The Barcelona Symphony Orchestra presents the 2015-2016 season

07-May-2015 – Lisi Andrés

This year we welcome Kazushi Ono as the Orchestra’s new resident conductor for the next five seasons. In his first season he will conduct such masterpieces as Ravel’s “Daphnis et Chloé” at the inaugural concert and Leonard Bernstein’s Mass at the season’s closing event. He will also be presenting Brahms’ fourth, Prokofiev’s fifth and Shostakovitch’s thirteenth, among other symphonies. Programmes will feature such leading soloists as violinist Vadim Repin, baritone William Dazeley and pianist Jorge Luis Prats. Before these events however, he will be making his debut appearance as resident conductor at a very special concert in the Sagrada Familia. This is set to bethe first ever concert by the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra in the basilica. It will take place on 20th September and will include works by Vivancos, Mozart, Fauré and Takemitsu.

A season to enjoy the great symphonies

The Barcelona Symphony Orchestra offers a season in which the most important symphonies of all time can be heard in concert after concert. The Orchestra will play over 80 symphonic works spanning the last 300 years of musical history: from the Baroque to our time, taking in the great Classical, Romantic and twentieth-century symphonic composers. It will perform works never previously heard in this venue and other old favourites. They will include Mahler’s Third and Fifth; Shostakovitch’s First and Seventh (“Leningrad”), Beethoven’s Third, Fifth and Ninth; Prokofiev’s Fifth and his acclaimed Romeo and Juliet; Brahms Fourth; Schumann’s Third, Smetana’s “My Homeland”, Stravinsky’s “Firebird”, Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” and Ravel’s Bolero. Symphonic and choral music will be one of the season’s main attractions and the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra will be performing with some of the best national and international choirs, including the Helsinki Academic Male Voice Choir.
Following on the success of the Rachmaninov and Beethoven festivals, this year we will be organising a Gershwin festival. Virtuoso pianist Alexei Volodin and the Orchestra will perform different programmes each concert day, including pieces such as “Rhapsody in Blue”, Concerto in F, music from “Porgy and Bess” and “An American in Paris”.

Leading soloists and conductors with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra

The top soloists of the moment will be joining the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra once again this season in a series of unique concerts. They include some of the world’s most widely acclaimed musicians. A total of 30 soloists will be visiting us: 12 vocalists and 18 instrumentalists. One of the season’s outstanding events will be the concert featuring Lang Lang with the Orchestra, playing Mozart. Joshua Bell will play Lalo’s Spanish Symphony, Alisa Weilerstein will play the Concerto for cello and orchestra no. 2 by Shostakovitch, Isabelle Faust will play the Concerto for violin and orchestra no. 1 by Prokofiev; Gautier Capuçon will feature as the soloist for the Concerto for cello and orchestra by Dvorák, guitarist Juan Manuel Cañizares will perform Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez, Vadim Repin will play the Concerto for violin and orchestra no. 2 by Prokofiev, and English baritone William Dazeley will is set to feature as the soloist in Bernstein’s Mass.
Jan Willem de Vriend will be the Orchestra’s principal guest conductor this season. In light of his recently and highly-acclaimed work conducting Haendel’s “Water Music” and his close relationship with the Orchestra, Jan Willem de Vriend is scheduled to draw on his specialist knowledge of the Baroque repertoire to develop areas that complement the work of Kazushi Ono. This season he will be conducting Beethoven’s ninth and the “Mozart vs Haydn” programme.
Jordi Savall will also be conducting the Orchestra for the first time in a programme that will feature works from Bach, Mozart, Salieri and Haendel. This is a unique occasion to enjoy our most famous international musician conducting our national orchestra. Other conductors who will be joining us include Pinchas Steinberg, Clemens Schuldt and Vassily Sinaisky.

Cinema and musicals

Once again, the Orchestra will be bringing some of the most exciting soundtracks to audiences this season. This year they will be able to see full screen versions of “Gladiator” and “Pirates of the Caribbean” with live soundtracks. The third concert devoted to cinema will feature the work of Tim Burton and Danny Elfman with piees from films such as “Alice in Wonderland”, “Batman”, “The Nightmare Before Christmas” and “Edward Scissorhands”. And at Christmas the Auditori is set to host a concert which will feature the timeless classics from productions such as “The Sound of Music”, “Oliver” and “Beauty and the Beast”, played live by the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra.

Pre- and post-concert: Pre-concert talks and Afters are back.

Following previous success with the scheme, the 2015-2016 season will once again offer pre-concert talks designed to enable audiences to gain in-depth knowledge of everything related to the works played and their composers, an hour before the concert is set to take place.
We will also be repeating the Afters programme: concerts inspired by other concerts the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra has played throughout the season. These take place on Saturdays after the concert by the Orchestra and are free to those with tickets for the Orchestra event. The scheme helps to make the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra concert a more integral experience, introducing audiences to great variety in music.


Héctor Parra, new resident composer

Héctor Parra will be the Auditori’s new resident composer for the next two seasons, sharing his time with El Palau de la Música. L’Auditori will present various aspects of Parra’s work, including symphonic music, chamber music and the music in the Sampler Sèries. This season the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra will be performing three of his works, one of which will be a world première conducted by Kazushi Ono.
The Barcelona Symphony Orchestra is the official orchestra of Catalonia and one of its aims is to promote and disseminate Catalan music. This year is no exception and during the season, a dozen works by Catalan composers can be heard ranging from Ferran Sor and Enric Granados (the centenary of whose death we are commemorating) to contemporary composers such as Albert Guinovart, Joan Magrané, Josep Maria Guix, and Héctor Parra himself.

The Orchestra’s social and educational commitment

This season we will continue work on the Orchestra’s social and educational project, which we see as being fundamental. We will be repeating the “Et toca a tu” experience in which the Orchestra shares the stage with groups of individuals at risk of social exclusion, using music as a tool for social integration. We also plan to continue the educational projects “Tocats per l’OBC” and “Clàssicament Joves”, two programmes designed to transmit a love of classical music to young people, who will be the audiences of the future.

To download images of the season, click here here
To download the presentation video for the season click here

CARREGANT…

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