On Friday, December 19 at 8:00 p.m., in the Teatro’s Sala Grande, Maestro Riccardo Muti returns to the podium of the Orchestra and Chorus of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino for a concert marking the 50th anniversary of the death of Vittorio Gui.

The programme features Franz Schubert’s renowned Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759, “Unfinished”, and Luigi Cherubini’s Requiem in C minor for mixed chorus and orchestra.

To commemorate the figure of Vittorio Gui, a two-day conference will also be held on December 19 and 20 across three venues: in Florence at the University of Florence and at the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and in Pesaro.

Florence, December 16, 2025 – Fifty years after the death of Vittorio Gui, founder of the Stabile Orchestrale Fiorentina and of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Festival, the Teatro del Maggio pays tribute to his memory with an evening that marks the return of Maestro Riccardo Muti to the leadership of the Orchestra and Chorus of the Maggio.

The concert, scheduled for Friday, December 19 at 8:00 p.m. in the Sala Grande, opens with one of Franz Schubert’s most celebrated works, the Symphony No. 8 in B minor, D. 759, “Unfinished”, and continues with the Requiem in C minor for mixed chorus and orchestra by the Florentine composer Luigi Cherubini, whose remains Maestro Muti has called to be returned to Florence, to the Basilica of Santa Croce.

The evening thus opens with the celebrated Unfinished Symphony: work on the composition began on October 30, 1822, as attested by the autograph manuscript, and continued throughout the autumn. Schubert’s penultimate symphony owes its title “Unfinished” to the fact that it consists solely of its first two movements. None of the hypotheses advanced to explain why Schubert failed to complete the work has ever provided a definitive and unequivocal answer. The concert concludes with Cherubini’s Requiem in C minor for mixed chorus and orchestra, composed in 1816 to commemorate the anniversary of the death of King Louis XVI. It was first performed at the church of Saint-Denis in Paris on January 21, 1817, and was immediately praised by contemporaries for its solemn and contemplative character, eschewing any merely celebratory intent.

As part of the Oltre il sipario series, two intensive study days are also scheduled for December 19 and 20, dedicated to the figure of Vittorio Gui and entitled “Serving Art: A Moral Question.” The initiative is a collaboration between the University of Florence, the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and the Fondazione Gioachino Rossini of Pesaro. Florence and Pesaro both preserve Vittorio Gui’s legacy: Florence holds his papers and correspondence at the National Central Library, while Pesaro preserves his scores at the Library of the Fondazione G. Rossini. The two cities are also linked by Gui’s activity as an organizer and conductor: Florence through the founding of the Stabile Orchestrale Fiorentina and the Festival, and Pesaro through the pioneering rediscovery of Rossini’s Atlantide.

On Friday, December 19, the morning session will begin at 10:00 a.m. in the Aula Magna of the Rectorate of the University of Florence, with contributions by Mila De Santis, Valentina Zappacenere, Manuel Rossi, and Virgilio Bernardoni; the session will be chaired by Antonella D’Ovidio. In the afternoon, proceedings will move to the Galleria Foyer of the Sala Grande at the Teatro del Maggio. Starting at 3:30 p.m., contributions will be given by Giancarlo Landini, Alessandro Zignani, and Harvey Sachs, followed by a screening of the RAI documentary “Great Orchestra Conductors – Vittorio Gui,” presented by Corrado Augias and directed by Andrea del Baldo. The afternoon session will be chaired by Giovanni Vitali.

On Saturday, December 20, starting at 3:00 p.m. at the National Rossini Museum in Pesaro, contributions will be given by Emilio Sala, Marco Beghelli, Gabriele D’Aprile, and Álvaro Portillo. The session will be chaired by Ilaria Narici.