Corrado Rovaris will be the central figure of the upcoming concerts in the Fondazione Teatro La Fenice’s 2025–2026 Symphonic Season, scheduled at the Teatro Malibran on Friday, June 19 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, June 21 at 5:00 p.m. The Italian conductor, now in his twentieth season as Music Director of Opera Philadelphia, will lead the Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice in an engaging program pairing Mozart’s Symphony No. 38 in D major, K. 504 “Prague” with Arthur Honegger’s Pastorale d’Été and Astor Piazzolla’s Tres Tangos, featuring Pietro Roffi as accordion soloist. In his brief symphonic poem Pastorale d’Été, Honegger encapsulated the distinctive neoclassicism of Les Six, characterized by clear writing and the use of instrumental forms inherited from the Classical and Romantic traditions. At the same time, the score brings together many of the composer’s finest qualities: clarity, elegance, refinement of orchestration, and a practical mastery in exploiting the flexibility of musical form. The bandoneón shaped the destiny of Astor Piazzolla (1921–1992). It was not love at first sight. He began studying the instrument in New York, where his family had settled in 1925, under Andrés D’Aquila. However, it was the pianist Béla Wilda who led him to the decisive musical revelation of his life: Johann Sebastian Bach. From there, his artistic influences multiplied, including the voice of Carlos Gardel and his work with Alberto Ginastera. Passionately devoted to Stravinsky and Bartók, as well as Copland and Gershwin, Piazzolla furthered his studies in piano and conducting with Hermann Scherchen.
