Programme:
Nino Rota: Concerto for Strings
Rachel Portman: Filmscapes for flute and orchestra

***
Benjamin Britten: Simple Symphony, Op. 4
Dmitrij Šostakovič, arr. Rudolf Baršaj:  Chamber Symphony in C minor, Op. 110a

In collaboration with: Ljubljana Festival, Emilia Romagna Festival, I Solisti Veneti / Veneto Festival and Festival delle Nazioni

I Solisti Veneti are a chamber orchestra founded in Padua in 1959. Under the musical direction of founder Claudio Scimone, the ensemble established itself above all through performances of Italian Baroque music. Over the course of more than 60 years, I Solisti Veneti have performed in around a hundred countries and have been honoured with an official plaque from the European Parliament naming them “Ambassadors of culture and music across the borders”. Giuliano Carella has been the ensemble’s music director since 2019 and artistic director since 2020. As a conductor, he dedicates himself to both the operatic and symphonic repertoires, leading orchestras in famous concert halls such as Paris’s Salle Pleyel, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. Flautist Massimo Mercelli has collaborated with such major names as Philip Glass, Krzysztof Penderecki, Gabriel Prokofiev, Valery Gergiev and Ennio Morricone. In 2023 he and I Solisti Veneti premiered three flute concertos dedicated to him by Oscar-winning composer Nicola Piovani.
During his lifetime, Nino Rota was principally known as the leading Italian composer of film music. He conceived his four-movement Concerto for Strings as a thematically connected cycle that contains a clear allusion to the famous Air on the G String by Johann Sebastian Bach. British composer Rachel Portman made history as the first woman composer to win an Academy Award for Best Original Score. At the 73rd Ljubljana Festival we will hear her new piece Filmscapes for Flute and Orchestra, which was commissioned by I Solisti Veneti and flutist Massimo Mercelli. Her oeuvre to date consists of more than a hundred scores for film, television and theatre. Benjamin Britten created his Simple Symphony from material he had written as a child and dedicated it to his childhood viola teacher. It received its first performance in 1934, with Britten conducting an amateur orchestra. The concert will end with the Chamber Symphony in C minor, Rudolf Barshai’s transcription for string orchestra of Dmitry Shostakovich’s popular String Quartet No. 8. This performance will also serve to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the composer’s death.