The 2010 Concert Season at the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari continues, Friday 12th March at 8.30pm (session A) and Saturday 13th March at 7pm (session B), with the sixteenth appointment: Alexander Vedernikov, from the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, conducts the Orchestra del Teatro Lirico. Vedernikov has already appeared at the Teatro Lirico and was applauded for the opening operas of the last two Opera and Ballet Seasons The legend of the invisible city Kitež (2008) e Semën Kotko (2009).

The opneing piece of the evening is the first ever performance of, Sedicesimo di Centuria ... con un lieve disagio by Vittorio Testa, written on commission for the Teatro Lirico di Cagliari. The new composition by the young composer from Rome was written for large orchestra, to a text by Giorgio Manganelli, from “Centuria” (Adelphi Edizioni). The piece is divided into four imaginary tableau, without continuity: sospensione; i giorni dell’attesa; l’enunciazione del tempo; i minuti della consapevolezza. The narrator is Omero Antonutti, well-known cinema and theatre actor. The evening continues with a multifarious and fascinating programme of music of Russian origin, including Concerto N. 1 in F sharp minor for piano and orchestra Op. 1 by Sergej Rachmaninov, with Nikolai Lugansky young Russian soloist, and in the second part the monumental Seventh Symphony in B minor Op. 54 by Dmitrij Šostakovič.

“I am not the type of composer who produces operas from formulas and preconcieved theories. [...] I believe that music should represent the expression of a composer’s complex personality.
Music should express the composer’s country of origin, his/her loves, religiousness, the books that have influenced him/her and the paintings he/she loves. It should encompass all his/her experiences. [...] Music is a calm moonlit night, the rustling of leaves in summer, distant bell tolls in the evening. Music comes from the heart and speaks to the heart. It is love. Music’s sister is poetry and it’s mother is suffering.” These words were spoken by Sergej Rachmaninov (Oneg, Novgorod, 1873 – Beverly Hills, California, 1943) who, in 1891, composed Concerto in F sharp minor Op. 1 and then later revised it in 1971. Dmitrij Šostakovič (St. Petersburg, 1906 – Moscow, 1975) wrote the Seventh Symphony in 1939, in the place of a choral symphony, which was never composed, supposedly inspired by Majakovskij’s poem dedicated to Lenin. The classical four movements have been reduced to three (Largo, Allegro, Presto); the first is longer than the other two put together. Following the tragic atmosphere of the Largo, the Allegro is effervescent and dynamic, and the Presto is charactistically lively and entertaining, traits which bring to mind the American musical.