At the end they all stood up to applaud him: after the concert by the Filarmonica della Scala conducted by Daniel Barenboim, the audience wanted to demonstrate all their affection for the maestro, who returned to conduct in Milan despite the illness that weakens him.
It is a story of great affection between Barenboim and the Milanese public, cemented over the years from 2006, when he became maestro at La Scala, and then from 2011 to 2016 as musical director.
Yesterday Barenboim - who last Monday conducted a special rehearsal of the concert in favor of the Sons of the Shoah association in the conservatory - arrived on stage slowly while the audience shouted 'welcome back maestro' and a long applause broke out.
He sat down on the podium, as always without a score, and gave the start of Beethoven's sixth symphony.
He conducted while sitting, every now and then arranging himself better, with hinted gestures, almost as if to save his energy, in the absolute attention of the orchestra, a Pastoral with extremely dilated, almost ethereal rhythms.
In the second part he conducted the Seventh Symphony with a faster pace to reach the final 'fury' which once again sparked applause from the audience and even the cry 'was stupendous'.
After three stage calls, the spectators finally all stood up for the last tribute to a tired and satisfied Barenboim.
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