On September 24th, Alessandro Crudele returns to the podium of the prestigious Teatro Dal Verme in Milan during the most important Italian festival, MITO SettembreMusica. The programme, entitled “Conversing with Beethoven”, will see Beethoven’s Coriolano Overture, along with his Symphony No. 2. 

Between these two pieces, Alessandro Crudele will conduct the Italian premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s Absence, written by the Finnish composer in 2020. The composer’s programme note for Absence explains how the work grew from reading Beethoven’s conversation books, combining notes from acquaintances engaging with the deaf composer and personal jottings acting as aides’ memoires. Lindberg says: “What I could do was to bring up some Beethovenian quotes, as you do when politely asking about an idea which your much more experienced colleague has raised. What does this quote actually mean and how can it be interpreted?”

Lindberg ‘converses’ with Beethoven through three quotes: the eleventh bar of the slow movement in the Piano Sonata “Les Adieux” op. 81a, the astonishing sequence at the end of the first movement of the Second Symphony with the rising chromatic bass line covering the entire octave, and the opening chord of the Finale of the Ninth Symphony. As the composer says, “The utterly modern ‘dissonances’ speak for themselves and the conversation is happening in the music. As it should.”

Absence’s world premiere has been given on October 8th, 2020 in Rotterdam with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Lahav Shani, followed by a tour in Cologne for the German premiere. Marin Alsop conducted the US premiere with the Dallas Symphony in November 2020, while Kirill Karabits gave the UK premiere with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra the same month. 

This important premiere confirms Alessandro Crudele’s deep interest and dedication in contemporary music. The concert, with the Orchestra UniMi, will take place at 4:30 pm. More info here.