{"id":39493,"date":"2025-12-17T11:33:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T10:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.teatrodonizetti.it\/to-gianandrea-gavazzeni-music-gesture-memory-1996-2026\/"},"modified":"2025-12-17T11:33:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T10:33:09","slug":"to-gianandrea-gavazzeni-music-gesture-memory-1996-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.teatrodonizetti.it\/en\/to-gianandrea-gavazzeni-music-gesture-memory-1996-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"To Gianandrea Gavazzeni: Music, Gesture, Memory 1996-2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

A project of Fondazione Teatro Donizetti with Donizetti Opera Festival, Vittorio Polli and Anna Maria Stoppani Foundation with Victor de Sabata and Aldo Ceccato Music Library, and International Piano Festival of Brescia and Bergamo <\/strong><\/h3>\n

A concert series, lecture series, scholarship and exhibition in memory of the great master from Bergamo on the 30th anniversary of his death<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Bergamo, January 31 to November 29, 2026<\/strong><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bergamo, city of the Thousand, but also and above all the city of Gaetano Donizetti. And it is precisely in the city that gave him birth that we want to remember thirty years after his death the
\nMaestro Gianandrea Gavazzeni <\/strong>(July 25, 1909 – Feb. 5, 1996), conductor, composer and writer, among the most dazzling protagonists of twentieth-century music, to whom much is owed in the rediscovery of Donizetti’s legacy and the redefinition of Bergamo’s role on the international musical map.<\/p>\n

That is why the Donizetti Theater Foundation<\/strong> with the Donizetti Opera<\/strong> Festival, the Vittorio Polli and Anna Maria Stoppani Foundation<\/strong> with the Victor de Sabata and Aldo Ceccato Music Library<\/strong>, and the International Piano Festival of Brescia and Bergamo <\/strong>intend to celebrate this legacy, paying tribute to the man and the artist through a rich program of events spanning the entire year<\/strong> 2026<\/strong>, from January 31 to November 29<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The project, which networks institutions, archives, theaters, scholars, established performers and new promises, weaves music, critical reflection, exhibition activities, training and the development of young performers into a concert series, a lecture series, a scholarship and a documentary exhibition<\/strong>, to restore the multifaceted figure of Maestro Gavazzeni.<\/p>\n

The program aims to delineate both the figure of the artist, writer and intellectual, as well as that of the popularizer and pedagogue<\/strong>, who conceived of music-making as an opportunity to educate the public to listen, as well as a common heritage for the cultural growth of the individual and society.<\/p>\n

States Sergio Gandi<\/strong>, Councillor for Culture of the City of Bergamo: “Cultivating the memory of those who have carried the name of Bergamo outside its walls is one of the main duties of a public administration. It is all the more so for figures like Maestro Gianandrea Gavazzeni, whose dutiful homage is deeply intertwined with the memory and rediscovery of Donizetti. To him we owe an important action in consolidating the Bergamo composer’s fame on the world opera scene, through the direction of little-known operas, the revival of forgotten titles and a tireless enhancement of Donizetti’s heritage. I sincerely thank the Donizetti Theater Foundation, which has become the interpreter of a collective need, and the valuable network of collaborations created around it, which once again shows the richness of our city’s musical landscape: the International Piano Festival of Brescia and Bergamo, the driving force behind so many prestigious musical initiatives, and the Polli Stoppani Foundation, which in recent years has been increasingly integrating itself into the city’s cultural offerings. From this valuable participation has emerged an intense and varied program, which will animate the whole of 2026 with concerts, exhibitions and moments of in-depth study.”<\/p>\n

“By collaborating on the review, the Donizetti Theater Foundation is fully exercising its institutional role of protecting, enhancing and transmitting an important musical legacy, such as that of Gianandrea Gavazzeni,” continues Giorgio Berta<\/strong>, president of the Donizetti Theater Foundation. “The project confirms the Foundation’s commitment to promoting a solid and shared cultural vision, rooted in history and open to the future, which, inspired by the figure of the famous conductor, fulfills its mission of disseminating musical culture and educating the public. <\/p>\n

“This project,” adds Massimo Boffelli<\/strong>, general director of the Donizetti Theater Foundation, “is the result of a virtuous collaboration between institutions that share the same cultural vision: artistic quality, historical memory and inclusion, enhancing places, skills and relationships of the territory, in the sign of our illustrious fellow citizen Gianandrea Gavazzeni, to whom our theater is also clearly indebted.<\/p>\n

“As a conductor,” continues Maestro Riccardo Frizza<\/strong>, artistic and musical director of the Donizetti Opera festival, “I feel a deep connection with the figure of Gianandrea Gavazzeni, who knew how to combine interpretation, critical thinking and cultural responsibility, particularly in his relationship with Donizetti and with Bergamo. His lesson goes beyond the musical gesture and concerns a way of understanding music as knowledge and service to the public. The review we are presenting today stems from this legacy: valuing memory as an active tool for deepening and sharing, capable of dialoguing with today’s audience through the freshness of new interpretations and cultural proposal.” <\/p>\n

“The program is not only a tribute to the memory of my grandfather,” concludes Francesco Gavazzeni<\/strong>, board member of the Polli Stoppani Foundation, “but a sign of a deep relationship with his city. Bergamo was for him a place of genuine affection and listening, and the synergy between the institutions that remember him today is the truest testimony to that.” <\/p>\n


\nThe program<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

The schedule of lectures and concerts<\/strong> – curated by Maestro Aldo Ceccato and Luca Loglio, director of the Victor de Sabata and Aldo Ceccato Music Library, – kicks off on Saturday, January 31, at 4 p.m.<\/strong> at the historic Riccardi Hall of the Donizetti Theater<\/g>, with a Remembrance of the Maestro<\/em><\/strong>: an encounter dedicated to retracing the essential traits of a friend and professional, through the personal, artistic and historical accounts of podium colleague Aldo Ceccato<\/strong>, cultural manager Carlo Fontana<\/strong>, with whom Gavazzeni spent many years at La Scala, his nephew Giovanni Gavazzeni<\/strong>, musicologist and journalist, and Federico Fornoni<\/strong>, professor of History of Music at the University of Bergamo, who will trace his Bergamo years. <\/p>\n

Next, also at the Donizetti, in the Ridotto <\/strong>named after the Maestro, at 5 p.m.<\/strong> is scheduled the first of six “Concerts-Conversations,” a<\/strong> review open to the public of chamber music concerts<\/strong>, which in the morning, at 10 a.m., are offered in the form of “Concerts-Lessons”<\/strong> to the students of the Gaetano Donizetti Conservatory<\/strong>, in collaboration with the Bergamo Polytechnic of the Arts. The performers introduce the pieces, recount the poetics of the composers, show technical, formal and interpretative aspects, encouraging active listening and a deep understanding of the repertoire by the students first and the audience in the theater later. <\/p>\n

Gianandrea Gavazzeni himself invited the audience to enter into the heart of the works, to understand their structure, internal tension, and poetic logic, and for this reason each concert became a place for the transmission of knowledge and a living confrontation between performer and listener. According to this vision, each concert presents three criteria that belonged to the Maestro’s interpretative vision: centrality of the European repertoire of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries<\/g>, the privileged terrain of his artistic reflection; balance between famous and rare pages<\/g>, to nurture curiosity in the spectator; and pedagogy of listening<\/g>, which lies in the ability to guide the audience within the pieces offered, so that the music becomes a conscious experience. The cycle as a whole is, therefore, a narrative and educational journey<\/strong>, a listening workshop that interprets and renews Gavazzeni’s cultural legacy. <\/p>\n

“The program,” Luca Loglio<\/strong> points out, “is intended to be neither exclusively celebratory nor merely commemorative, but an enlivening occasion of Maestro Gavazzeni’s musical and cultural legacy, capable of traversing the many aspects of his personality, speaking to diverse audiences and generating cultural growth.<\/p>\n

The inaugural concert in January with Marangoni’s Quartet<\/strong>, therefore, offers a journey through epochs, genres and styles, and the collective finale with Bach’s Minuet<\/em> for violin, cello, flute and piano offers a perfect example of “music as architecture,” a theme very dear to Gavazzeni. The next, with the Duo Vincenzi-Luzzato<\/strong>, scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 28<\/strong>, also at 5 p.m.<\/strong>, is dedicated to the chamber elegance of the early 19th century and is built around the figure of Gaetano Donizetti, an undisputed protagonist of Gavazzeni’s repertoire. The third event on Saturday<\/g>, March 14<\/g>, features Vanessa Benelli Mosell<\/g>, one of the brightest pianists of the new generation, who is engaged in an itinerary within Chopin’s poetic universe, exploring the relationship between virtuosity, introspection and poetic form, themes that Gavazzeni considered essential in reading the Romantic repertoire; then, on Saturday, April 18<\/g>, the Campanella-Leone Duo<\/g> presents two absolute masterpieces for piano four-hands by Schubert, a composer whom Gavazzeni looked to as a composer of rare formal depth. Finally, on Saturday, May 16 <\/strong>, the Bortoluzzi Duo<\/strong> offers a refined program for violin and piano, linking French symbolism, late Romantic classicism, modernity and Italian repertoire, leading up to Saturday, May 23 <\/strong>, with a concert performed by Costanza Principe<\/strong> entirely dedicated to the pianism of Robert Schumann, a figure to whom Gavazzeni attributed a central role in the evolution of Romantic musical thought (tickets: full price \u20ac 15, reduced \u20ac 10). <\/p>\n

This review is flanked by the two symphony concerts <\/strong>offered as part of the 63rd International Piano Festival of Brescia and Bergamo<\/strong>, which also make up the second part of the Vite Parallele<\/em> project supported by Fondazione Cariplo and inaugurated last year on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli’s death. Gianandrea Gavazzeni figures only twice in the Festival’s program, with memorable concerts in 1990 and 1991, yet he was always close to the event with encouragement and public expressions of esteem. And the concert on Saturday<\/strong> , May 16 at the Teatro Sociale, at 8:30 p.m.<\/strong>, intends to pay tribute to the Maestro precisely through the presence of the Sinfonia Varsovia<\/strong>, an orchestra with which Gavazzeni performed at the Teatro Donizetti in ’91; soloist is the young Chinese pianist Sophia Liu<\/strong> (class of 2008), making her Festival debut under the baton of Pier Carlo Orizio (tickets: Platea \u20ac 35, Palco I and II order \u20ac 25, Palco III order \u20ac 15). <\/p>\n

The concert on Friday,<\/strong> May 29<\/strong> at the Donizetti Theater<\/strong>, also at 8:30 p.m.<\/strong>, instead recalls the figure of the Maestro through his music: “With Gavazzeni’s Cinquand\u00f2<\/em>,” says Piano Festival President Daniela Gennaro Guadalupi<\/strong>, “the concert of theOrchestra La Nota in pi\u00f9<\/strong> will open, a collaboration of great artistic and social value. It is an initiative we are particularly proud of, because it reaffirms how music is not only an artistic experience, but can be a tool for inclusion and relationships.” The ensemble, directed by Silvia Gazzola and Federica Poletti, was created as part of an orchestral music therapy project aimed at children and young people with autism and cognitive disabilities, promoted by the Associazione Spazio Autismo Bergamo APS, together with the Centro Spazio Autismo and with the support of the City of Bergamo. Active since 2004 and recognized as one of the most significant experiences in Italy in the field of musical inclusion, it represents a virtuous example of how orchestral practice can become a tool for growth, sociality and participation (tickets: Plateau I \u20ac 40, Plateau II \u20ac 30, Stage \u20ac 25, Gallery I \u20ac 25, Gallery II \u20ac 15). <\/p>\n

The series of meetings<\/strong> dedicated to the figure of the Maestro, after January’s Remembrance <\/em>at the Donizetti, consists of two more appointments, both on Saturdays at 4:30 p.m.<\/strong> and with free admission, hosted in the Music Room of Palazzo Polli Stoppani<\/strong>: conceived as a two-stage journey that restores the Maestro’s cultural depth, they highlight both the interpretative dimension and the literary work. On Saturday, March 7 <\/strong>, the following will emerge. Gavazzeni interpreter of Donizetti<\/em><\/strong> through the words of Paolo Fabbri<\/strong>, scientific director of the Centro Studi Donizettiani of the Fondazione Teatro Donizetti; Francesco Bellotto<\/strong>, musicologist, director and lecturer; and Livio Aragona<\/strong>, musicologist of the Centro Studi Donizettiani and coordinator of the National Edition of Donizetti’s Operas; the meeting is enriched by musical interludes<\/strong> by students of the Bergamo Polytechnic of the Arts.<\/strong> The meeting on Saturday, April 11 <\/strong>, on the other hand, focuses on. Gavazzeni writer<\/em><\/strong>, a perhaps lesser-known aspect of the Maestro’s personality, capable of combining critical thought and literary sensibility; Marco Capra<\/strong>, professor of History of Modern and Contemporary Music at the University of Parma, and Mimma Forlani<\/strong>, journalist and writer, will speak about it, with readings by Diego Bonifaccio<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The tribute To Gianandrea Gavazzeni<\/em> continues on the occasion of the Festa della Musica on Sunday, June 21<\/strong> at 5 p.m. at Villa Cinquand\u00f2<\/strong>, the Bergamo residence of the Maestro’s younger years, where the Duo Ranieri-Melis<\/strong> offers a program dedicated to the first half of the 20th century, in the sign of intimate and affective memory (free admission).<\/p>\n

In addition, on Saturday, June 6, at 11 a.m.<\/strong> at the Music Room of Palazzo Polli Stoppani<\/strong>, a free concert will be held to award the “Gianandrea Gavazzeni” Scholarship<\/strong>, aimed at students of the Bergamo Conservatory of Music<\/strong>, a project that evokes the artist’s pedagogical mission and aimed at supporting talent and merit in the study of chamber and symphonic repertoire.<\/p>\n

Finally, the project is completed with a documentary exhibition<\/strong> dedicated to Maestro Gavazzeni, with free admission, which will open on Thursday, October 15 <\/strong>in the exhibition spaces of the Donizetti<\/strong> Studio<\/strong> at Teatro Donizetti<\/strong> and will be open for the duration of the Donizetti Opera 2026<\/strong> festival, until November 29<\/strong>. The exhibition, curated by Tania Cefis, Clelia Epis, Luca Loglio, and Alessio Francesco Palmieri Marinoni, will present materials from the Donizetti Theater Foundation’s Iconographic Archive and the Maestro’s personal archive, with a focus on the Bergamasque stages of his career. <\/p>\n

To purchase tickets<\/strong> for concerts at Ridotto Gavazzeni and the Piano Festival, the Donizetti Theater Box Office<\/strong> at Piazza Cavour 15 in Bergamo is open Tuesday through Saturday from 4 to 8 p.m.; phone: +39 035 4160 601\/602\/603, e-mail: biglietteria@fondazioneteatrodonizetti.org.<\/a> Online vivaticket.com.<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A project of Fondazione Teatro Donizetti with Donizetti Opera Festival, Vittorio Polli and Anna Maria Stoppani Foundation with Victor de Sabata and Aldo Ceccato Music Library, and International Piano Festival of Brescia and Bergamo A concert series, lecture series, scholarship and exhibition in memory of the great master from Bergamo on the 30th anniversary of his death Bergamo, January 31 to November 29, 2026   Bergamo, city of the Thousand, but also and above all the city of Gaetano Donizetti. And it is precisely in the city that gave him birth that we want to remember thirty years after his death the Maestro Gianandrea Gavazzeni (July 25, 1909 – Feb. 5, 1996), conductor, composer and writer, among the most dazzling protagonists of twentieth-century music, to whom much is owed in the rediscovery of Donizetti’s legacy and the redefinition of Bergamo’s role on the international musical map. That is why 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 intend to celebrate this legacy, paying tribute to the man and the artist through a rich program of events spanning the entire year 2026, from January 31 to November 29. The project, which networks institutions, archives, theaters, scholars, established performers and new promises, weaves music, critical reflection, exhibition activities, training and the development of young performers into a concert series, a lecture series, a scholarship and a documentary exhibition, to restore the multifaceted figure of Maestro Gavazzeni. The program aims to delineate both the figure of the artist, writer and intellectual, as well as that of the popularizer and pedagogue, who conceived of music-making as an opportunity to educate the public to listen, as well as a common heritage for the cultural growth of the individual and society. States Sergio Gandi, Councillor for Culture of the City of Bergamo: “Cultivating the memory of those who have carried the name of Bergamo outside its walls is one of the main duties of a public administration. It is all the more so for figures like Maestro Gianandrea Gavazzeni, whose dutiful homage is deeply intertwined with the memory and rediscovery of Donizetti. To him we owe an important action in consolidating the Bergamo composer’s fame on the world opera scene, through the direction of little-known operas, the revival of forgotten titles and a tireless enhancement of Donizetti’s heritage. I sincerely thank the Donizetti Theater Foundation, which has become the interpreter of a collective need, and the valuable network of collaborations created around it, which once again shows the richness of our city’s musical landscape: the International Piano Festival of Brescia and Bergamo, the driving force behind so many prestigious musical initiatives, and the Polli Stoppani Foundation, which in recent years has been increasingly integrating itself into the city’s cultural offerings. From this valuable participation has emerged an intense and varied program, which will animate the whole of 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":39492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1036],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-39493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teatrodonizetti.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teatrodonizetti.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teatrodonizetti.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teatrodonizetti.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teatrodonizetti.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.teatrodonizetti.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teatrodonizetti.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.teatrodonizetti.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teatrodonizetti.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teatrodonizetti.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39493"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.teatrodonizetti.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=39493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}