Jakub Hrůša / Pinchas Zukerman

Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

conductor Jakub Hrůša
viola Pinchas Zukerman

Berlioz Le Carnaval romain ouverture
Martinů Les Fresques de Piero della Francesca
Berlioz Harold en Italie

Jakub Hrůša, Santa’s Principal Guest Conductor, will be leading a programme dedicated entirely to Italy: “Harold en Italie is fantastic! It is original and extraordinary, and I just love Le Carnaval romain,” declared the Czech conductor. “It’s fun to perform it, and it is a masterpiece of composition. I think that the combination of these two passages by Berlioz is ideal. He was one of the truly ingenious people in the history of music and art. Mad, but irreplaceable. For me, he is a central figure among French composers.” The soloist for Harold en Italie will be the violist Pinchas Zukerman, making his debut with the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia. Over the course of five decades, the Israeli artist has worked with the most renowned conductors and orchestras, has taken the podium himself, and is an established teacher of his instrument.
Meanwhile, the music for the overture of Le Carnaval romain is composed of themes drawn from the opera Benvenuto Cellini (first act duet and carnival chorus).

Between the two Berlioz works, Hrůša will conduct the Santa Cecilia première of The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca, the symphonic poem in three movements composed by the Czech Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959) in 1955, following impressions left with him upon viewing the cycle of frescoes The History of the True Cross painted by Piero della Francesca between 1452 and 1466 and conserved in the main chapel of the Basilica of San Francesco in Arezzo. The piece was first performed at the 1956 Salzburg Festival with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Rafael Kubelik.