Milano Musica Festival

Milano Musica was founded in 1992 by Luciana Abbado Pestalozza, with the aim to spread the knowledge and appreciation of that vast repertoire of XXth century and contemporary music, proposing historical masterpieces up to the most recent works. With the support of public and private institutions, the Festival is organized in collaboration with Teatro alla Scala.

The 28th Milano Musica Festival Luca Francesconi. Velocità del tempo is focused on the artistic personality of the internationally renowned Milanese composer, on the occasion of the revival at the Teatro alla Scala of one of his most important works, Quartett, from Heiner Müller, commissioned by the theatre and presented for the first time in 2011. In the same year the opera received the Abbiati Prize and since then has been subsequently staged seventy-six times around the world.
The Festival, with more than 22 events (symphonic and chamber concerts, electronics and conferences), creates a dialogue between the rigorous freedom of invention, which distinguishes Luca Francesconi’s artistic experience, with masterpieces, composers and works from the 20th Century and the avant-garde: from Stravinsky to Berio and Stockhausen, master of contemporaneity among Francesconi’s mentors.
The Festival presents 12 world and 8 Italian premieres. Concerts are recorded and broadcasted by RAI Radio3, live or delayed.

The symphonic concerts are four: a double opening for the Festival and for the symphonic season of laVerdi, conducted by Michele Gamba in a concert which combines Mahler with Etymo II and Das Ding singt by Francesconi; the Filarmonica della Scala, with the American conductor Brad Lubman and the violinist Leila Josefowicz, who interpret Duende. The Dark Notes and Le Sacre du printemps; the OSN Rai, for the third time guest at the Teatro alla Scala at the invitation of the Festival, in this year under the baton of Juraj Valčuha and accompanied by pianists Emanuele Arciuli and Andrea Rebaudengo in Francesconi’s Macchine in echo.
The Orchestra del Conservatorio G. Verdi di Milano, conducted by Pedro Amaral, tackles HYMNEN, the great electronic and concrete music masterpiece by Stockhausen, which resonates with the concerts at the Planetario, in which Tracce for solo instruments by Francesconi dialogue with works from the German composer’s cycle KLANG, and with Oktophonie at the Auditorium San Fedele.

Among the ensembles stand out the American Jack Quartet with Francesconi’s string quartet I voli di Niccolò, works by Oscar Bianchi and by two young American composers, premiered in Italy; Les Percussions de Strasbourg perform Persephassa by Xenakis, for six percussionists around the audience, and the world premiere of the new works by Carmine Emanuele Cella and Claudio Ambrosini, the latter one interpreted by ZAUM_percussion, ensemble in residence 2018/2020.

The valorization of Milan’s artistic excellence, in its long-term artistic and human relationship with Luca Francesconi, is characterized by the significant presence of the Ensemble Sentieri selvaggi, in a double concert dedicated to Francesconi and conducted by Carlo Boccadoro, and by the participation of AGON acustica informatica musica, a center for music research and production using the new technologies, founded also by Francesconi. AGON proposes works for solo instruments and electronics, along with the installation Arpa di Luce by Gianpietro Grossi and Pietro Pirelli. The Ensemble “G. Bernasconi” of the Accademia Teatro alla Scala presents the world premiere of a new work by Francesconi.

For children and adults, the circus musical drama DALL’ALTO comes back, with music by Riccardo Nova and the direction of Giacomo Costantini, whose world premiere was presented in the context of the last Festival in 2018. After a first date in 2019 at the Teatro Bruno Munari, the play, produced by Milano Musica, will be hosted by the Festival Aperto in Reggio Emilia and by the RomaEuropa Festival.

From Teatro alla Scala to Pirelli HangarBicocca, from Planetario to Santeria Toscana 31, through traditional venues and important theatres, unconventional sites and spaces of artistic relevance, the Festival creates strong listening experiences, in the most adequate places and under the best acoustic conditions.

Luca Francesconi studied with Corghi, Stockhausen and Berio. However, among his mentors he includes also Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix: «they are, along with Stravinsky, Berio and Stockhausen, the true classical music of the last 50 years» he says.
Francesconi wrote over a hundred works, from solo pieces to pieces for ensemble, from opera to multimedia, commissioned by important musical institutions. He regularly collaborates with the world’s best conductors, soloists, ensembles and orchestras.

Francesconi belongs to the generation born between the end of the Fifties and the beginning of the Sixties and inherits the experience of the avant-garde as an historical and distant fact. Young composers study Stockhausen, Berio, Boulez, Nono and the other fathers of the avant-garde, but are at the same time seduced by the sound of pop and rock, from Jimi Hendrix to Sting, Frank Zappa and Jim Morrison. They feel that every map needs to be redefined and they face the unknown territory with an awareness in which their enthusiasm meets a radical restlessness. Luca Francesconi is one of them.

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