Top Italian Conductor Francesco Mander to be broadcasted in Jordan,
Italian Embassy for Music Day in Jordan (21st June 2018)
A bridge between Italy and Jordan under the sign of music. Celebrating Music Day in Jordan on June 21st, Italian Embassy in Amman has launched the broadcasting of concerts featuring the Italian conductor Francesco Mander, one of the greatest musical geniuses of the 1950s-70s. Following a request of the Italian Embassy, Mander’s widow Annemarie has released a selection of recordings especially for Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Business & Culture Radio Station (102.7 FM), the leading broadcaster in Jordan for classical music.
Francesco Mander was at home in the major theatres and concert halls of the world, acclaimed by the orchestras and by the most important soloists of the 20th century. Born in Rome in 1915 in a family of musicians and artists, Mander, after having studied composition with Alfredo Casella and Cesare Dobici in Rome, and conducting with Antonio Guarnieri in Siena, where, not many years later he would have Zubin Metha, amongst others, as his pupil, began his career in 1940 as a composer and conductor. During the Second World War he was obliged to retire for some time, but after the war he resumed his career and in 1948 was appointed chief conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid.
His conducting engagements started to bring him to many important cities around the world: London, Paris, Milan, Moscow, Budapest, Sydney, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Chicago, Johannesburg, Buenos Aires, Leningrad. In 1951 he introduced the leading Italian violinist Uto Ughi in Milan at his solo debut with the orchestra. In 1954, as musical director in Brussels, he was described as «exceptional» by the critics. The same in London: «A formidable conductor», «Mr. Mander proved himself a master of his players… A first rate musician. All in all, his Beethoven Fifth Symphony was an exceptional performance», and in Paris: «With Mander the “Orchestre National” shines from the first notes».
In the 1960s, Mander recorded several LPs and was a regular guest at the Royal Festival Hall, where he conducted both the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. With the latter he extensively toured the UK several times. He was chief conductor of the Johannesburg National Symphony Orchestra of the South African Broadcasting Corporation from 1969 until 1977. His repertoire consisted mainly in works by classical (Mozart, Haydn) and romantic composers, both the internationally well known (Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Schubert, Franck, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Liadov, Borodin, Elgar, Dvorak, Strauss). Alongside, Mander devoted himself to the great Italian orchestral composers, such as Martucci, Perosi, Zafred, Mannino, and Respighi. Amongst 20th century composers great favorites were Ravel, Debussy, Bartok, Stravinsky, Kodaly, Falla, Shostakovich, and lesser known ones such as Bossi, Alfano, Tansman, Honegger, Bloch and others. He worked with many great soloists – Oistrakh, Kempff, Rubinstein, Argerich, Ferras, Fournier, Ogdon, Arrau, only to name a few.
Mander was a very demanding conductor. He loved saying that «Mozart’s subtle humor cannot be revealed by a bad performance: the solution is to give only top-quality concerts, especially where the audience is most unprepared and does not have effective terms of reference». Mander was challenging «towards himself and also towards the others, but in a really gentle way». He had a real charism not only at the podium, but also when dealing with students and audiences. In 1968 he affirmed that «music is sentiment and thought, the highest form of art, and art is the essential that reflects all civilization. It is “the Universal language” on this earth». «This is our life, so this is our art, because they are inseparable. Art, literature and music cannot be separated from life». Difficult to find better words to explain the message that the Italian Embassy in Amman would like to share with the friends of music of Jordan.
