Thursday, May 15th at 8 pm, in Sala Mehta, the debut of maestro Timur Zangiev at the helm of the Maggio Orchestra.

The program includes Concerto No. 2 in G minor for piano and orchestra by Sergej Prokof’ev  and Symphony No. 6 in B minor, op. 74, “Pathetique” by Pëtr Il'ič Čajkovskij.

Soloist, at the piano, Alexander Gadjiev

The concert will be broadcast on Rai Radio 3

Florence, May 13th, 2025 – A few days after the concert that saw maestro Daniele Gatti again on the podium of the Theater, the 87th Maggio Festival continues with another symphonic event.

On thursday, May 15th at 8 pm - in the Zubin Mehta Hall - Timur Zangiev's debut at the helm of the Maggio Orchestra; the program features music by Sergej Prokof’ev and Pëtr Il'ič Čajkovskij.

The piano soloist is Alexander Gadjiev, who returns after his debut last June conducted by Zubin Mehta.

Maestro Zangiev, at his first performance at the Maggio, trained at the Čajkovskij Conservatory in Moscow and despite his young age, his repertoire already includes over 50 opera and ballet productions. In June 2022 he became principal guest conductor of the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg and recently made his debut at the Teatro Regio in Turin, where he held the opening concert of the 2023 season. In the same year he made his debut on the podium of the Teatro alla Scala and, as part of the La Scala seasons, a few months ago he conducted Čajkovskij 's Evgenij Onegin to a sparkling response from both audiences and critics; he was also the protagonist at the Salzburg Festival last summer in a new production of Prokofiev’s The Gambler.

The evening opens with Sergej Prokof’ev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor: it was composed between the end of 1912 and the first months of 1913, before and during a series of journeys undertaken by the composer; the debut of the work was however accompanied by disagreements and perplexities linked to the harsh, sharp and deliberately provocative language used by Prokofiev, who ten years later, in rewriting the score, inserted some more lyrical and singable passages.

The soloist in the performance of Concerto No. 2 is Alexander Gadjiev, one of the most talented interpreters of his generation and winner of numerous awards during his career including the first prize at the 2021 Sydney International Competition, the 2022 Terence Judd Award and the Monte Carlo “World Piano Masters”.

The famous Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, known as the Pathétique by Pëtr Il'ič Čajkovskij follows: the sketches were started in the winter of 1893 with various stages of work and the orchestration was completed within the same summer. This symphony was born from a strictly personal program that the author did not want to reveal, since it contained his most intimate thoughts.

The concert:

Sergej Prokof’ev
Concerto No. 2 in G minor for Piano and Orchestra

Between 1912 and 1913 Sergei Prokofiev composed the Concerto No. 2 in G minor for Piano and Orchestra, op. 16. Like all piano compositions, it was also conceived for the exceptional technical and interpretative skills of the author, who performed it for the first time in Pavlovsk on 5 September 1913. The debut of the work was, however, accompanied by disagreements and perplexities linked to the harsh, sharp and deliberately provocative language used by Prokof'ev, who ten years later, when rewriting the score, inserted some more lyrical and singable passages. And in fact, in Concerto No. 2, Prokof'ev had unsparingly used a modernist writing far from the romantic tradition. Driven by a surge of vitalistic self-affirmation, the young composer uses mechanical and percussive sounds, dissonances, noisy chordal aggregates, all symbolic elements of early twentieth-century industrial modernity, in the unusual setting of the four movements that form the Concerto. The large orchestra contrasts rather than dialogues with the piano, but it never manages to balance the sonic weight of the soloist, who from start to finish stands out as the absolute protagonist both in the very long solos and in the numerous passages of astonishing virtuosity.

Pëtr Il'ič Čajkovskij
Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, “Pathétique”

On October 16th, 1893, Čajkovskijconducted the last of his symphonic works in St. Petersburg: Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Op. 74, Pathétique. Composed in the early months of 1893, the Pathétique was born from a strictly personal program that the author did not want to reveal, since it contained his most intimate thoughts. As the extreme refuge of an artist with a troubled existence, perpetually struggling with the ghosts of his mind and obsessed by fears and distrust of his own abilities, the Pathétique contains the entire world of Čajkovskij. An autobiographical confession tinged with pessimism, especially in the two final movements, which becomes a spiritual testament bar after bar. The sad song that rises from the lowest regions of the orchestra in the opening Adagio is already a sign of the musician's surrender to adverse fate. In the Allegro ma non troppo, an anguished and restless first theme challenges a persuasive, fascinating second theme, similar to the many beautiful melodies created for ballets, but it is the anguish that prevails. An apparent change of pace can be felt in the Allegro con grazia that follows, where a waltz in the anomalous time of 5/4 has an alienating and ambiguous effect. The Allegro molto vivace seems to want to quickly recover lost time and energy, but it is only an illusion because in the last movement - Adagio lamentoso - the death song takes over with the progressive annihilation of sound and rhythm that dissolve in the final bars. In a letter to his beloved nephew Čajkovskij he wrote about the Pathétique: “The form of this Symphony is unusual in many ways: for example, the finale will not be a thunderous Allegro but a slow Adagio. You can’t imagine how happy I am to note that it is not finished yet for me, that I am still capable of creating”. Despite his good intentions, Čajkovskijwas wrong. A few days later, on November 6th, 1893, death would put an end to his creativity and his last symphony would become his swan song.