40 years of Philharmonic History

The Philharmonic is constituted as an independent association. The statute states that only orchestra professors employed by the Teatro alla Scala can be members. The shareholders' meeting elects the Board of Directors, in office for three years, composed of ten orchestra musicians and seven external advisors from the Milanese business and cultural world. The Board of Directors in turn appoints the President and the Artistic Director.

In the year following its birth, the Philharmonic already reveals a European imprint. The tours abroad begin with the first concert conducted by Claudio Abbado in Lugano.

When he took the Philharmonic's podium on 23 June 1984, Leonard Bernstein was already rich in Scaligeri memories: in 1953 he was the first American to conduct the La Scala orchestra and in the same year he was entrusted with Medea with Maria Callas, who conducted again in The Sleepwalker
in 1955. The last meeting with the La Scala orchestra took place in 1983 for a program of music by Stravinsky.

The Philharmonic boasts a long artistic and human partnership with the director: in 97 concerts Giulini has addressed all the cornerstones of the Austrian and German symphonic repertoire, from Beethoven, whose six CDs with symphonies from No. 1 to No. 8) to Schubert, from Schumann to Brahms and Bruckner, but also Mozart and French and Russian authors.

Riccardo Muti, Chief Conductor from 1987 to 2005, promotes his artistic growth and makes him a constant guest in the most prestigious international concert halls. With him, the Philharmonic shapes its stylistic and timbral identity.

In only 11 concerts between 1988 and 1999, 10 of which at La Scala and one in Tokyo, Giuseppe Sinopoli managed to leave an interpretive track
important in the history of the orchestra. The repertory choices are resolutely turned to the Austrian and German tradition, from Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert to Brahms, Mahler and Strauss. Schönberg's Pelleas und Melisande and Zemlinsky's Lyrische Symphonie are being heard for the first time.

In 1996, Muti conducted at the Festwochen in Vienna and gave concerts with the Philharmonic at festivals in Salzburg and Lucerne and in the main capitals of Europe and Asia.

The commissions of symphonic pieces to Italian and foreign composers that have punctuated the orchestra's seasons since 1998 are a testimony to the Philharmonic's innate interest in contemporary music.

A further link in the relationship between the Philharmonic of La Scala and today's music is represented by the collaboration with Milano Musica, a contemporary music festival in Milan. The collaboration began in 1994, commissioning with the Festival the transcription of a piece by Giovanni Gabrieli to the Italian composer Claudio Ambrosini.

UniCredit has accompanied the Philharmonic of La Scala since 2003 as MainPartner, sharing its objectives and innovative spirit and supporting, in addition to the concert season at the Teatro alla Scala, the development of tours in Italy and abroad, and the implementation of educational and social initiatives.

The interruption in 2005 of the relationship with Riccardo Muti and Fedele Confalonieri, President since 2000, puts the orchestra at a turning point. Ernesto Schiavi, who returned to lead the association with the position of Artistic Director, relaunches the orchestra's international role with a series of European and intercontinental tours, shifts the center of gravity of the repertoire to the 1900s and opens up new listening experiences, from Tan Dun to Bobby McFerrin.

Between 2006 and 2012, Daniel Barenboim conducted the Philharmonic in 47 concerts, including the inaugurations of the 2007/2008 seasons with Lang Lang, 2008/2009 with Radu Lupu, 2011/2012 with Anna Prohaska and 2012/2013 with Cecilia Bartoli, and he led the Philharmonic on tour in Athens, Berlin, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Lugano, Luxembourg, Paris and Wiesbaden. He was Music Director of La Scala from 2011 to 2015.

In 2007, the Philharmonic debuted in the United States and Canada with Riccardo Chailly, with a triumphant tour that touches Chicago, Toronto, Washington, Philadelphia and New York.

In September 2008, Myung-Whun Chung led a tour that marked his return to Japan and Korea with the participation of Lang Lang, and his debut in China. 2008 is the year that also marks the return to the Musikverein in Vienna with Daniele Gatti.

In April 2009, the orchestra made its debut at the Berlin Philharmonie with Daniel Barenboim, musical director of the Teatro alla Scala. With Barenboim, the Philharmonic held concerts in Athens, Istanbul, Luxembourg and Wiesbaden in July 2010, while 2011 saw the return of Georges Prêtre to the podium for a series of concerts in France and Spain.

Since 2009, the Philharmonic has increased its initiatives aimed at creating a direct link between the world of culture and that of solidarity, working alongside the main scientific institutions and voluntary associations in the city of Milan, for which it creates dedicated concerts and the open rehearsals of the cycle “The Philharmonic of La Scala meets the city”.

Committed to the dissemination of music to the new generations, the orchestra opens rehearsals for all the concerts of the season to schools and with the Sound, Music! is aimed at primary school children.

The concerts of the Philharmonic season are often recorded, broadcast live on Rai5 or Radio3 and streamed live on our website. Since 2012, the MusicEmotion project has been bringing a selection of live concerts in high definition to Italian cinemas and abroad.

The Philharmonic has produced a substantial record production for Decca, Sony and EMI: on the occasion of the Verdi bicentenary, it recorded with Riccardo Chailly the CD “Viva Verdi” (Decca), which was the best-selling classical music record of 2013 in Italy. With Sony he undertook the “900 Italiano” project, divided into 3 DVDs directed by Georges Prêtre, Fabio Luisi and Gianandrea Noseda.

In 2013, a new major project entitled “Concert for Milan” was born: the outdoor event that every year brings the orchestra to Piazza Duomo for a free concert dedicated to the city. With an audience of about 50,000 spectators, this special concert allows you to share an evening with Milan and international audiences thanks to live national and international TV

In March 2015, the Philharmonic debuted at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and in July it returns to Sarajevo for a concert of very high symbolic significance: an interfaith celebration for peace 20 years after the end of the conflict in Bosnia.

In 2015, in addition to the season at the Teatro alla Scala, the Philharmonic inaugurated a new cycle of Discovery concerts at the Teatro degli Arcimboldi in Milan on the occasion of the Expo.

In November 2015, Riccardo Chailly became Chief Conductor of the Philharmonic of La Scala, with whom he immediately planned a busy schedule of international tours and record recordings. Decca released an album in 2015 that celebrates a century of music performed for the first time at La Scala: Overtures, Preludes and Interby Verdi, Rossini, Puccini and many others.

In 2019, Decca released The Fellini Album with film music by Nino Rota, and then released Cherubini Discoveries and Respighi the following year, both part of the acclaimed series that celebrates the great Italian composers.

Since May 2021, Etienne Reymond has been the new Artistic Director of the Philharmonic of La Scala.

To date, the Philharmonic of La Scala is certainly a young group compared to the great, centuries-old, European orchestras, but these few decades have witnessed an extraordinary wealth, where the greatest conductors and soloists of our time, from Claudio Abbado to Carlo Maria Giulini, Riccardo Muti, Daniel Barenboim and many others, have alternated on the podium at La Scala and abroad, creating an extraordinary succession of places and faces.