Last night was a gala night at L’Auditori de Barcelona. Two of the key summer musical events in Barcelona, Mozart Summer Nights and the Bachcelona Festival, opened simultaneously at 7 pm last night. With both venues almost completely sold out, L’Auditori welcomed 1,300 concert-goers to Hall 1, Pau Casals and Hall 2, Oriol Martorell for an evening in which Mozart and Bach were the indisputable stars of the show.

Mozart Summer Nights opened yesterday with veteran conductor Andrea Marcon, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and dazzling pianist Albert Cano-Smit, one of the best-known Spanish soloists on the world stage. The concert featured Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 and Symphony No. 39 and Symphony No. 2 by Catalan classical-era composer, Carles Baguer.

The Festival’s next concert will be on 8 July, also at L’Auditori, with a final concert on 15 July with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra at the Palau de la Música Catalana.

Meanwhile, at the same time yesterday, the opening concert in this year’s edition of the great Spanish celebration of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, the Bachcelona Festival, took place. Shunske Sato, renowned interpreter of the works of the Eisenach-born composer, was conductor and violin soloist for the Festival’s inaugural concert. He conducted cantatas BWV 146, 159 and 169, performed by the Bachcelona Consort, the BZM choir and Bach-Fundació Salvat scholarship soloists.

Two further Bachcelona Festival concerts will take place over the following days at the Museu de la Música under the common banner ‘Beyond the suite’, with performances by acclaimed cellists Clara Pouvreau and Markku Luolajan-Mikkola. While Pouvreau demonstrates her virtuosity with an interpretation of Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Minor, BWV 1001, transcribed for cello, Luolajan-Mikkola will undertake an equally difficult challenge with Cello Suite No. 2 in D Minor BWV 1008 and Partita No. 2 in G Minor BWV 1004. These concerts will take place on 3 and 4 July.

The Bachcelona Festival will continue until 8 July. More info: .