Orchestra Filarmonica Vittorio Calamani Concert

Program

Franz Joseph Haydn
Sinfonia n. 45 “degli addii”
Allegro assai (fa diesis minore), Adagio (la maggiore), Minuetto: Allegretto (fa diesis maggiore) e Trio Finale: Presto (fa diesis minore); Adagio (la maggiore)

Ludwig van Beethoven
Sinfonia n. 2
Adagio molto – Allegro con brio, Larghetto (la maggiore), Scherzo. Allegro, Allegro molto

Director
Hossein Pishkar

Program notes

Franz Joseph Haydn
Symphony No. 45 in F sharp minor Abschiedssymphonie (Farewell Symphony) Hob:I:45
The story of this symphony is well known, and it also shows Haydn’s almost paternal affection for the members of his orchestra. The Prince of Esterhazy did not allow his musicians to leave his residence as long as he was present at the palace. And one winter, when his stay extended longer than necessary, and the musicians were unable to visit their families in nearby Eisenstadt, Haydn thought of solving the problem with a musical stunt that would make the prince understand the things that nobody dared to say openly: he composed the symphony that has become known as the Farewell Symphony. After a dramatic first half, a gentle Adagio and a restless Minuet, a turbulent Finale begins, an expression of joy and serenity. But suddenly the fast movement is cut off and a melancholy Adagio begins: here the individual instrumentalists, after finishing their part, put down their instruments, blew out the candle that was burning on the music stand and left the hall. Thus, little by little, the conductor was left alone with two violins in the half-darkened hall, until they also finished their melody melancholically. The prince ate the leaf and was able to take his composer’s kind joke in good spirit, finally sending the musicians on leave.

Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 2 in D major op. 36
Symphony No. 2 in D major was composed between 1800 and 1802. It is situated on the extreme edge of Beethoven’s experience, which was still influenced by tradition, especially by Haydn and Mozart. We are still in the sphere of youthful works where one of the fundamental characteristics of this master’s style can already be felt: concision.
With Beethoven, the art of composing reaches a crucial point as never before. The sound material is now subjected to a strict control, to an impartial check on the basis of which the superfluous is relentlessly discarded, everything that does not fit in perfectly with the composer’s thought. This selective process is clearly shown in the countless sketches Beethoven left behind, which served to prepare and shape the future work. If the idea did not have its own precise imprint, it was eliminated or elaborated until it was finally identified. While this way of working slowed down the time needed to produce a composition, it also offered the advantage of having a work made up of highly selected material of the highest quality. Naturally, all the structural elements of the work are subjected to a similar treatment, merging into a perfect balance of essentiality and formal completion.
Symphony No. 2 was first performed in 1803 in Vienna under the baton of the composer in a concert that also included the Third Piano Concerto and the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives. The work begins with an introduction in slow tempo, with wide, shadowy and collected strings. The Allegro molto which follows, takes us into a sound atmosphere of bright tones and energetic rhythms. The two themes and the developments follow each other with an intensity of sound. The second movement is scored with Beethoven’s deep, calculated and expressive measure.
The melodic profile bends to an effective and sometimes rough cantabile in an admirable arrangement of parts and an unmistakable interchange of light and shade. The Scherzo is an agile piece with a light and delicately sketched tone. Its trio echoes certain movements from the tradition. It should be pointed out that the Scherzo replaces the minuet that was the norm in 18th-century symphonic works.
The rhythmic impulse that animates the last movement reminds us of one of those sunny, open visions that in Beethoven’s mature works, full of dramatic contrasts, will have the task of dissolving the knots of tension and at least partially shedding light on the enigmas of anxious questions.

Hossein Pishkar – Direttore musicale Orchestra Filarmonica Vittorio Calamani

German by adoption, the young Iranian conductor Hossein Pishkar has entered a new and significant phase when in 2017 he won the prestigious Deutscher Dirigentenpreis in an international competition staged in cooperation with Cologne’s leading musical institutions and Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). In the same year he also won the Ernst-von-Schuch-Preis, presented annually in collaboration with the Dirigentenforum.
He has also given performances with the Beethoven Orchester Bonn, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini, Staatskapelle Halle, Staatsorchester Stuttgart and WDR-Sinfonieorchester. Pishkar also conducted Verdi’s Rigoletto, directed by Cristina Mazzavillani Muti, at the Ravenna Festival 2018.
As an assistant he worked with François–Xavier Roth in May 2019, in the production of Philippe Manoury’sLab.Oratorium with the Gürzenich-Orchester and as second conductor he took over performances at the philharmonic halls in Cologne and Paris, as well as at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Hossein Pishkar was an assistant of Sylvain Cambreling at the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie for Berg’s Lulu Suite and Rebecca Saunders’ violin concerto Still. In the season 2015-16 season he assisted Daniel Raiskin, the former Chief Conductor of the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie in Koblenz.
Hossein Pishkar has received further tuition in masterclasses with Riccardo Muti (2017, Aida in Ravenna in the context of the Italian Opera Academy) and Sir Bernard Haitink (2016, Lucerne Festival Orchestra). Since 2015 he has participated in Germany’s prestigious Dirigentenforum programme, taking classes with John Carewe, Marko Letonja, Nicolás Pasquet, Mark Stringer and Johannes Schlaefli.
Before moving to Düsseldorf in 2012 to study conducting with Rüdiger Bohn at the Robert Schumann Hochschule, Hossein Pishkar studied composition and piano in Teheran, where he was born in 1988. In Iran he has conducted the Teheran Youth Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Teheran Music School. He began playing traditional Persian music as a young child and has won many prizes as a player of the tar, the fretted stringed instrument of Persian culture.
Since 2019 he has embraced the project of starting a new orchestra, the Vittorio Calamani Philharmonic Orchestra, of which he is the musical conductor.

The Vittorio Calamani Philharmonic Orchestra had its debut on 14th August 2019, under the guidance of the young and talented Iranian conductor Maestro Hossein, performed a wonderful symphonic concert in Piazza XX Settembre in Configni. This event, which saw performances of Sinfonia 89 of Haydn and the Sinfonia 4 by Schumann, represented by the end of the third edition of the Festival Piana del Cavaliere and the beginning of the musical and artistic activity of the OFVC, drawing a record number of more than 400 people, with public and critical acclaim. The orchestra was born off the back of the success of the Associazione Festival della Piana del Cavalier, and during it’s third year the focus of an orchestral project.
The Under 35 Philharmonic Orchestra was formed through regular auditions held in May 2019 and is composed of professional musicians.
The purpose of the orchestra, like that of the festival, is to return to investing in culture and music. The OFVC, although it is formed by young talents, does not rank among the youth orchestras but rather as a fully-fledged Philharmonic. The Orchestra wants to qualify as the bearer of a positive contribution to the regional and Italian cultural heritage. Among the goals there is certainly that of giving the opportunity to professional musicians to improve in the orchestral field and at the same time to achieve in the working field.
The orchestra came to life thanks to its founder, Mr. Stefano Calamani who first, together with his company Aisico Srl and the artistic director Anna Leonardi, believed strongly in this project.

Organic

Violins
First
Giacomo Coletti **
Flavia Succhiarelli
Francesca Tamponi
Andrea Timpanaro
Roberto Ficili
Rossella Tucci
Aura Fazio
Giacomo Lucato
Elena Casagrande
Giulio Franchi

Second
Tommaso Santini *
Elena Sofia De Vita
Sara Sottolano
Stefano Zompi
Alessandro Pensa
Rosa Di Savino
Albe Giannini
Ruben Galloro

Violas
Arianna Bloise *
Lorenza Merlini
Cristina Chiricozzi
Marco Scandurra
Teresa Iannilli
Emanuele Ruggero

Cellos
Anna Camporini *
Laura Pascali
Giulia Libertini
Andrea Rigano
Simone Ceppetelli

Contrabasses
Giovanni Ludovisi *
Massimiliano Favella
Nicola Memoli

Oboes
Charles Raoult-Graïc *
Giulia Baruffaldi

Trombe
Pietro Sciutto * Giuseppe Iacobucci
Timpani
Tommaso Scopsi *
Flutes
Valerio Iannini *
Marialice Torriero

Bassoons
Carlo Meluso*
Edoardo Capparucci

Clarinets
Alessandro Iacobucci *
Gianluigi del Corpo

Horns
Stefano Berluti *
Gabriele Ricci

Trumpets
Pietro Sciutto *
Giuseppe Iacobucci