Orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino
Founded in 1928 by Vittorio Gui as the Stabile Orchestrale Fiorentina, from its inception the Orchestra plays in concerts and operas of the Teatro Comunale. Today it is still considered one of the finest orchestras both by conductors and public.
In 1933, at the birth of the Festival, takes the actual name of Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. After Gui, Mario Rossi became music director in 1937. Then, after the war, Bruno Bartoletti was given the position. From 1969-1981, the position was given to Riccardo Muti, then to Zubin Mehta, who became Principal conductor from 1985, and then to Fabio Luisi, who became Principal conductor from 2018 to 2019. Actually Zubin Mehta is Honorary conductor for life since 2006.
In its history the Orchestra del Maggio was conducted by the greatest conductors such as: Victor De Sabata, Antonio Guarnieri, Gino Marinuzzi, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Tullio Serafin, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Bruno Walter, Otto Klemperer, Issay Dobrowen, Jonel Perlea, Erich Kleiber, Arthur Rodzinski, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, Thomas Schippers, Claudio Abbado, Lorin Maazel, Carlo Maria Giulini, Georges Prêtre, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Carlos Kleiber, Georg Solti, Riccardo Chailly, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Seiji Ozawa and Daniele Gatti.
So many composers conducted their compositions for the first time at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino: Richard Strauss, Pietro Mascagni, Ildebrando Pizzetti, Paul Hindemith, Igor Stravinskij, Goffredo Petrassi, Luigi Dallapiccola, Krzysztof Penderecki and Luciano Berio. Since the fifties, the Orchestra made numerous recordings, also for radio and television, which received major awards including, in 1990, the Grammy Award. The eightieth anniversary of the foundation receives the Fiorino d’Oro of the City of Florence.
The Orchestra also made frequent international tours led by Zubin Mehta, for opera performances and concerts in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and South America.
ORCHESTRA PROFESSORS
First violins
Domenico Pierini (violino di spalla)
Gianrico Righele (concertino)
Lorenzo Fuoco (concertino)
Boriana Nakeva (terzo posto)
Luigi Cozzolino
Fabio Montini
Anna Noferini
Laura Mariannelli
Emilio Di Stefano
Nicola Grassi
Angel Andrea Tavani
Simone Ferrari
Annalisa Garzia
Leonardo Matucci
Luisa Bellitto
Violini secondi
Marco Zurlo (I)
Alessandro Alinari (I)
Alberto Boccacci (II)
Luigi Papagni (II)
Giacomo Rafanelli
Orietta Bacci
Rossella Pieri
Sergio Rizzelli
Laura Bologna
Cosetta Michelagnoli
Tommaso Vannucci
Carmela Panariello
Corinne Curtaz
Anton Horvath
Violas
Jörg Winkler (I)
Lia Previtali (II)
Herber Dézi (II)
Andrea Pani
Stefano Rizzelli
Flavio Flaminio
Antonio Pavani
Naomi Yanagawa
Cristiana Buralli
Donatella Ballo
Michela Bernacchi
Cellos
Patrizio Serino (I)
Simão Pedro Alcoforado Barreira (I)
Michele Tazzari (II)
Elida Pali (II)
Beatrice Guarducci
Anna Pegoretti
Renato Insinna
Wiktor Jasman
Sara Nanni
Basses
Riccardo Donati (I)
Marco Martelli (I)
Renato Pegoraro (II)
Fabrizio Petrucci (II)
Nicola Domeniconi
Daniele Gasparotto
Harp
Susanna Bertuccioli (I)
Flutes
Gregorio Tuninetti (I)
Alessia Sordini
Piccolo
Nicola Mazzanti
Oboes
Alberto Negroni (I)
Marco Salvatori (I)
Alessandro Potenza
English horn
Massimiliano Salmi
Clarinets
Riccardo Crocilla (I)
Leonardo Cremonini
Smal clarinet/strong>
Paolo Pistolesi
Bassoons
Stefano Vicentini (I)
Rojas Garcia Alejandra (I)
Gianluca Saccomani
Francesco Furlanich
Contrabassoon
Stefano Laccu
Horns
Luca Benucci (I)
Alberto Serpente
Alberto Simonelli
Michele Canori
Stefano Mangini
Trumpets
Andrea Dell’Ira (I)
Claudio Quintavalla (I)
Marco Crusca
Emanuele Antoniucci
Trombones
Fabiano Fiorenzani (I)
Andrea G. D’Amico
Massimo Castagnino
Low trombone
Gabriele Malloggi
Low tuba
Mario Barsotti
Timpani
Fausto Cesare Bombardieri (I)
Gregory Lecoeur (I)
Drums
Lorenzo D’Attoma
Orchestra organizing secretary
Luca Mannucci