90 years Orchestra della Svizzera italiana

On the Program four works with a close connection to the Orchestra: The overture Campo Marzio (1937) by Ernst Krenek, named after the district in Lugano where the radio was based at the time, a classical divertimento by the conductor and composer Otmar Nussio, who was chief conductor of the orchestra from 1938 to 1968, and the world premiere of the smart Divertissement Mélancomique - a home-made work composed by violinist Duilio Galfetti and orchestrated by his orchestra colleague Katie Vitalie. The concert concluded with a brilliant interpretation of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which opened the orchestra's first concerts in 1935. Under the direction of Enrico Onofri, an Italian specialist in early music, the orchestra was in top musical form.

In his speech, the President of the Orchestra Foundation, Mario Postizzi, emphasized the important cultural function that the OSI has for Italian-speaking Switzerland. It is the only symphony orchestra in the canton of Ticino and is based in the LAC (Lugano Arte e Cultura) cultural center, which opened in 2015, but also gives guest performances in the Ticino regions and in the neighbouring Italian-speaking part of the canton of Graubünden. With its social commitment, says Postizzi, it makes a significant contribution to the cultural identity of the canton of Ticino. The canton is often only perceived as a tourist destination and still has to find its place between Italy and German-speaking Switzerland.

Conducting composers

The OSI can look back on many years of collaboration with important composers as conductors of their own works, including Ernst Krenek, Pietro Mascagni, Artur Honegger, Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky. Unfortunately, many of the early recordings are no longer available; they are said to have been "disposed of" when the radio moved to the new buildings in Lugano-Besso in 1962. The more recent past, however, is well documented, such as the Progetto Martha Argerich, founded in 2002, in which the OSI played a central role with conductor Diego Fasolis.

Marc Andreae was chief conductor after Nussio for thirty years from 1968. After that, the position of "direttore principale" was established for a limited period, most recently held by Markus Poschner. Other guest conductors with longer-term engagements have included Serge Baudo, Mikhail Pletnev, Vladimir Ashkenazy and currently Krzysztof Urbański. The CD released by ECM with works by Alfred Schnittke and Paul Hindemith and with soloist Anna Gourari (conductor Markus Poschner) won the prize in the Mixed Recordings category at the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) in 2025.

Anniversary book

RSI separated from the orchestra in 1991. A state foundation with a broadly based supervisory body was established. The OSI thus took on the aforementioned role as an identity-forming institution in Italian-speaking Switzerland, which it has since fulfilled with great ingenuity in both musical and organizational terms. A small Book by Lorenzo Sganzini Il respiro dell'orchestra (The breath of the orchestra)which has now been presented to the public at the anniversary concert, traces the orchestra's path and its current activities in great detail.

www.osi.swiss
Streaming of the anniversary concert: https://www.rsi.ch/cultura/musica/I-primi-90-anni-dell%E2%80%99OSI–3206238.html
Lorenzo Sganzini: Il respiro dell'orchestra, Edizioni Casagrande, Bellinzona, 2025  www.edizionicasagrande.com/libri_dett.php?id=2978