The National Symphony Orchestra of Washington arrives in Italy for its first ever performance at La Scala.
Guiding her tonight in this appointment, which comes almost at the end of a substantial European tour with ten concerts in Spain and Germany as well as in Milan, is Gianandrea Noseda, her musical director for seven years and a true Milanese.
"Playing at La Scala gives a sense of pride and responsibility. There is a higher emotional load" she admits and then sums up "La Scala is La Scala and I say this with pleasure".
And since Noseda is now also a little American he also adds that it is the "golden stage of opera".
His commitments are intense: in May, at the Zurich opera of which he is musical director, he will perform Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung tetralogy twice, with Washington this season he has included an opera in concert form in the program (starting with Othello) and reinstated tours in the United States, which had been blocked for ten years with concerts but also educational projects.
And a role as musical director in Italy?
"I was at the Regio di Torino for eleven years. With the big projects with the Symphony and Zurich I am completely focused - she explains - but as an Italian I miss Italy a bit".
Whoever lives will see her.
In the meantime Noseda also works with youth orchestras: with the European Youth Orchestra he is planning a summer tour which will include the Lucerne and Edinburgh festivals, among other things, while he is among the founders of the Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra, created at the Georgian festival of Tsindali, bringing together Azeri, Georgian, but also Ukrainian and Russian musicians who all play together despite the conflict.
Noseda has a profound knowledge of Russian music and had Valery Gergiev among his teachers.
And at this moment he believes that we should listen to Russian music, "because it reminds us that moments of abuse have always existed, how Shostakovic reacted to them (an example is Symphony No. 5 in the program of this evening's concert, ed.). ), as Mussorgsky described in Covanscina and Boris Godunov. I am a musician and I let the music speak."
In addition to Shostakovich, the concert includes in concert no.
4 for piano by Beethoven (with soloist Seong-Jin Cho) and the European premiere of Wake Up by Carlos Simon, a piece that highlights the ability of each part of the orchestra and allows us to get to know a new generation of "American composers between 35 and 45 years".
Making it known is an objective, or rather a "mission" to be carried out according to Noseda also and above all among young people.
"Any initiative that leads young people to learn about music and then make a choice is good. Those who don't know are less free and therefore - he concludes - we need to make an approach possible, if the school doesn't do it we take on this duty, this mission" .
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