Milan Symphony, 30 productions for Tjeknavorian's third season

Thirty symphonic productions and seven chamber music appointments, international debuts by great artists, from Marek Janowski to Rafal Blechacz and a tribute to Britten and Beethoven. "A varied artistic offer that of the 2026-27 season of the Milan Symphony Orchestra", in the words of Emmanuel Tjeknavorian, in his third year as music director. The season 'will be dedicated', recalled president Ambra Redaelli, 'to the memory of Gianni Cervetti, the Orchestra's recently deceased president emeritus'.

The opening concert, as is now tradition, will be held at the Teatro alla Scala on Sunday 13 September. On the podium will be Marko Letonja, with a programme that brings together the great Italian tradition (the symphonic poems Pini di Roma and Fontane di Roma by Ottorino Respighi) and the great concert repertoire, with the celebrated Cello Concerto by Edward Elgar. The soloist will be Daniel Muller-Schott, one of the most authoritative cellists. But after its inauguration at La Scala, the Milan Symphony Orchestra will return to its home, the Auditorium, on 9 and 11 October, with Maestro Tjeknavorian conducting Cajkovsky's First Piano Concerto, entrusted to the piano talents of the very young Alexandra Dovgan, who at the age of 20 thus inaugurates her artistic residency with the Milan Symphony Orchestra. The programme also includes pieces from Chacaturjan's Spartacus ballet and Sostakovic's Ninth Symphony.

On 30 October and 1 November, Tjeknavorian returns with Mahler (Das Lied von der Erde), which is also repeated on 5 and 7 February with the Seventh Symphony, conductor Hartmut Haenchen. Other significant appointments include, on 24 October, the last concert in Italia by Marek Janowski, who with the First Symphony by Beethoven and the Second Symphony by Brahms takes leave of his concert career. Among the season's most anticipated guests is Polish pianist Rafal Blechacz (16 and 18 October) with Chopin's Second Concerto, conductor Dawid Runtz.

There are also major symphonic-choral events: the first opens the Christmas season in the sign of Haendel's Messiah (18 and 20 December). The celebrations of the 200th anniversary of Beethoven's death will open with the traditional Ninth Symphony, on New Year's Eve; then, on 12 and 14 February, the Third Piano Concerto, conductor Tjeknavorian, pianist Maximilian Kromer; and again: the Fifth (23 and 25 April), Sixth (7 May) and Eighth Symphony (14 and 16 May). Britten (50th death anniversary) will be commemorated on 13 and 15 November with Four Sea Interludes by Peter Grimes, but the celebrations will be brought forward on 25 October in a chamber concert at the Teatro Gerolamo (venue for the season's chamber music events). To conclude the season, on 28 and 30 May 2027, Wayne Marshall as conductor and solo pianist, with pieces by George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein.