On Saturday, March 16, 2024, Marco Armiliato returns to the Teatro di San Carlo to conduct the home orchestra and soloists Lucas Debargue on piano and Matilda Lloyd on trumpet.
The program includes Egmont, Overture in F minor, op. 84 by Ludwig van Beethoven, followed by Concerto No. 1 in C minor for piano, trumpet, and strings, op. 35 by Dmitri Shostakovich, and concluding with Symphony No. 4 in A major 'Italian', op. 90 by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy.
Marco Armiliato, among the most sought-after orchestra conductors, guest of the most prestigious opera theaters in the world, will take the podium at the Lirico di Napoli one year after his last engagements at the San Carlo.
His extraordinary career has led him to conduct in theaters such as the Metropolitan in New York, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Covent Garden in London, the Opéra National de Paris. In 2022, he was appointed musical director of the Arena di Verona Festival.
Making his debut at the San Carlo, Lucas Debargue, a pianist who regularly performs with major orchestras at the most prestigious venues in the world, including the Philharmonie in Berlin, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Konzerthaus in Vienna, Théâtre des Champs Elysées and Philharmonie de Paris, Wigmore Hall and Royal Festival Hall in London, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Philharmonie in Cologne, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, concert halls in Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Seoul, as well as in the legendary Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, and Carnegie Hall in New York.
Another debut at the Teatro Massimo of Naples is that of Matilda Lloyd, a musician who captivates the audience with her artistic and musical skills. In 2014, she won the brass final of the BBC 'Young Musician of the Year' competition and made her solo debut at the BBC Proms two years later with Alpesh Chauhan and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.
She is the winner of numerous awards, including the first prize at the Eric Aubier International Trumpet Competition in Rouen, France, in 2017. Casta Diva, her debut album for Chandos Records, was named 'album of the month' by BBC Music Magazine in June 2023, with a five-star review.
Nominated by the Barbican Centre in London and the Konserthuset in Stockholm, Matilda Lloyd will be a Rising Star of the 'European Concert Hall Organization (Echo)' for the 2024/25 season, thus having the opportunity to perform on some of the most prestigious stages in Europe.
The evening's program opens with Egmont, Overture in F minor, op. 84 by Ludwig van Beethoven, an overture for the incidental music for the homonymous theatrical work by Goethe. In the music for Egmont, Beethoven expresses his political concerns through the exaltation of the heroic sacrifice of a man condemned to death for having courageously taken a stand against oppression.
Following is Concerto No. 1 in C minor for piano, trumpet, and strings, op. 35 by Dmitri Shostakovich. Composed in Leningrad in the spring of 1933, the Concerto was performed for the first time on October 15 of the same year; on the podium Fritz Stiedry, at the piano the composer himself, and on the trumpet Alexander Schmidt, principal trumpet of the Philharmonic. Structured in four movements, the concerto contains numerous quotations from works by the composer himself as well as by Haydn and Beethoven.
The last piece on the program is the Symphony No. 4 in A major 'Italian', op. 90 by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, conceived during the composer's stay in Italy and completed in 1833. 'It is the most cheerful work I have ever composed,' wrote Mendelssohn himself. And indeed, the images impressed upon him by the luminous Italian landscapes find in these pages a most happy and joyful musical writing.