Not only the greatest pianists have appeared at the Festival, from Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, star of the first five editions, to Magaloff, from Richter to Arrau, Pollini, Ashkenazy, Radu Lupu, Zimerman, Brendel, Martha Argerich, Evgenij Kissin, Grigory Sokolov, as well as instrumentalists, singers, and conductors of the caliber of Mstislav Rostropovich, Mischa Maisky, Uto Ughi, Luciano Pavarotti, Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Gergiev, Giulini, Sawallisch, Solti, Maazel, and Chung. Prominent among the orchestras are the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the National de France, the Orchestra dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome, and the Filarmonica della Scala. One of the features that distinguish the Festival from other similar events is its thematic character, with a common thread that, from time to time, focuses on a particular author, cultural milieu, or historical period.
Among the Festival’s most successful editions are the piano integrals of Schumann, the complete works of Debussy, Chopin and Brahms, and monographs devoted to Beethoven and Mozart.
In 1986 the Festival received the Abbiati Prize from the Italian Music Critics and the Liszt Medal from the Hungarian Ministry of Culture. Since 1987 it has belonged to the European Festivals Association. A founding member of Italiafestival, it is placed under the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic and in 1992 received the High Patronage of the President of the European Parliament. The Festival in recent years has experienced major changes with the handover, as far as artistic direction is concerned, from Agostino Orizio to his son Pier Carlo and with the appointment as president of Andrea Gibellini, who succeeded Filippo Siebaneck. Under Pier Carlo Orizio’s leadership, the Festival has taken a new path combining contemporary music and great classical repertoire as happened, for example, in the 2007 edition that juxtaposed the figures of Beethoven and Arvo Pärt, in the 2008 edition focused on Chopin and Bernstein, and in 2009 with the participation of Tan Dun as part of the 46th edition dedicated to China. The 2012 edition will be remembered in the annals for the exceptional prologue featuring Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Brescia. In 2013 the Festival celebrated 50 years of history with a celebratory edition that had among its high points the presence of Polish composer and conductor Krzysztof Penderecki and that of the London Symphony Orchestra led by Antonio Pappano.