Bergamo, city of the Thousand, but also and above all city of Gaetano Donizetti. And it is precisely the rediscovery of Donizetti’s heritage and the redefinition of the city’s role on the international musical map that bear a decisive signature: that of Maestro Gianandrea Gavazzeni, who was born in Bergamo on July 25, 1909, and died here on February 5, 1996. Conductor, composer and writer, among the leading figures of twentieth-century music, he was a key voice of the Donizetti-Renaissance, which brought the little performed, or disappeared from the stage, works of the Bergamasque musician, as well as his concert, sacred and chamber compositions, back to the attention of all of Europe, restoring Donizetti to his rightful place on the world stage.

Thirty years after his death, the review promoted by the Donizetti Theater Foundation with the Donizetti Opera Festival, the Vittorio Polli and Anna Maria Stoppani Foundation with the Victor de Sabata and Aldo Ceccato Music Library, and the International Piano Festival of Brescia and Bergamo aims to celebrate this legacy, paying tribute to the man and the artist.

The program was born under the sign of his vision: music as listening education and an opportunity for growth, as well as common heritage. Gavazzeni invited to enter into the heart of the works, to understand their structure, their internal tension, their poetic logic; that is why each concert is a place of transmission of knowledge and a living confrontation between the performer and the listener. Thus the Maestro’s mission is renewed: to bring the public closer to great European music, offering tools to understand, love and recognize it as an essential part of their cultural life.