Repertoire
Robert Gerhard: Vuit cançons populars catalanes for vocals and piano
Robert Gerhard: Sis chansons populaires françaises for vocals and piano
Robert Gerhard: 7 Haiku for vocals and ensemble
Artists
María Hinojosa Montenegro, soprano
Francisco Poyato, piano
Anna Alàs i Jové, mezzosoprano
Anna Crexells, piano
SEED Ensemble
Francesc Prat, conductor
Program
Robert Gerhard i Ottenwaelder (Valls, 1896 – Cambridge, 1970) is one of the most significant 20th century European composers. The Chamber Season’s first concert is part of the collective celebration of the 50th anniversary of his death and the 125th anniversary of his birth. A group of leading Catalan performers will participate in the performances and the concert includes three major works based on texts with popular roots from Gerhard’s vocal repertoire. The songs display Gerhard’s most concise and formalistic pieces, but also his most lyrical and exuberant ones.
The Vuit cançons populars catalanes (Eight Catalan Folk Songs), dedicated to the soprano Conxita Badia, premiered in 1929 at the Palau de la Música Catalana, in a monographic concert organized by the Associació de Música Da Camera (Chamber Music Association) and dedicated to a Gerhard who had just returned from his stay in Vienna with Arnold Schoenberg. The Six chansons populaires françaises (Six French Folk Songs), on the other hand, date back to Gerhard’s British era. The refined and austere line of Japanese poetry, quite popular in Europe since Japan opened to international trade in 1853, inspires the 7 Haiku through the poems -in Catalan and French- of another avant-garde icon, Josep Maria Junoy.
PROGRAM
