Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana: many successes between Monaco, Lugano and Zagreb

The Orchestra della Svizzera italiana (OSI) has experienced days of intense activity and extraordinary recognition, culminating with the warm welcome received at the Lisinski Concert Hall in Zagreb last Saturday, April 12, 2025. A journey that began five days earlier, in the renowned Isarphilharmonie in Munich (pictured alongside), where the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, led by its Principal Conductor Markus Poschner and the masterful pianist Yulianna Avdeeva, received unanimous acclaim.

The week continued with a double appointment at the LAC in Lugano on April 10th: an appreciated Lunch with OSI and, in the evening, the final concert of the season OSI at the LAC, they sold out.

An ideal prelude to the subsequent trip to Croatia, where the OSI was personally welcomed by the Swiss Ambassador to Zagreb, Urs Hammer, as a testimony to the cultural value that the training represents for the Confederation.

The common thread of this series of performances was the very famous Concert no. 1 for piano and orchestra by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, preceded by the overture Coriolanus by Ludwig van Beethoven. Interpreting the monumental concert with the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana and Maestro Poschner, once again the extraordinary Russian pianist Yulianna Avdeeva, already awarded the prestigious prize at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 2010.

In the second part of the program, the Munich audience was able to appreciate the iconic fifth symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, while the audiences in Lugano and Zagreb had the joy of listening to one of the most intense and concentrated symphonies by Dmitrij Šostakovič, the Ninth in E flat major.

Both in the futuristic setting of the Isarphilharmonie in Munich and in the historic Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall in Zagreb (pictured alongside), the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana received standing ovations and thunderous applause, responding to the audience's warmth with an encore taken from the incidental music of Rosamunde by Franz Schubert.

The welcome in Zagreb had a significant institutional impact with the arrival of the orchestra on Friday 11 April, when the Swiss Ambassador to Croatia, Urs Hammer, wanted to personally welcome the delegation with a cordial convivial moment and the usual greetings. Also present at the concert on 12 April were several members of the Association of Friends of the OSI (AOSI), who had come specifically to the Croatian capital to support the performance of the Orchestra della Svizzera italiana.

This recent tour in Germany and Croatia is part of a period of intense activity for the orchestra based in Lugano, which in recent weeks has performed on important Italian stages such as the Teatro Ponchielli in Cremona with conductor Michele Mariotti and cellist Raphaela Gromes (March 28), and the Teatro Municipale in Piacenza with Krzysztof Urbański and Jan Lisiecki (February 28). Also worth mentioning is the mid-February tour that touched Italy, Slovenia and Austria with Ray Chen and Tabita Berglund.

The calendar now includes one last, significant event for the season: a performance in the prestigious hall of the KKL in Lucerne, Sunday 11 May at 18.30pm, again under the direction of Markus Poschner and featuring the talented pianist brothers Arthur and Lucas Jussen.