Program

L. V. Beethoven : Symphony No.9 'Choral' Op.125

Artists

Myung-Whun Chung | Conductor

Orchestra Teatro Alla Scala | Orchestra

Chorus Teatro Alla Scala | Chorus

Myung-Whun Chung | Conductor

Myung-Whun Chung began his musical career as a pianist, making his debut with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of seven.  In 1974 he won second prize at the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow.  After his musical studies at the Mannes School and Juilliard School in New York, he was appointed Carlo Maria Giulini’s assistant in 1979 at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and became Associate Conductor two years later.

He was Music Director of the Saarbrucken Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1984 to 1990, Principal Guest Conductor of the Teatro Comunale of Florence from 1987 to 1992 and Music Director of the Opera de Paris-Bastille from 1989 to 1994.  The year 2000 marked his return to Paris as Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.  His love for Italy has been the basis of his extensive work in that country for many years, including, from 1997 to 2005, his position as Principal Conductor of the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome.  He also appears regularly at the Teatro La Fenice, recently conducting Simon Boccanegra.  Otello and Tristan und Isolde. Other opera engagements in the 2014/15 season include La traviata and Rigoletto at the Wiener Staatsoper.  In Germany, he became Principal Guest Conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden at the beginning of the 2012/13 season, the first conductor to hold the post in the history of the orchestra.  Outside Europe, he is increasingly committed to musical and social causes in Asia through his roles as Music Director of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and Honorary Conductor Laureate of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.

Myung-Whun Chung has conducted virtually all the world’s leading orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Bayerische Rundfunk, Wiener Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Filharmonica della Scala  as well as all the major London and Parisian orchestras.  In the USA, he has collaborated with the Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra.

An exclusive recording artist for Deutsche Grammophon since 1990, many of his numerous recordings have won international prizes and awards.  Recent releases include Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony and Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk with the Orchestre de l'Opera Bastille, as well as Mahler’s Symphony no.2, Mahler Symphony no. 9, Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pathetique’ Symphony and a Beethoven disc, all with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.

Myung-Whun Chung has been the recipient of many honours and prizes for his artistic work, including the Premio Abbiati and the Arturo Toscanini prize in Italy and the Legion d’Honneur (1992) in France.  In 1991, the Association of French Theatres and Music Critics named him ‘Artist of the Year’ and in 1995 he won the ‘Victoire de la Musique’ prize three times.  He was named a Commandeur dans l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 2011.

Deeply sensitive to humanitarian and ecological problems of our age, Myung-Whun Chung has devoted an important part of his life to these causes.  In 1994 he launched a series of musical and environmental projects in Korea for youth.  He served as Ambassador for the Drug Control Program at the United Nations (UNDCP); in 1995, he was named ‘Man of the year’ by UNESCO and also ‘Most Distinguished Personality’ by the Korean press association.  In 1996, he received the ‘Kumkuan’, the highest cultural award of the Korean government for his contribution to Korean musical life.  Myung-Whun Chung now serves as Honorary Cultural Ambassador for Korea, the first in the Korean government’s history.  In 2008, he was designated the first conductor named as Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Orchestra Teatro Alla Scala | Orchestra

19th century Italian music was dominated by a "melodrama pain" as Gian Francesco Malipiero wittily called it. The lack of a chamber and symphonic tradition in Italy delayed the appearance of symphony orchestra and opera conductors.

In melodrama, the first violin orchestra leader has existed for a long time, with eminent examples like Alessandro Rolla and his pupil Eugenio. It is only in 1854, with Alberto Mazzuccato, that the first real conductor stands up on a podium with a baton.

Mazzuccato started the glorious dynasty of the Teatro alla Scala conductors, with members like Franco Faccio (champion, against Verdi's will, of a symphonic life of the orchestra), Leopoldo Mugnone, Edoardo Mascheroni and, finally, Arturo Toscanini.

Franco Faccio had the honour to conduct the premiere of Othello in 1887, Edoardo Mascheroni that of Falstaff in 1893, while Toscanini, after a long battle, transformed the Teatro alla Scala from private theatre to Autonomous Board (1921/22 season).

The orchestra international prestige has been continuously enhanced, thanks to the constant presence of great conductors like Toscanini and Victor de Sabata, Wilhelm Furtwangler and Herbert von Karajan, Guido Cantelli and Leonard Bernstein, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Carlo Maria Giulini, Carlos Kleiber and Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti ? the international repute of the Orchestra has only grown.

Made out of 135 musicians, the Teatro alla Scala Orchestra, considered one of the world’s best orchestra for opera productions, has reached a prestigious international position also for its symphony activity.

The main characteristic of the Orchestra is its capacity to obtain a uniform and distinguished sound, typical of the Teatro alla Scala style, handed down from generation to generation.

The versatile and soft sound and the fast setting up of the opera timbre balancing are characteristic of the Teatro alla Scala Orchestra.

Chorus Teatro Alla Scala | Chorus

The Teatro alla Scala Chorus is synonymous with prestige and artistic quality, in Italy and worldwide.

The level of excellence attained is the fruit of the patient and meticulous work carried out over the years by chorus masters with the greatest sensitivity.

Important names should be mentioned: Vittore Veneziani, called by Toscanini in the immediate post-war period; Norberto Mola; the very strict Roberto Benaglio, a real sound engineer, between the 60s and 70s; Romano Gandolfi with Claudio Abbado.

More recently, Giulio Bertola, at the top of his skills, succeeded in giving as much importance to the symphony as to the opera repertoire. Then, in the 90s, Roberto Gabbiani gave Riccardo Muti a choir with gothic strings. He also strengthened the modern repertoire (Dallapiccola, Petrassi, Penderecki...) and the ancient (Gesualdo da Venosa), as well as Richard Strauss’s.

With Bruno Casoni, the current chorus master and a wise expert of voices (including treble ones), we get to that typical opera stage sound, powerful and moving at the same time.

Although the chorus mainly performs the opera repertoire, its flexibility allows it to face different types of concert: from the choral-symphony repertoire to chamber music, from the polyphonic repertoire to musicological researches, to the contemporary 20th century repertoire, with especially-composed pieces. Among these repertoires, it is worth mentioning the Mottetti and the Tres sacrae cantiones by Gesualdo da Venosa, the Missa Super iniquos odio habui by Luca Marenzio, the Missa L'homme arme by Carissimi and, above of all, the Messa da Requiem by Verdi, which is considered the highlight of the Chorus repertoire.

Over the years, the Chorus, as well as all the other companies of the Teatro alla Scala, has taken part in numerous and successful European and world tours in Russia, the United States, Canada, Japan and Korea.