With Christmas just around the corner, José R. Pascual Vilaplana, principal conductor ‎of the Barcelona Symphony Band, has devised a varied concert, with festive and ‎joyful elements, but which does not overlook music that encourages us to reflect. It will ‎include traditional Christmas melodies, music for the Cavalcade of the Three Kings and ‎international Christmas songs.‎

Under the title Mots per la pau (Words for Peace), this ‎programme will take place on Sunday 15 December in L’Auditori’s Sala 1 Pau Casals ‎and will feature a very special staging by Berta Vidal, with live painting during the ‎performance of the work The Colors Of Taliby Thomas Doss.‎

It narrates the story of Tali, a thirteen-year-old Israeli girl, in the midst of the conflict ‎between Palestinians, Christians and Jews, who wrote a moving poem. From the perspective ‎of an adult, her words seem to be a monument to events that cannot be explained, that ‎have been going on in her country for generations, and that have not served to resolve ‎anything. The work is as apolitical as the poem: it is a musical description of the world seen ‎through the eyes of a girl who grows up living with constant war and the only thing she can ‎do is to describe what she feels and what she cannot understand.‎

The work Of Sailors and Whales by W. Francis Macbeth will ‎also have narration with texts by Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick, ‎the classic adventure chronicling the search for the legendary white whale.‎

‎The music, in both instances, will accompany us in a lyrical but also in a disturbing ‎way, pulling us deeper into the poetry of words that are crying out for peace.‎

‎The OBC performs Handel’s Messiah ‎
As well as the Barcelona Symphony Band, this weekend will also see the Barcelona ‎Symphony Orchestra present one of the glittering Christmas concerts with the ‎performance of Messiah by Handel which will take place over ‎the next three days and is nearly sold out.‎

This is a unique opportunity to enjoy the full rendition of ‎‏<‏em‏>‏‎Messiah after not ‎having been played for almost three decades by the OBC. This masterpiece from the ‎symphonic choral repertoire will be under the baton of our principal conductor ‎‎Kazushi Ono, and will enjoy the participation of the Cor Bruckner Barcelona and the ‎Cor Lieder Càmera, and soloists María Hinojosa, Mireia Pintó, Alejandro del Cerro and Josep ‎Ramon Olivé. ‎Messiah is so much more than simply the ‎‎Hallelujah chorus and and is well worth getting to know!‎