Bolzano Festival Bozen 2026 - Opening

Orchestra Haydn Concert at the Bolzano Festival Bozen

As part of the Bolzano Festival Bozen, the Orchestra Haydn will perform among the ruins of Santa Maria in Augia in Bolzano, conducted by Alessandro Bonato, the orchestra's principal conductor, with pianist Mariangela Vacatello as soloist.

A small curiosity about Rachmaninov: a great conductor as well as pianist, he is credited with the current stage arrangement in which the podium stands in front of the orchestra rather than at its centre, with the musicians arranged in a semicircle. Another curiosity: his Second Piano Concerto is dedicated to psychiatrist Nikolai Dahl, who treated him after the disastrous premiere of his First Symphony led to a nervous breakdown. These heartfelt pages are now in the hands of the great Italian pianist Mariangela Vacatello, for an open-air concert that opens the Bolzano Festival Bozen with the most magical, summery atmosphere. The piano concerto will be accompanied by masterpieces from two giants of Italian opera, Rossini and Verdi, with memorable overtures from their works.

Programme:

Gioachino Rossini – L'italiana in Algeri, Overture

Giuseppe Verdi – Nabucco, Overture

Sergei Rachmaninoff – Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18

Giuseppe Verdi – Giovanna d'Arco, Overture

Giuseppe Verdi – I Vespri siciliani, Overture

Free admission

In case of rain, the concert will take place at the Auditorium on Via Dante, Bolzano.