CONCERTS 2026 | SYMPHONY
SEBASTIAN WEIGLE
RACHMANINOV Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in A minor, Op. 43
ROTT Symphony No. 1 in E major
Director
Sebastian Weigle
Soloist – Piano
Angel Stanislav Wang
Program
Sergei Vasil’evič Rachmaninov
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in A minor op. 43
Painfully leaving Russia a few months after the outbreak of the 1917 Revolution, Sergei Rachmaninov rebuilt his life in the United States, where he had already toured in 1910. Over the next 25 years he always suffered acutely from his estrangement from his homeland, and this burden influenced his determination to continue composing. Only seven of the 45 works in his official catalog saw the light of day during the American period. Among them shines in a special light the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for Piano and Orchestra (1934) a rare example in which extreme virtuosity coexists with formal rigor and public taste with critical taste. But more than a tribute to Paganini, the Rhapsody stands as a great monument in honor of Liszt, who a century earlier had worked on the very same Paganini Capriccio in his Études d’éxécution transcendante d’après Paganini.
Hans Rott
Symphony No. 1. in E major
“It is impossible to estimate what music lost with him. His First Symphony reaches such heights of genius as to make him – without exaggeration – the founder of the New Symphony.” Thus spoke Gustav Mahler about Hans Rott, a misunderstood genius who died at the age of just 26 in 1884. With this masterpiece, a solitary and monumental stone that brings Wagner’s world together with Brahms’s, Rott hoped to be accepted into the Viennese cultural milieu. But it was the negative judgment of Brahms, who headed the commission for a major government grant, that crushed the hopes of the young composer, who ended his life in a psychiatric clinic. The Symphony waited more than a century to see the light of day: but the first performance, in 1989, immediately revealed the unsuspected existence of another giant in the history of music.
Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna
45 min. before the start of the concert, the audience is invited to an in-depth discussion of the program by Luca Baccolini, which will be held on the lower floor of the Theater.
Luca Baccolini
journalist, music popularizer and writer, works with the Bologna editorial office of Repubblica and is on the editorial staff of the monthly Classic Voice. For Newton Compton he has published ten books on the history of Bologna. He is the author of theatrical subjects and collaborates as an essayist and popularizer with the most important Italian lyrical symphonic institutions.
SECTOR 1
Full: €45
Over65: €35
Reduced30-35: €30
U30: €25
SECTOR 2
Full: 40€
Over65: 30€
Reduced30-35: 25€
U30: 20€
SECTOR 3
Full: 35€
Over65: 25€
Reduced30-35: 20€
U30: 15€
SECTOR 4
Full: €15
Tickets at €10 for all students enrolled at the University of Bologna, the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna and the G.B. Martini Conservatory of Music for concerts of the 2026 Symphonic Season.
On sale only during Ticket Office presale hours (Tuesday to Friday from 12 to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.), from one week before the concert, by presenting university badge and self-certification of enrollment for the current year.
This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)