MITO SettembreMusica 2010
At long last there’s a high-speed travel connection between our cities! Yet while infrastructures and transport systems are necessary for bringing communities together - especially those where local identity is so strong - such means alone are not enough. A climate of goodwill becomes indispensable for the denizens of these cities. Without it, all the potential crowding such a huge technological link risks remaining anchored to the mere instrumental effect.
In these cases it is culture that paves the way and opens the door to curiosity and creativity. There’s nothing more precious than culture when it comes to fostering this productive interaction, because today living in Torino or Milano means being able to benefit from added value. Residents can quickly and conveniently take advantage of the socio-cultural panorama of both cities instead of being limited to the confines of one’s own. This gives rise to the awareness that both cities - Milano and Torino - are not circumscribed entities, but rather they penetrate one another across a broad urban spectrum, thus providing a new twist to the concept of collectivity, a new kind of urbanization. There’s much at stake for the future of our two communities, and it’s comforting to know that culture plays such a decisive role in spearheading this process. Three years ago MITO SettembreMusica proved to be the first move in this direction. It was followed up by an integrated program for contemporary art which kicked off last fall. Two more key opportunities still await, with next year’s Italia 150 and Expo 2015 five years down the road. And to anyone who might ask whether this was the only option available, our reply would be that this is no ordinary alternative among a slew of possible urban integration scenarios. For the culture option is a duty that administrators take up for the citizenry to optimize not simply a random set of conditions, but conditions based on geography, history, economics and the latest technology. Interaction between our two cities provides the basis for other forms of future cooperation among different realities in Italy, in Europe and throughout the world. With this spirit, Milano and Torino, along with other cities in the two regions, prepare to relive an emotion for the soul and the mind, and in an authentic listening experience recapture a sense of both interior development and sociality. MITO SettembreMusica is thus the realization of an idea of culture that opens up to the convergence of knowledge and the arts, with an international perspective, where people share experiences and engage in dialogue - in this case through music and the figurative arts, just to name those areas where we are already active participants. We believe we have set a good example at a moment in history when combining energies is a primary condition for development. Of this we are proud, and we’d like to think that our fellow citizens are just as proud. Especially where creativity, imagination and active participation are exalted - as in the words of one of the most charismatic authors of modernity, August Strindberg, where “the imagination designs new motives: a blend of memories, experiences, inventions improvisations.” Thanks to the evocative power of music.
MITO: Now More Than Ever, a Festival of Festivals
This is the fourth edition of MITO SettembreMusica and management on both ends - Torino and Milano - has shifted to high gear to achieve one of the primary goals in the musical twinning of the two host cities. We had already done much in terms of creating complementary programs that make the most of the presence of great orchestras, conductors and soloists; now the differentiation of the programs is complete, for a continuum that is sure to inspire fans to attend performances in both cities (at last by high speed train travel - 2007 still rang with lamentations on this front, but oh how we’ve grown accustomed to speed!). The importance of the cycles should also attract music lovers from afar to relish the diversified interpretations by Riccardo Chailly and the Gewandhausorchester in the Schumann cycle, or Maurizio Pollini for amazing differentiated performances of Chopin, as we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the births of these great composers. (And next year promises the 200th anniversary celebration of Liszt.) Last year’s unforgettable spotlight on Prokofiev, featuring Temirkanov (with different programs slated for Torino and Milano) has thus become systematic. Musical integration rises in harmony from the concert halls of the Lingotto and La Scala for the festival’s opening concerts. We sincerely hope that harmony spreads its benefits throughout the political realm and financial support institutions to ward off the risk of possible friction in those camps. MITO SettembreMusica will no doubt come out a winner despite any differences of opinion or perspective, much as the Simon Bolivar Orchestra was able to make its way through the waves of Venezuela’s political upheaval. In 2009 an economic impact analysis performed by Bocconi University’s ASK Center, as part of monitoring already begun in the Milano area for the first edition of MITO SettembreMusica, showed that each individual spectator attended an average of 3.8 performances - a figure that’s continued to rise. This signifies strong loyalty. Twenty-four per cent of the artists performing in Milano and Torino, out of a total of 3,400 performers from 28 different countries, were Milano-based. Festival attendance topped 115,000, comprised of 30,000 individual spectators. For Milano performances, 67% of audiences hailed directly from Milano, while the remaining 33% came from out of town. What keeps us on our brilliant course, despite difficulties due to reduced funding, is truly our audiences. Indeed, our audiences are our top priority. Our programs have become increasingly harmonized to suit our audiences. It is for our audiences that we strive to offer original, inviting and hospitable repertoires that attract the attention of the most demanding listeners and bring in the numbers. It is through our direct contact with audiences that grand music is no longer the domain of a specialized listening class that is socially restricted to the rites and consumption mainly associated with an antiquated bourgeoisie. Since the very beginning MITO SettembreMusica has gone beyond the old confines, and this remains a commitment. The music marathons may no longer be a novelty, but this year’s jamborees are given a special twist, featuring a multitude of mostly young pianists for our spotlight on Chopin and Schumann - one of the many festivals within our festival. In this one, each artist is completely free to perform the compositions of his or her choice. The possibility that some of the composers’ most renowned pieces may be repeated promises to be a game of seduction between performers and audiences which we are certain no one will want to miss. Yes, this year as well we’re serving up more than one festival within a festival. Among those there’s a spotlight on Turkish music, featuring Dervish dancers and Jannisaries marching through city streets. There’s also contemporary music and a world premier by Fabio Vacchi, with Amos Oz, and the most recent work by Battistelli, with Toni Servillo, in conjunction with the Piccolo Teatro. We’ve got rock and jazz, as Stefano Bollani meets Chick Corea, and a concert in collaboration with Stanford University and the Politecnico of Milano, where the use of new technologies means involving the audience in actively creating music. Plus performances for kids. Continuing the list, there’s the spotlight on Josquin Des Près, a Flemish composer who was a contemporary of Leonardo Da Vinci (and may be the subject in “Portrait of a Musician” housed in Milano’s Biblioteca Ambrosiana). We’ll be treating him as if he were our own contemporary as we rediscover this “new” composer - just as we’ll be doing in the case of Lachenmann and Rihm – not only presenting his motets and chansons, but also providing, as we normally do, historically detailed reconstructions. We’ll get a feel of the atmosphere in Renaissance Milano, those “good times” when Josquin performed as chorister in the Duomo and Leonardo kept his workshop across from the Santa Maria delle Grazie Church. And to wrap things up in high style, we’ve got Cecilia Bartoli in Torino. This year MITO SettembreMusica branches out from downtown Milano and Torino more than ever, to the outlying districts in both cities, from Viale Padova to Chiaravalle to Fiera Milano City, as well as to several cities in both regions. MITOFringe serves up 150 off-program events in subways and city piazzas, mostly free admission.It’s an additional Festival with its own separate program that is to be added to the already vast official program that we hereby present. Providing free shows over an extended area is a signal we aim to repeat loud and clear in order to reach out to ever larger audiences in the midst of difficult times. That’s part of what having audiences as your top priority is all about. And it will serve as a guideline as we approach Expo 2015. Since MITO SettembreMusica first began we’ve been counting down to that date. With five years to go, we’re already planning the Expo’s soundtrack - a special six-month long edition of MITO in 2015 that will accompany the entire event. This year we begin delving into the Expo theme Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life with our “Music and Brunch at the Farm” event. MITO SettembreMusica fans relish such fresh, highly diversified communication, a specialty of our organization - yes, this festival is entirely “home-made” - thanks to a very young team, including many university interns, efficient and good at what they do because they love what they do. We’ve created partnerships with local and national radio stations with the creation of Network Radio MITO on our website, featuring podcasts of interviews and specials. We also appear on the social networks, with an ever more attentive eye on the latest technologies for improved navigability. The MITO SettembreMusica blog has been restructured, new web initiatives have been added. We’re streaming out more live events than ever before. Our online community is growing. Qr code multimedia content available in print and on the web may also be picked up on cell phones. We’ve mentioned the strain involved in maintaining MITO SettembreMusica’s high quality and breadth in the face of cuts in funding. Along with us, our audiences must also be grateful to the Cities of Milano and Torino, and to their respective Regions, and to institutional partner the Milano Chamber of Commerce, as well to partners and sponsors, whose continuing and attentive support has allowed us to bring to you the fourth edition of MITO SettembreMusica. P.S. When he turned 60, Fausto Melotti wrote marvelously that if he could go back 60 years in time he would have heard Mozart himself playing the harpsichord. Had he been able to go further back in time, he might have heard Roncisvalle’s horns. Our friend Gillo Dorfles just turned 100. He would surely enjoy going back in time to hear the strains of Chopin and Schumann, or Beethoven improvising a cadenza on the piano. Gillo is one of MITO SettembreMusica’s most assiduous fans, and has been ever since the very first edition. Naturally, we wish him all the best. What a fine example indeed, especially for young people, is his constant and indomitable curiosity for all that is of high repute and now.
Francesco Micheli
President
Music and Culture: MITO Settembre Musica 2010
MITO SettembreMusica 2010 promises yet another program that lives up to the festival’s grand tradition. Breathtaking concerts and great performers await! As always, audiences will be treated to a complete range of musical genres. In our ethnic music spotlight, for example, “FocusTurchia” provides an excellent opportunity for a look at the history and culture - not only musical - of a country that constitutes a very delicate connection between East and West, between European culture and the world of Islam. Once again, music aids the attentive listener in following the developments of a world that draws nearer to us each day. We look forward to two classical music concerts at Torino’s Palasport Olimpico, where once again the spotlight is on Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Classical music is no longer only the domain of the elite and we firmly believe it should not be perceived as such. Indeed, these concerts bring classical music to vast, spellbound and spontaneous audiences not normally present at classical music venues. The success of past editions has proven that MITO SettembreMusica is not just a music festival for a handful of connoisseurs. The economic crisis will not hold us back. The City of Torino continues its decisive support of MITO Settembre Musica, and it could not be otherwise. It would be unthinkable to allow the decline of an event that for decades has been deeply rooted in the spirit of local audiences. Our main private sponsor, the bank Intesa Sanpaolo, has contributed generously to the festival over the past three years, an excellent example of harmony between business and culture. Yes, culture. Good music has no political distinction. This is the key to understanding the success of MITO SettembreMusica, which may be considered the first grand platform of cultural events sharing between Torino and Milano. The two cities, and their respective local governments, have worked in perfect accord to promote the festival, and undeniable differences in social fabrics in no way hinder the two-pole project - if anything they actually strengthen it. This means that collaborative efforts in other areas of culture are likely to achieve the same success. Thanks so much, then, to everyone who makes MITO Settembre Musica possible, and a very special thank you to the audiences who come out to enjoy it.
Angelo Chianale
President of the Foundation for Music Activities, Torino
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