The 2024 Easter Festival on the radio
Pinchas Zukerman (Viola), Jakub Hrusa (conductor), Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia © Erika Mayer
Orchestral Concert II: MARTINU / BERLIOZ
The Second Orchestral Concert is also dedicated to Italy, but this time with works by non-Italians offering their own perspective on the country. The guest conductor will be Jakub Hrůša, the Principal Guest Conductor of Santa Cecilia and soon to be the new Music Director of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden.
Their programme will open with »Les Fresques de Piero della Francesca«, an atmospheric symphonic poem composed in 1955 by Bohuslav Martinů that was inspired by the fresco cycle by Piero della Francesca in the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo.
There follow two works by the French composer Hector Berlioz, who was able to live and work at the Villa Medici in Italy from 1831 to 1832, after having won the Prix de Rome. Taking his inspiration from the Roman landscapes and the mountains of Abruzzo, he composed »Harold in Italy«. The Israeli violist Pinchas Zukerman will play the solo part, here in his debut with the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia.
The programme will also feature »Le carnaval romain«, adapted in 1843 from Berlioz’s opera »Benvenuto Cellini«.Here, Berlioz combines themes from the love scene between Benvenuto and Teresa in the first act and its overwhelming finale in the streets of Rome, thronging with people at carnival time.