Harmonia
The theme of the 2026 edition of MITO SettembreMusica is Harmonia: a symbolic, direct, and seemingly natural word for a music festival, yet one that contains multiple layers and deep resonances. The question that has accompanied me is only apparently simple: how can we hold together real differences—of cities, audiences, repertoires, venues, generations—without erasing their individuality? In a time marked by fractures and polarization, harmony seems to me one of the most necessary values, and perhaps also one of the most misunderstood. In music, in fact, harmony is not the absence of tension: it is the relationship between different voices, a balance built through listening, friction, and movement. The goddess Harmony is born of the union of Ares and Aphrodite, the deities of war and love. Harmony, then, is not the elimination of conflict, but its transformation into the possibility of listening.
This is the theme that guides the selection of artists and programs. I have imagined an edition in which tradition and contemporary music could engage in genuine dialogue, from early music to the music of our own time. Alongside performers and orchestras of the highest caliber—Simone Young, who opens the festival with the War Requiem and the Rai National Symphony Orchestra; Riccardo Chailly with La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra; Michele Mariotti with the Rai National Symphony Orchestra; William Christie with Les Arts Florissants; Jakub Hrůša with the Bamberger Symphoniker; Il Pomo d’Oro; the Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musicali of Milan, to name just a few—I have invited young Italian and international ensembles of remarkable vitality: artists whom the audience may not yet know, but who bring with them an energy, a freedom, and a musical quality capable of making a lasting impression from the very first listening.
Alongside tradition, there is also the music of today: the festival will feature KAOS by Paola Prestini, one of the most original Italian composers on the contemporary scene, a work commissioned specifically for this edition.
There will also be a special concert dedicated to the young musicians of the Milan and Turin Conservatories, conducted and offered by me to the two cities, intended as an important moment for the growth of future generations.
The program is also shaped by two significant anniversaries. The year 2026 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Benjamin Britten, one of the most important composers of the 20th century: the festival opens with the War Requiem, a monumental pacifist masterpiece written in 1962 and still strikingly relevant today, and his music will also be featured in other moments of the program, both symphonic and chamber.
With the complete cycle of Beethoven’s string quartets, entrusted to La Scala String Quartet, we already begin to look ahead to the bicentenary of the composer’s death, which will be celebrated in 2027, in a project unfolding across this and the next edition. A long, patient journey, built over time.
MITO has always believed that classical music does not need to be simplified in order to speak to everyone: it needs to be shared with authenticity, depth, and openness. This is a vision I deeply share. And I am happy to accompany it today, for the first time in my role as Artistic Director, together with this festival, and to share it with all of you.
Speranza Scappucci
Artistic Director
