by InTrieste
The twelfth edition of the Viktor Ullmann Festival, the world’s first music festival dedicated to works labeled “degenerate,” produced in concentration camps, or composed in exile, will open on Sunday, June 22, at 6 p.m. at the Synagogue of Trieste. The concert, titled Concerto in Sinagoga 2025, is free and open to the public.
Led by conductor Davide Casali, the performance will bring together the Abimà Orchestra and the Civica Orchestra di Fiati “Giuseppe Verdi.” On the program is the world premiere of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in a synagogue setting, as well as the first-ever performance of Guidalberto Fano’s Impressioni Sinfoniche da Napoleone, presented in collaboration with the Guidalberto Fano Foundation.
Also featured will be the Italian premiere of Kurt Weill’s arrangement of Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem.
The festival, named after composer Viktor Ullmann — who was murdered at Auschwitz in 1944 — aims to preserve and promote music suppressed by totalitarian regimes. This year’s opening concert highlights the legacy of composers whose works were once silenced, including Fano, a Jewish composer whose career was interrupted by racial laws and censorship in Fascist Italy.
The synagogue, located on Via San Francesco, serves as a symbolic and poignant setting for the festival’s themes of remembrance and artistic resistance.
