Biyografi

The Verdi Symphony Orchestra of Milan (Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi) is one of the world's newest full-scale and full-time symphony orchestras. Milan is one of the most ancient cities of the world. It is probably older even than the legendary date of its founding in the fifth century B.C. by Gauls or Celts. It can claim to be the very birthplace of Western European music, as its famous Bishop, St. Ambrose, codified Ambrosian chant, the oldest Western liturgical music. It remained a center of church music over the centuries, but for various historic reasons (including its passing to Spanish rule in 1535), it was not in the forefront of secular music history. The first opera performed there was L'Andromeda by Manelli (1644). After Spanish domination ended, the Dukes of Milan promoted opera in their Regio Ducal Teatro, which opened in 1717. After it burned in 1776, it was replaced by the Teatro alla Scala, which soon became one of the great opera houses of the world. In Italian musical history, there is a certain tension between operatic and vocal music on the one hand and instrumental and orchestral music on the other. Milan has been one of the cities where opera, primarily, was king, slowing the development of symphony concert life. A Philharmonic Society was founded early in the nineteenth century to put on amateur orchestral performances. Interest in orchestral music led to the orchestra of the La Scala opera house forming the Società Orchestrale della Scala in 1878 to give two short seasons of orchestral concerts a year. This practice has continued. Otherwise, Milan did not have a permanent symphony orchestra giving public concerts until 1959, when the Milan Radio Orchestra of the RAI began playing concerts in 1959. The RAI (Radio Audizioni Italiana) is the public radio and television of organization of Italy. Since 1931 (when it operated under an earlier name), it had a symphony orchestra based in Turin, adding a Rome RAI Orchestra, the Milan Orchestra, and the Alessandro Scarlatti Chamber Orchestra of Naples. RAI's Milan Orchestra became a center of concert life in the city, but RAI decided to unify its orchestral efforts in one location, choosing the original orchestra, that of Turin, as the one to survive. Reorganized as the Italian Radio Symphony Orchestra (Orchestre Nazionale Sinfonica della RAI) it began in 1994 to present a full season of concerts, including appearances in Milan. Anticipating the loss of the Milan RAI orchestra, conductor Vladimir Delman founded the Verdi Symphony Orchestra of Milan in 1993. It has grown into a full-time season of fifty different concert programs, each repeated three times. In 1999, it acquired a handsome permanent home when the City of Milan acquired an old-time movie palace, the Cinema Teatro Massimo, which had been dark for several years. Blessed with fine acoustics, the building was renovated as the "Auditorium di Milano" and became the home of the Verdi Symphony Orchestra of Milan. The VSOM's first concert in its new facility was on October 6, 1999, with Riccardo Chailly conducting Gustav Mahler's "Resurrection" Symphony (Symphony No. 2), with its own permanent Chorus taking part. There are four main conductors of the orchestra. Milan-born Riccardo Chailly, the Music Director, is one of the best-known conductors in Europe and is also Music Director of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Born in 1914, Director Emeritus Carlo Maria Giulini has long been one of the world's most revered conductors. Romano Gandolfi, the Choral Director, is a former director of the Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires) and La Scala Opera Choruses. The Principal Guest Conductor, Yutaka Sado, was born in Kyoto in 1961 and was a student of Leonard Bernstein.