Tomorrow, the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra begins its participation in ‎L’Auditori’s Beethoven250 Festival. A collaboration that offers audiences ‎‎five programmes in which 16 of Beethoven’s works will ‎be performed, including symphonies, concertos, vocal pieces and overtures, as well as ‎premieres inspired by this iconic figure and his musical production.‎

This Friday, Saturday and Sunday, in the first of the programmes, we will enjoy a ‎performance by Jan Willem de Vriend, the OBC’s guest principal ‎conductor, a great expert on Beethoven’s work. The programme is a reproduction ‎of that performed by Beethoven at Vienna’s Imperial Palace in a concert on 27 February 1814, ‎where Symphony No.8 in F Major, Op. 93 was heard for the first time.‎

The Viennese evening, staged for our listening pleasure in Sala 1 Pau ‎Casals, was completed with three works that the German composer already had in ‎his portfolio: Symphony No.7, the trio for soprano, tenor, ‎and baritone Tremate, empi, tremate and the triumphant ‎‎Wellington’s Victory.‎

A fundamental pillar of Western culture, the importance of Beethoven’s symphonic corpus ‎cannot be underestimated. Regarding the other two works, the concert trio ‎‎Tremate, empi, tremate is a youth piece written when ‎Beethoven was a student of Salieri, and will feature three renowned singers: ‎‎soprano Mercedes Gancedo, tenor Marc Sala and baritone Riccardo Certi.‎

The concert will conclude with Wellington’s Victory which, ‎although Beethoven considered it a minor work, is impressive because of its 193 cannon ‎shots. Beethoven wrote the piece to commemorate the Duke of Wellington’s victory over ‎the Napoleonic armies in the Basque city of Vitoria.‎
‎Download the concert programme.‎


‎The OBC at the Beethoven250 Festival ‎
As part of the Beethoven250 Festival, the OBC will perform a large part of ‎Beethoven’s symphonic works under the batons of Kazushi Ono, Jan ‎Willem de Vriend and Rudolf Buchbinder. These will include his ‎‎symphonies, the Concerto for Violin and Piano, the Triple Concerto for Violin, Cello ‎and Piano, and the complete piano and violin concertos.‎

The Festival will also include other projects related to Beethoven’s work, such as the opera ‎‎Prisoner of the State by David Lang, which ‎is based on the original libretto of Fidelio —co-commissioned by notable ‎institutions such as the New York Philharmonic—. The OBC will also be premiering a ‎work by Hèctor Parra, based on texts from Beethoven’s conversation notebooks. ‎

‎Full programme for ‎the Beethoven250 Festival.‎