On the Mountain Top
GIUSEPPE PENNISI
was at the opening concert
of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia's new season
of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia's new season
The National Academy of Santa Cecilia was established in 1585 in Rome as a private 'congregation' of musicians. It gradually became a Pontifical Academy (1830). Its symphony orchestra dates back to 1895 even if a complete formation was possible only in 1908
when the concerts were transferred to the huge Augusteo Auditorium. Just a few weeks ago, the Academy (and La Scala Opera House in Milan) were decreed by the Italian Government as 'special cultural institutions'; this implies, among other things,
three years of rolling subsidies and thus easier programming. The Academy's Symphony Orchestra has been led by the most important conductors and is well-known all over the world. Its current musical director is Sir Antonio Pappano. The inaugural concert of its 'season' (normally a symphonic concert per week, performed three times in three subscription series, and
a chamber music concert) is the only musical event always attended by the Head of State and his wife.
Thus, on 25 October 2014, the main auditorium was fully booked in all its 3,000 seats — and also
included a few standing listeners in the back of the various sections. It is always difficult to set a program for an inauguration. It must allow everyone in the symphony orchestra and chorus to be on stage. It must include music familiar to the audience. It must have a theme.
 The Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome's Parco della Musica on 25 October 2014. Photo © 2014 Musacchio & Ianniello. Click on the image for higher resolution |
This review is based on the 25 October performance. It was repeated on 26 and 27 October and will most likely later be recorded as a CD. The concert included three different pieces: in the first part, A Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky in Vissarion Shebalin's transcription, and the Piano Concerto No 2 by Sergei Rachmaninoff; Eine Alpensinfonie by Richard Strauss was performed in the second part. The mountain top was clearly the theme
linking the first and last moments of the concert. As they are both expressions
of late Romanticism and Rachmaninoff's concerto is a highly melodic fruit of late Romanticism, we can say that mountain tops and late Romanticism intertwined as the
main themes of the evening.
In Shebalin's version, the fifteen minute highly dramatic A Night on Bald Mountain
requires a huge orchestra, a double chorus and a children chorus (and even a bass soloist, just for a few notes). This was the opportunity for the full symphony
orchestra to exhibit its wares; even though this highly demanding version is
not often performed, the audience applauded overwhelmingly. There were
accolades and ovations for Rachmaninoff's piano concerto (which appears very frequently in the Academy's seasons), also because Evgeny Kissin, a well-known guest of the Academy, was at the piano. Pappano and Kissin emphasized the melodic lines, with Kissin engaged in a virtuoso dialogue with the orchestra. At the audience's insistent request, Kissin conceded two encores.
 Antonio Pappano and Evgeny Kissin with members of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome's Parco della Musica on 25 October 2014. Photo © 2014 Musacchio & Ianniello. Click on the image for higher resolution |
Eine Alpensinfonie, composed between 1911 and 1915, is the last of the Richard Strauss symphonic poems. It describes a day on the mountain from dawn to night, through very
skillful alternation of minor and major tonalities. Strauss himself had conducted the symphony in Rome, and at the Academy, in 1924 and in 1929. Pappano showed his flair, and under his baton, the symphony became an intense one act opera without voices on the Alps. There were fifteen minutes of standing ovations.
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