Australian-born conductor Simone Young will conduct the La Scala Orchestra on Wednesday evening, 11th of October 2023.

Simone Young is recognised as a star of her generation, with a glittering career as music director of the Hamburg Philharmonic and State Opera from 2005-2015, admired for her outstanding conducting of the complete works of Strauss and Wagner. Throughout her career, Simone Young has conducted ensembles at the world's leading opera houses, but has always returned home to Australia, where she has also tackled the symphonic repertoire at the baton of the Queensland, Adelaide and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras.

The La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra was founded by Claudio Abbado in 1982, together with the musicians of La Scala Opera, with the aim of also performing works from the symphonic repertoire and thus adding an extra dimension to the great Milanese opera tradition.

Simone Young has included in the programme of the concert, which will take place on the stage of La Scala in Milan, two works that are aesthetically at opposite ends of the spectrum: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No 38 KV 504 in D major "Prague" and Olivier Messiaen's Symphony "Turangalîla".

Mozart's 38th Symphony premiered in Prague on the 19th of January 1787, during Mozart's first visit to the city. Hence the name Prague Symphony. It is written in three movements, lacks the Minuet, but benefits from a grand finale, somewhat reminiscent of the tumult of Beethovenian endings.

In the second part of the concert, we'll hear Olivier Messiaen's 'Turangalîla', with the exceptional participation of pianist Yuja Wang; at the Martenot you'll follow Cécile Lartigau.

"Turangalîla" is a monumental work involving over a hundred musicians on stage and a very wide range of percussion, piano and Martenot waves, that early, slightly rudimentary electronic instrument that managed to produce vibration-like sound effects by sliding a ring along a wire.

Olivier Messiaen's 'Turangalîla' symphony, with a title that touches on the idea of the flow of time measured in cosmic love, is imbued with mysticism and transfiguration. The author wanted to suggest a love that is fully realized in death: "To understand the greatness of this piece and its so-called instrumental excesses, we must remember that the union between two people also means a powerful transformation for them, while also producing transformations on a cosmic scale."

Broadcast live on Radio România Muzical, Wednesday the 11th of October 2023, at 21.00, the Concerto of the Orchestra "La Scala" of Milan! Conducted by Simone Young.