Standing ovation for Riccardo Muti at the Ravello Festival and five minutes of applause.
On the parquet of the “Oscar Niemeyer” Auditorium with the Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra, Muti chose for Ravello and the summer tour a program with little-known but highly emotionally impactful pieces: Bizet's Symphony in C major op.37 “Rome”, Ljadov's The Enchanted Lake, a symphonic poem op.62 and Les Préludes, S 97.
Symphonic Poem No. 3 from Alphonse de Lamartine by Liszt. For Muti and 'his' Youth Orchestra five minutes of applause and a standing ovation "calmed" only by the encore, the Intermezzo from Fedora by Umberto Giordano. Before leaving, the Maestro spoke to the audience of Ravello to reiterate, once again, the need for serious interventions for music, culture and especially for young people: “These kids are the best of our conservatories,” says the maestro, “if they graduated with top marks, their aspiration is to find a place in this world not only to live, but also to create culture and pass it on to you.
Many of them, however, had the misfortune of being born in places that are certainly beautiful, because Italy is all wonderful, but which do not have orchestras, theatres, prose theatres and therefore do not have a future.
Our country has a very important artistic history, not important. These guys are a small numerical expression of the quality that exists in Italy and are part of those people who can spread our culture but who do not have many opportunities. I say these things with bitterness. Are we the country of music or of the history of music?”, he commented.
At the end, Muti gave special space for applause to two Ukrainian musicians from the orchestra, “because music unites,” he added, concluding in Neapolitan: “Per chi 'o ccapisce,” drawing a final laugh from the audience.
Article published on 27 July 2022 - 11:15
