Ravello Festival, summer 2025 between Bollani-Moroni-Rea and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The 73rd edition of the kermesse on the Amalfi Coast has been presented. On stage at Villa Rufolo also Daniel Harding and Michael Spyres
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The backdrop is one of the most beautiful panoramas in the world, in the air the scents of the sea and lemons of the Amalfi Coast, around the splendid flower garden of Villa Rufolo that already enchanted Wagner: this is the magical setting that in summer 2025 will once again welcome some of today's best-known orchestral ensembles - from the Italian Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Filarmonica della Scala to the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - together with outstanding soloists and batons - including Daniel Harding, Yuja Wang, Myung-Whun Chung, Stefano Bollani, Kent Nagano and Michael Spyres - and young rising stars and collaborations with Campania's musical institutions, to offer the public the unique experience of the Ravello Festival now in its 73rd edition. From 6 July to 25 August, 15 concerts organised by the Ravello Foundation - led by the president Alessio Vlad with the general direction of Maurizio Pietrantonio and the artistic direction of Lucio Gregoretti - made possible thanks to the support of the Campania Region.
The festival opens on Sunday 6 July (8 p.m.) on the Belvedere of Villa Rufolo with a concert (exclusive to Italy) by Jérémie Rhorer conducting his orchestra Le Cercle de l'Harmonie who will, of course, play Wagner, with the prelude from Parsifal and the overture from Tannhäuser, followed by the Symphonie fantastique by Hector Berlioz, thus paying homage to the famous composer linked to Ravello and the father of French Romanticism.
Friday 11 July (8 pm) sees the return, again exclusively, of a much-loved US boys' choir, the Uniting Voices Chicago conducted by Josephine Lee. The following weekend is not to be missed, with two internationally renowned orchestras and conductors: Saturday 12 July (8.00 pm) concert by the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia with its new musical director Daniel Harding performing Blumine by Gustav Mahler, the Second Symphony by Johannes Brahms and, of course, Wagner with the Prelude and Death of Isolde from Tristan und Isolde.
On Sunday 13 July (9 p.m.), instead, theMahler Chamber Orchestra arrives in an Italian exclusive with a pianistic superstar like Yuja Wang, who will also be engaged as conductor of the famous ensemble. The programme includes, along with Stravinsky's Octet for wind instruments and Beethoven's Coriolanus Overture, two concertos for piano and orchestra, the First by Tchaikovsky and the Fourth by the Ukrainian Nikolai Kapustin, a piece from 1989 that the composer himself describes as "jazz for classical musicians".
A new weekend in the sign of the classical-romantic repertoire with, on Saturday 19 July (8 pm), the La Scala Philharmonic conducted by Myung-Whun Chung who will perform Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto with the young Japanese Mao Fujita as soloist, followed by Brahms's Fourth Symphony. On Sunday 20 July (8 pm) on the Belvedere of Villa Rufolo, piano again, this time with a recital by Filippo Gorini, one of the most sought-after Italian artists in international concert halls, who returns to Ravello with a programme of music by György Kurtág, Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert.
