The Farnese Festival returns to Parma, from June 2nd to 8th 2025, the ancient music festival, now in its third edition, conceived by Simone Verde, former director of the Monumental Complex of the Pilotta and directed by Maestro Fabio Biondi, artistic director of Europa Galante Orchestra.
The programme includes nine concerts that will involve for the first time, in addition to the Farnese Theatre, other iconic venues of the Monumental Complex of the Pilotta, such as the Palatine Library, the National Gallery and the Guazzatoio courtyard.
Programme
- Monday June 2nd 2025 at 7.30 p.m.
Farnese Theatre
Europa Galante Orchestra
Fabio Biondi, solo violin and conductor
Giovanni Maria Capelli, I Fratelli Riconosciuti (opera in concert form)
The Farnese Festival will open with the Europa Galante ensemble, considered among the world’s leading interpreters of baroque music, performing in the Farnese Theatre with the concert-form opera I Fratelli Riconosciuti. The work, with libretto by Calo Innocenzo Frugoni and music by Giovanni Maria Capelli, was first performed in Parma in the Spring season of 1726. Thanks to an important operation of recovery of the musical score, edited by Francesco Baroni and revised by Maestro Biondi, the opera is now returned to the contemporary public and enhanced through a specific monographic volume dedicated to it. The event promises to be the highlight of the third edition of the Festival, a unique opportunity to rediscover a precious page of Parma’s musical history and baroque theatre.
- Tuesday June, 3rd at 7.00 p.m.
Petitot Gallery – Palatine Library
Allabastrina Ensemble
Elena Sartori, harpsichord and conductor
Dedicated to the Farnese family
For the second date, the Farnese Festival will move to the evocative setting of the Palatina Library in the Petitot Gallery where, under the direction of Elena Sartori, a programme dedicated to the Farnese family will be performed. The concert will propose a refined selection of homage compositions that some of the most important composers of the 16th and 17th centuries – from Cazzati to Vitali, from Uccellini to Cipriano de Rore – dedicated to the ducal family, celebrating its prestige and patronage.
- Wednesday June 4th, at 7.00 p.m.
Farnese Theatre
Freiburger Barockorchester
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Youth Symphonies
On the third date, the Farnese Festival will return to the Farnese Theatre to welcome the Freiburger Barockorchester, a famous baroque ensemble from Freiburg. The evening will be dedicated to some of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s youth symphonies, including the Serenade in C major, a long-forgotten composition that comes back to life in concert.
- Thursday June, 5th at 8.30 p.m.
Guazzatoio courtyard
Arturo Toscanini Philharmonic
Sasha Yankevych, conductor
Luigi Dallapiccola, Tartiniana I
Igor Stravinskij, Pulcinella
The Farnese Festival moves to the majestic Guazzatoio courtyard: the Toscanini Orchestra will be the protagonist of a refined and original evening. On the programme will be Tartiniana I, divertimento for violin and orchestra by Luigi Dallapiccola, followed by Pulcinella, the famous ballet that Stravinsky composed in 1920 on a commission from Sergei Diaghilev, re-elaborating music attributed to Giovanni Battista Pergolesi.
Free concert (reservations required)
- Friday June, 6th giugno at 7.00 p.m.
Petitot Gallery – Palatine Library
Fabio Biondi and Giangiacomo Pinardi
Niccolò Paganini, Sonatas for violin and guitar
Among the ancient volumes of the Palatina Library, Fabio Biondi and Giangiacomo Pinardi, for the fifth appointment of the Farnese Festival, will give life to a fascinating concert dedicated to the repertoire for violin and guitar. Six sonatas will be on the programme: four taken from ‘Centone di sonate’, one from op. 3 and finally the Sonata Concertante for a musical journey that interweaves virtuosity and refined chamber music sonorities.
- Saturday June, 7th at 4.30 p.m.
Nazionale Gallery – XIX century art Hall
Concerto Italiano Ensemble
Rinaldo Alessandrini, conductor
Claudio Monteverdi, Third book of madrigals for five voices – Venice 1592
- Saturday June, 7th at 8.00 p.m.
National Gallery – North wing
Teatro Due Foundation & Europa Galante Orchestra
Jiří Antonín Benda, Arianna at Nasso (melologue for speaker and orchestra to a libretto by Johann Christian Brandes)
It will be a day full of events. In the afternoon, in the National Gallery, Concerto Italiano ensemble will be the protagonist with the performance of the Third Book of Madrigals for five voices by Claudio Monteverdi, who in 1592 mixed his musical language with the verses of Torquato Tasso. In the evening, the North Wing of the National Gallery will be transformed into a theatre to host the performance that Teatro Due Foundation & Europa Galante orchestra will dedicate to Ariadne at Naxos, the refined composition by Jiří Antonín Benda recounting the story of Ariadne and Theseus as they flee from Crete after the killing of the Minotaur.
- Sunday June, 8th at 4.30 p.m.
Music Hall – Voltoni del Guazzatoio
Compagnia de Violini
Il Concerto a cinque da Parma all’Europa
- Sunday June, 8th at 7.00 p.m.
Farnese Theatre
Europa Galante Orchestra
Fabio Biondi, solo violin and conductor
I Titani
The final day of the Farnese Festival will be marked by a double event. In the afternoon, the Compagnia de Violini will perform Concerto a cinque da Parma all’Europa, a musical journey through baroque sonorities and international suggestions. Following, Europa Galante Orchestra will return to the Farnese Theatre for the grand finale of the Farnese Festival with five compositions dedicated to the Titans of the first half of the 18th century: Bach, Haendel, Vivaldi and Corelli, masters who still today embody a timeless myth for Baroque music.