Dall’alba a mezzanotte nel nome di Wagner
di Alessio Vlad
Direttore artistico Musica
The 2018 Festival is once again in the name of its origin: Wagner. In fact, the event has been planned rather like two similar columns which differ only in that that are made of different material: the same piece performed by two different conductors and orchestras, one opening the Festival and the other closing it.
On 30 June, Esa-Pekka Salonen will return with an opening concert of the London Philharmonic, The Death of Isotta, while on 25 August Donald Runnicles and the orchestras of the Berlin Deutsche Oper will perform the same work. Both programmes have been prepared specifically for Ravello and both are dedicated to Wagner’s music.
In this way, the thrust stage of the Villa Rufolo, like the bow of Tristan’s ship where mountains meet the sea, will be the ideal place for Northern Europe to meet the South as if in search of their common origin.
Orchestras and conductors, carrying out a rite which constantly changes with each repetition, will aspire towards the sublime.
Between Salonen and Runnicles we shall have Myung-Whun Chung and the Orchestre Philarmonique de Radio France playing Ravel and Berlioz, Jérémie Rhorer and Le Cercle de l’Harmonie with the last three symphonies of Mozart, Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra performing Bartok, Mahler and Brahms, and Valery Gergiev and the Marinsky with Stravinsky and Tchaikovski.
This year again there is a youth orchestra: the Orchestra Nazionale dei Conservatori Italiani led by Alexander Lonquich as both pianist and conductor performing Beethoven and Schubert. The Salerno Orchestra Filarmonica, conducted by Ryan McAdams, will perform the Dawn Concert and by so doing represent the best of music in Campania. And in the enchanting gardens of Villa Rufolo, the Midnight Concerts with five piano concerts by Andrea Lucchesini, Sun Hee You, Varvara, Bertrand Chamayou and Federico Colli.
Ravello is a Festival which aims to maintain the highest level of quality which is clear and visible to all, in harmony with the excellence of the location and its age long tradition.