A concert to mark Navigazione Laghi’s second centenary with Milan’s I Pomeriggi Musicali orchestra
Two centuries of boat journeys, quays and communities brought together by water. On 20 February Navigazione Laghi celebrated a historic landmark on Lake Maggiore with a classical music concert hosted by Verbania town council. It was a formal, well attended event designed to pay homage to a public service which has played such a key role in community life for two centuries. It was Milan’s I Pomeriggi Musicali orchestra which took to the stage, an orchestra founded in 1945 to combine the great classics – from the early Viennese classics onwards – with contemporary music in an ongoing dialogue between past and present. “Ours is an institution which has been pursuing its mission for over eighty years now: performing the music of our own day in a range of lexicons, without ever losing sight of tradition”, stressed the orchestra’s general artistic director Maurizio Salerno, noting its commitment to promoting not only its historic Milan base, Teatro Dal Verme, but also the surrounding areas by working with theatres such as Verbania’s. The concert was thus a metaphor for Navigazione Laghi’s own history, with its strong roots and capacity for innovation. “We play a centre-stage role in the area with our daily local transport services,” said the Manager Pietro Marrapodi. “We work tirelessly to provide new routes and services to ensure an increasingly efficient and effective service.” Mayor Giandomenico Albertella reiterated the historic and social value of the body: “Over these two hundred years Navigazione Lago Maggiore has plied its waters with motorboats and ferries, linking the lakes’ banks and building a bridge between communities and for those who work here.” With its music and applause the evening celebrated both a great milestone and a shared patrimony: two centuries of service which are still bringing people, economies and histories together on the banks of Lake Maggiore.
