Daniele Gatti

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

He was born in Salzburg in 1756 into a family of musicians. A child prodigy, he started playing the harpsichord at three and composed his first works at five. His father, Leopold, arranges for the talented young Amadeus tours in Frankfurt, Paris, London and Italy. Hired as a court musician in Salzburg in 1773, in 1777 he travels in search of a better job, but without success. Returning to Salzburg as the court organist in 1779, in 1781 he was dismissed "with a kick in the backside." He began composing on commission and for the audience, performing as a soloist in the Concerto in D minor, n. 20 K466 and the Concerto in C minor, n. 24 K491. This period of economic fortune had its climax in 1786 with the triumph of The Marriage of Figaro in Prague, where he received the commission for Don Giovanni. He was appointed composer to the imperial court in December 1787 but received only eight hundred florins per year instead of the two thousand Gluck was paid for the same position.  He began to borrow money and go into debt. The year 1790 was the least productive for Mozart, however, he did compose Così fan tutte. In 1791 he composed The Magic Flute and a serious opera, La Clemenza di Tito, also receiving a mysterious commission for a requiem mass: he fell ill during its composition and died in Vienna on December 5, 1791.

DANIELE GATTI

Born in Milan in 1961, here he graduated in conservatory Giuseppe Verdi. Among the many positions held are those of Chief Conductor of the Zurich Opera ( 2009-12 ), musical director of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (1997-2007 ), and Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Opera House in London ( 1994-97 ). It is among the few Italian directors invited to the Bayreuther Festspiele, where he inaugurated the 2008 edition with a new production of Parsifal. After Elektra in 2010, he returns to Salzburg Festival in 2012 to conduct La Bohème. In the same year, with the Wiener Philharmoniker, conducts the entire cycle of the Brahms symphonies in Vienna and in a European tour. He opened the season at the Teatro alla Scala in 2008 with Don Carlo and La Traviata in 2013 . Since 2008 he is Music Director of the Orchestre National de France and, since 2009 Conductor Laureate of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, after having been their Music Director since 1996.