ORT: Ceretta Checchini Codecà Concert

On Thursday, May 7 at 9:00 pm, the Teatro Verdi in Florence hosts a concert by the Orchestra della Toscana (ORT) conducted by Diego Ceretta, with Emilio Checchini on clarinet and Umberto Codecà on bassoon. 

The program brings together 3 bigwigs in the Austro-German repertoire between the 19ᵗʰ and 20ᵗʰ centuries, built around a concept of time understood not as a simple succession of epochs but as a living and changing element. 

Ceretta, in his 3 years at the helm of the ORT, has often navigated this repertoire. Here in this concert, he offers a kind of synthesis thereof, also giving a central role to dual 1ˢᵗ sections of the orchestra, namely Checchini as 1ˢᵗ chair clarinet since 2019, and Codecà as the ensemble’s historic 1ˢᵗ chair bassoon. 
The concert opens with Webern’s Langsamer Satz, a page still associated with late Romanticism and marked by an intimate, suspended dimension. 
The centerpiece of the evening is the Duet-Concertino by Richard Strauss, in which clarinet and bassoon become the protagonists of an ongoing dialog accompanied by the orchestra with measure and balance. 
Completing the program is Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 1, a sprightly work animated by energy and momentum, built in comparison with the great models of the past. 
The musical journey thus passes from Mendelssohn’s youth to Strauss’ extreme maturity through Webern’s tension, finding meaning precisely in the differences between these 3 worlds of sound.

The concert will also be performed in Siena on May 8, in Figline on May 9, in Ferrara on May 11 and in Pisa on May 12.