Pappano directs Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia at event celebrating Italy’s rebirth with model infrastructure

 

GENOA, May 22, 2020 – An extraordinary concert to celebrate the new Genoa bridge: the event will be held on July 27 and broadcast live on state television RAI 3, during the prime evening. It will be a tribute to the Ligurian region and Italy by Webuild (Salini Impregilo) and Fincantieri, the two companies that are completing the project in record time. The concert will offer the music of Ludwig van Beethoven, the 250th anniversary of whose birth is being celebrated this year. It will be performed by the orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia with Musical Director Antonio Pappano. The event, originally scheduled for May 24, was postponed due to the COVID-19 emergency. In light of the safety measures, it will be known in the coming weeks if the concert will be open to the public or not.

Born out of a tragedy not only for the region but the entire nation, the bridge has become a symbol of Italy’s revival. It represents the country’s ability to call upon the best companies, technicians and engineers to build a bridge in record time, overcoming the challenges posed by time, adverse weather conditions, technical difficulties and a pandemic that caught the world by surprise. It marks the success of working with national and regional institutions towards a common goal. With a strong sense of team spirit, it saw 1,000 people work in safety for one year to return a crucial piece of infrastructure to the region.

The incipit of the most famous musical composition, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, will sound throughout the city. The Fifth Symphony had a long and labourious development. Its composition began in 1804 when Beethoven was already working on Terza. It would be completed in 1808. Its four celebrated opening notes, which have been interpreted as destiny knocking on the door, sets the tone and pace for the entire composition. As one of the most celebrated works in the history of music, it expresses in an evocative way humanity’s struggle with fate. The Fifth Symphony will be preceded by an homage to the 43 victims of the Morandi Bridge by the construction companies, Pappano and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, which will perform Adagio for Strings by U.S. composer Samuel Barber, a composition made famous thanks to its use in the 1986 Oliver Stone film “Platoon”. Adagio from String Quartet, Op. 11, composed in 1936, was first performed in New York in 1938 by the NBC Symphony Orchestra led by Arturo Toscanini.