.
FROM WANG TO SAARIAHO: GREAT SOLOISTS, ORCHESTRAS, CONDUCTORS AND COMPOSERS
The Spring Season at L’Auditori de Barcelona is particularly noteworthy thanks to a series of top-flight symphonic projects. On the one hand, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra will be performing eight programmes with such outstanding soloists as the violinists Viktoria Mullova and Daniel Hope, the sisters Kristine and Margarita Balanas, the oboist Ramón Ortega Quero and the voices of the soprano Dorothea Röschmann, the tenor Ian Bostridge, the mezzo-soprano Nancy Fabiola Herrera and the contralto Anna Larsson.
There will also be five female conductors who are revolutionising the international scene and who will be leading the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra for the first time: Marta Gardolińska, Ruth Reinhardt, Anja Bihlmaier, Shi-Yeon Sung and Laurence Equilbey.
From the repertoire, and always centred around the idea of creation, the main theme of the season, we should highlight some genuine masterpieces such as Mahler’s The Youth’s Magic Horn, sung by Bostridge and Röschmann together with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, Rendering by Luciano Berio, which is a reconstruction of Schubert’s last symphony, Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, by Vaughan Williams, Schoenberg’s Gurre-Lieder sung by Nancy Fabiola Herrera and conducted by Vasily Petrenko, and Mendelssohn’s “Reformation” Symphony . Other highlights include the performance of works such as Forty Heartbeats by Kaija Saariaho, Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, and the Violin Concerto by Sibelius. This offering will be complemented by the world premiere of a work by Cassandra Miller, the season’s guest composer, and an emphasis on Catalan musical heritage, including participation in two concerts as part of the Robert Gerhard Festival to be held in the Sala Oval at the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya.
Among the great international orchestras that visit L’Auditori de Barcelona each year, it is worth emphasising the Royal Concertgebouw with the extraordinary pianist Yuja Wang and conducted by Paavo Järvi, who will be performing Piano Concerto No. 1 by Brahms.. This concert is being co-produced with Bcn Clàssics. On the other hand, from Ibercàmera comes the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jonathan Nott, who will give us a shining rendition of Mahler’s “Tragic” Symphony.
The Barcelona Symphony Band will receive a visit from Franco Cesarini, one of the most important composers and conductors on the current scene, to whom the band is dedicating this season’s Retrat d’Artista . An exceptional opportunity to enjoy this leading figure in the world of band music, who will also conduct the premiere of a work commissioned by L’Auditori de Barcelona. In addition, this Spring Season the Barcelona Symphony Band will be performing the monumental La Création du Monde (The Creation of the World) by Darius Milhaud.
THE MOZART SUMMER NIGHTS FESTIVAL IS LAUNCHED
One of this season’s novelties is the launch of the Mozart Summer Nights Festival. This will be a unique opportunity to explore, hand in hand with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, the work of the Salzburg composer and his contemporaries through some of today’s most outstanding artists and in three different locations in the city of Barcelona: L’Auditori de Barcelona, Saló del Tinell and the Palau de la Música Catalana.
The programme will range from symphony maestros, such as Carles Baguer and Ferran Sor, to Haydn, and the extraordinary romantic composer Louise Farrenc at the hand of the conductors Andrea Marcon, Jonathan Coehn and Laurence Equilbey and the soloists Andreas Ottensamer, Albert Cano Smit and Veronika Eberle.
The Mozart Summer Nights Festival will comprise four concerts between 30 June and 15 July.
ESCENES: WOMEN AND CREATION
Escenes, the most interdisciplinary proposal from L’Auditori de Barcelona, takes a look at creation and fertility from a female perspective. To do so, it is presenting an artistic story inspired by women and creation and has invited three creative women who, through music, theatre, art and photography, are proposing three shows commissioned by L’Auditori, which can be seen in June and July in a co-production with the Festival Grec.
One of these artists is Alba Pujol , actress and stage professional who will investigate the sphere of the poetic, symbolic and metaphorical impulse; combining her oral presentation with different voices connecting music, verse and dramaturgy.
The artist and photographer Tanit Plana will lead us in a reflection on childbirth as the inception of all things, as well as the boundary between life and death.
The third artist is Marina Herlop, a composer and pianist fascinated by the agitation music provokes in the soul. She intends to assemble a conceptual and musical architecture, using the creative process itself as the foundation.
THE FESTIVAL LLUMS D’ANTIGA, A MUST-SEE IN THE CITY OF BARCELONA
After just two editions, the Festival Llums d’Antiga has already become a landmark event in Barcelona. The third festival will once again explore medieval, Renaissance and Baroque music, bringing it to two unusual venues in the city: the Santa Àgata Chapel and the Sant Pau del Camp Monastery. Two key historical venues that stand out for their monumental beauty and acoustics that provide the best possible listening experience for this type of music.
This year’s edition of the Festival Llums d’Antiga, which from now on will be held in spring instead of winter, showcases the work of composers from the 17th and 18th centuries, including famous names like Francesca Caccini, Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre and Barbara Strozzi, and others who are less well-known, like Isabella Leonarda.
The Festival will comprise five concerts featuring some of the most interesting ensembles on the national and international scenes. This is true of the famous Ensemble Gilles Binchois, who will perform works close to our hearts, like the Misses de Barcelona i d’Apt. Nevermind, a line-up of four young French baroque talents (Anna Besson, Louis Creac’h, Robin Pharo and Jean Rondeau), will thrill us with chamber music from their homeland and will also be presenting the premiere of a work by the composer Philippe Hersant.
The Hathor Consort and the soprano Dorothee Mields will be reviving the music of some of the female composers we have mentioned, while the Catalan ensemble Qvinta Essençia and the renowned soprano Roberta Invernizzi, will be breathing life into the sacred music of Leonarda. The Festival will be completed with the Cor Cererolsand their interpretation of works by some of the cornerstones of the Montserrat school, including Cererols, Marc and Ferrer.
THE BEST EARLY AND CHAMBER MUSIC AT L’AUDITORI
In addition to the special programme of the Festival Llums d’Antiga, L’Auditori de Barcelona has scheduled other Música Antiga concerts in its halls during the Spring Season, as well as Música de Cambra concerts featuring strong representation from local talent.
As part of the Música Antiga series, the two concerts to be held in the coming months will feature Johann Sebastian Bach as the central figure. On the one hand, Jordi Savall, after his successful return to L’Auditori de Barcelona last December, will once again take the stage in Hall 1, Pau Casals to conduct one of the mainstays of Western music, the Mass in B minor performed by his groups, Le Concert des Nations and La Capella Reial de Catalunya.
On the other hand, L’Auditori maintains its commitment to the Festival Bachcelona and will offer songs from the master from Eisenach, with soloists from the Bach-Fundació Salvat Scholarship and the Bachcelona Consort.
With respect to Música de Cambra, the brilliant cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, one of today’s best-known emerging figures, returns to L’Auditori de Barcelona accompanied on the piano by his sister Isata Kanneh-Mason. They will be playing works by Beethoven, Bridge and Britten.
We will also be welcoming the Trio Fortuny, with Joel Bardolet on the violin, Pau Codina on cello and Marc Heredia at the piano, who will perform works by Pärt, Sorensen, Bloch and Mendelssohn. And the tenor Roger Padullés will be singing the Integral de Cançons by Juli Garreta with Francisco Poyato at the piano.
AVANT-GUARDE CREATION AND SESSIONS
This Spring Season, the Sampler Sèries, a concert series dedicated to the most ground-breaking creations of the 20th and 21st centuries, is offering a concert dedicated to the composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, one of the most innovative figures of the 20th century. The concert will be performed by Frames Percussion and Lluïsa Espigolé, one of the most highly regarded pianists in Europe when it comes to contemporary music. This series is possible thanks to the sponsorship of the Fundació Banc Sabadell.
One of the highlights of Sessions, is the concert by the flamenco singer Alba Molina, together with Joselito Acedo, where this genre is explored by taking it closer to the sounds of rock and psychedelic music.
We will also be welcoming the ESMUC Big Band and the Álvaro Torres Trio with saxophonist Philipp Gropper.
ULLSCLUCS, THE NEW FAMILY SHOW
L’Auditori de Barcelona has a new show aimed at school and family audiences: Ullsclucs.This offering revives traditional music based on the legacy of the Obra del Cançoner Popular de Catalunya, a historic institution that will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2022.
Designed for children aged two and over, the show is intended to take us on a walk. The audience is invited to close their eyes and listen to the sounds and noises around them, sounds that generate music, which are those that comprise this repertoire. To this end, the audio features many recordings made in the countryside, like footsteps in the forest, leaves, birds, sounds of the sea, and the noises of grazing herds.
To adapt the language of this music to today’s audiences, both the arrangements and the instrumentation mix traditional elements with contemporary effects such as synthesizers. The musical research and arrangements are the work of Arnau Obiols.. This show has been co-produced with the Fira Mediterrània.
In addition, this year will see a new edition of Cantània, where schools from all over will perform the work Virtual with music by Òscar Peñarroya and words by Cèsar Aparício.
In July it will be the turn of the adults with Cantagran, in which choirs of senior citizens from Catalonia will get together at L’Auditori de Barcelona to perform the cantata El cafè de la vida, which L’Auditori commissioned from the composer Josep Ollé.
L’AUDITORI DIGITAL, NOW IN 4K
One of the major undertakings of L’Auditori de Barcelona in the 2020-21 season was the development and implementation of L’Auditori Digital, thanks to which L’Auditori de Barcelona entered the homes of thousands of people around the world.
L’Auditori Digital keeps growing and during the Spring Season ten concerts will be broadcast via live streaming, in addition to the fifty or so already available on the platform. In addition, from March these broadcasts will be in 4k, meaning that the image quality will be even better and the spectators will be able to appreciate much more detail.
In parallel, L’Auditori de Barcelona has set the new annual subscription at just €49.
SPRING SUBSCRIBERS
To make concerts more accessible, L’Auditori de Barcelona has developed a Barcelona Symphony Orchestra Spring Season Ticket that lets you choose from a wide range of concerts. This means that if you buy tickets for three concerts, you will get a 25% discount, and if you buy tickets for five concerts, you will get a 30% discount on the total price.
There is also a season ticket for the Barcelona Symphony Band concerts that gives you a 20% discount when you buy tickets for four or more concerts for the Spring Season.
Download images of the artists in the Spring Season here.
Download the programme for the Spring Season here.
L\'Auditori de Barcelona presents the Spring Season with a new festival and major names from the national and international scenes
24-Feb-2021 – Aleix Palau
