Maestro Carlo Rizzi Returns to Conduct the Symphony Orchestra of India in its 20th Year

The penultimate concert of the SOI Spring 2026 Season saw the orchestra perform works by Dvořák and Sibelius under the baton of Carlo Rizzi

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 20: After nearly a decade, the renowned Italian conductor Carlo Rizzi returned to the National Centre for the Performing Arts to lead the Symphony Orchestra of India in two notable concerts for the Spring 2026 Season. His first concert opened with Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8, a cheerful composition suffused with the spirit of the Bohemian countryside, invoking the composer’s summer home. Dvořák’s imaginative writing for the woodwinds was especially palpable in Rizzi’s interpretation, before giving way to the sweeping drama of Symphony No. 2 by Jean Sibelius, a Finnish composer of the late Romantic period. Known for his structural command and instinct for long lyrical lines, Rizzi drew from the orchestra a sound that combined emotional depth with technical brilliance. His years of experience as an opera conductor bring another dimension to the music of the symphonic repertoire.

The SOI captivated a packed auditorium from the first note to the final crescendo, earning enthusiastic applause and a standing ovation—a testament to the orchestra’s artistry and Rizzi’s inspired direction. It was revelatory, underscoring the close artistic rapport between conductor and musicians and how that shared understanding can shape the character of a performance. The evening culminated in an encore drawn from Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances, its folk-inflected exuberance bringing the concert to a jubilant close.