Florence: Soundtracks and classics at a concert in Piazza della Signoria

Florence, July 21, 2025 - On July 22, at 9:00 PM, Florence will host a concert by the Hague Youth Symphony Orchestra. The Loggia dei Lanzi in Piazza della Signoria will be the Florentine stage for this great Dutch ensemble, consisting of over eighty young musicians, led by Maestro Sander Vredenborg. The performance will open with a performance of the fourth movement of Symphony No. 8 in G Major, Op. 88, "Allegro ma non troppo," by Czech composer Antonin Dvořák. The work was composed in Prague between August 26 and November 8, 1889, and dedicated to the Emperor Franz Joseph Bohemian Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Literature in recognition of his election as a member.

From the Czech Republic to Mexico with Arturo Márquez's Danzón No. 2, which reflects the style and rhythms of Cuban-Mexican dances, commissioned by the National Autonomous University of Mexico and first performed in 1994. We then return to Europe, first to France with Gabriel Fauré's Fantasy for Flute and Orchestra, Op. 79 – originally written for flute and piano, divided into two short movements: Andantino, characterized by broad phrasing, and Allegro, which requires great agility and virtuosity. The solo flute is Menthe Simon. Then to Italy, with the symphony from The Barber of Seville by the Pesaro-born composer Gioachino Rossini and that from Nabucco, by the swan of Busseto, Giuseppe Verdi.

The youth orchestra pays homage to its homeland with a performance of "Floris," the theme song for the 1969 action television series of the same name, written by Gerard Soeteman and conducted by Paul Verhoeven. The song was composed by trombonist, radio producer, composer, and conductor Jan Stoeckart, who recently passed away in 2017 and is best known in Italy for his song "Pancho," the theme song for the TV show "90° minuto." From the Netherlands to the United States, the orchestra performs with John Williams and his 1991 single "The Flight to Neverland," from the film "Hook," which showcases the melodious nature of the strings and small instruments, paired with the power of the brass and percussion sections. From the USA to Russia with Dmitri Shostakovich for the performance of the Gadfly Suite, Op. 97a, written in 1995 as the soundtrack to the Soviet film The Gadfly, based on the novella of the same name by Ethel Lilian Voynich, divided into twelve movements, from the Overture to the Finale, passing through the Contredanze, the Folk Feast (National Holiday), the Interlude, the Barrel Organ Waltz, the Galop, the Prelude Introduction, the Romance, the Intermezzo, the Nocturne, and the Scene. The Hague Youth Symphony Orchestra salutes the Tuscan capital with Ernesto Leucona's Andalucia Suite, six folk dances – Córdova, Andaluza, Alhambra, Gitanerías, Guadalquivir, Malagueña – that describe, in music, the Spanish region of Andalusia; and Hans Zimmer's soundtrack to Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, for the film of the same name directed by Gore Verbinski, released in 2007 by Walt Disney Records. Admission is free.