On Friday, April 4, 2025, at 5 p.m., the concert of the Ensemble “Giorgio Bernasconi,” conducted by Wilson Hermanto, closes the I Concerti dell'Accademia cycle at the Ridotto dei Palchi “Arturo Toscanini” of the Teatro alla Scala.
For Academy students, the concert is a valuable opportunity to tackle literature rarely performed during their training period. The “Giorgio Bernasconi” Ensemble, which owes its name to the conductor who contributed to its creation in 2008 and which since 2012 has been supported by the artistic coordination of Marco Angius, is in fact an original educational project that allows young people attending the Academy's two-year Advanced Training Course for Orchestra Professors to approach, on the one hand, the historical twentieth century, with the performance of cornerstones of modern literature, and on the other hand, the most interesting and significant musical research of today's composers.
The program opens with Simonide Braconi's Il canto del silenzio. It is the composer himself, first viola at Teatro alla Scala, who describes the piece:
"Conceived during the lockdown of 2020, Il canto del silenzio for viola and strings saw the light and first performance the following year. Through the shadowy sound of the viola, the piece recounts the highlights of the pandemic period and is dedicated to all the victims of this terrible event.
The score begins with a single note from the double basses and builds up to the explosion that represents the spread of the virus. After a moment of frenzy and disbelief entrusted to the solo viola comes the real protagonist: silence, interrupted only by the sound of ambulances. This is followed by the song of pain. And again: the unbridled search for a solution by all mankind, the anger and despair in the days of the pandemic, suddenly broken by the grave and insistent notes of the double basses to represent the inevitability of fate, whose voice overpowers all human distress. Slowly returns the song of sorrow, performed by the solo viola, shrouded in the mystery of faith, represented by the steady, high-pitched sound of muted violins and violas; a kind of prayer, the only foothold against the adversities of fate."
This is followed by Igor' Stravinsky's Concerto in D for String Orchestra, written in 1946 in the United States (where by then the Russian composer had settled for nearly a decade), commissioned by Paul Sacher to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his Basel Chamber Orchestra. Sacher, a well-known patron and conductor, wanted a piece that would highlight the qualities of his orchestra. The first performance of the concerto took place in Basel in 1947, with Sacher himself conducting. Stylistically, the concerto fits into Stravinsky's neoclassical period, but is distinguished by a more abstract and rhythmically angular approach than other works of the same period. Despite the work's apparent lightness and “pure fun,” ambiguities and shadows occasionally emerge, anticipating Stravinsky's later theatrical and vocal works.
The program closes with the Kammerkonzert that Alban Berg composed between 1923 and 1925, dedicating it to his mentor Arnold Schoenberg on the occasion of his 50th birthday: “a small monument to a friendship now twenty years old,” reads the open letter that accompanied the work, celebrating the bond between the two and Anton Webern. Written for piano, violin and 13 wind instruments, the Kammerkonzert is an intricate labyrinth of musical games and hidden symbolism, where the initials of the three composers are transformed into musical themes and numbers take on esoteric meanings.
Wilson Hermanto, acclaimed for his profound musicality and natural authority, has been the Principal Guest Conductor of the La Scala Cameristi since 2017. In the 2024-25 season, among many activities, he made his debut at the Elbphilharmonie with the Vienna Kammerorchester and recorded a CD album with music by H.K. Gruber, Eötvös and B.A. Zimmermann with the Sinfonia Varsovia.
He has conducted internationally prominent orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre national de Lyon, etc. He has been Co-Artistic Director of the Vevey Spring Classic festival in Switzerland since 2022 and has collaborated with soloists such as Lang Lang, Maxim Vengerov, etc. Born in Indonesia, he studied violin at Peabody Conservatory of Music and conducting at Manhattan School of Music under Sixten Ehrling, mentor of Sir Colin Davis, and also studied with Carlo Maria Giulini and Pierre Boulez.
The Ensemble will meet Wilson Hermanto again in Switzerland as part of the Vevey Spring Classic Festival, where the students will perform two concerts on May 15 and 16.
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Foto (c) Kaupo Kikkas
