben/Burleske with Bertrand Chamayou (Warner Classics).
Antonio Pappano
Sir Antonio Pappano has been Music Director of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia since 1 October 2005; he had already become Music Director of London’s Covent Garden in September 2002. Born in London in 1959 to Italian parents, he studied piano, composition and conducting in the USA. In the past, he has filled other prestigious positions: in 1990 he was named Music Director of Den Norske Opera of Oslo, the theatre where he made his international debut, and from 1991 to 2002 he carried out the same role at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. Pappano is in demand as an opera conductor at the highest international level, including with the Metropolitan Opera New York, the State Operas of Vienna and Berlin, the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Théâtre du Châtelet and the Teatro alla Scala.
Sir Antonio Pappano has conducted many of the world’s major orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of the Bayerischer Rundfunk and London Symphony.
Sir Antonio Pappano records extensively for Warner Classics and has made several recordings with the Santa Cecilia Orchestra and Chorus. Among his latest recordings are Verdi’s Aida, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto no. 1 and Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto no. 2 with Beatrice Rana at the piano, Nessun Dorma, The Puccini Album with Jonas Kaufmann, Schumann’s Symphonies No.2 and No.4 (ICA Classics), the CD Anna Netrebko. Verismo (DG), Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 and The Carnival of the Animals with Martha Argerich, the Bernstein’s Symphonies, Verdi’s Otello (with Kaufmann) and Strauss Ein Heldenleben.
His awards and honors include: in 2012 he was created a Cavaliere di Gran Croce of the Republic of Italy, and a Knight of the British Empire for his services to music, and in 2015 he was named the 100th recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Gold Medal, the body’s highest honour.
In March 2021 he was announced as the next Chief Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra (Designate from 2023/24).
Barbara Hannigan
Embodying music with an unparalleled dramatic sensibility, soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan is an artist at the forefront of creation. Her artistic colleagues include Simon Rattle, Sasha Waltz, Kent Nagano, Vladimir Jurowski, John Zorn, Andreas Kriegenburg, Andris Nelsons, Esa Pekka Salonen, Christoph Marthaler, Antonio Pappano, Katie Mitchell, Kirill Petrenko, and Krszysztof Warlikowski. The late conductor and pianist Reinbert de Leeuw has been an extraordinary influence and inspiration on her development as a musician.
The Canadian musician has shown a profound commitment to the music of our time and has given the world première performances of over 85 new creations. Hannigan has collaborated extensively with composers including Boulez, Zorn, Dutilleux, Ligeti, Stockhausen, Sciarrino, Barry, Dusapin, Dean, Benjamin and Abrahamsen.
The 20/21 season presented both challenges and opportunities, and true to form, Barbara continued at her own speed of light, premiering a new live video production of La Voix Humainein which she both sings and conducts, created in collaboration with video artist Denis Guéguin as part of her residency with l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. She performed across Europe with colleagues including Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, festivals in Ludwigsburg and Aix en Provence, and celebrated her 50th birthday at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, conducting the Ludwig Orchestra in works of Haydn, Copland, Barry and two Kurt Weill songs arranged for Barbara by Bill Elliott.
The 21/22 season brings her return to La Monnaie as Lulu in the much-awaited remount of her first Lulu production with Warlikowski from 2012. Her La Voix Humaine production will take her to London Symphony Orchestra and Munich Philharmonic, and she happily returns to Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra as well as to her younger colleagues of The Juilliard School. She will sing the world premiere of a new work by Zosha di Castri with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and present several concerts with vocal works by John Zorn in Antwerp, Hamburg and Modena.
Hannigan’s album as both singer and conductor, Crazy Girl Crazy (2017), won the 2018 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal album and numerous other awards including an Edison and a Juno. Other recent albums include Vienna: fin de siècle, and Satie’s Socrate, both with pianist Reinbert de Leeuw. In spring 2020 she released her latest album on Alpha Classics, La Passione with works of Nono, Haydn and Grisey. Three new cd recordings for the Alpha label are on the way to release.
Barbara’s commitment to the younger generation of musicians led her to create the mentoring initiative Equilibrium Young Artists in 2017, and in 2020, Barbara created Momentum: our Future Now, an initiative which encourage other leading artists and organizations to support and mentor younger professional musicians. In spring 2020 Barbara was awarded the Dresdener Musikfestspiele Glashütte Award, and May 2021 saw her awarded Denmark’s prestigious Léonie Sonning Music Prize. The financial component of both awards was donated to young artists initiatives.
Originally from Nova Scotia, Barbara resides in Finistère, on the northwest coast of France.