The Barcelona Symphony Orchestra will be on tour locally this weekend, performing this Saturday at 8.30 pm at the Teatre Tarragona in Tarragona and on Sunday at 6 pm at Manresa's Teatre Kursaal.
Both concerts are part of activities organised to mark the centenary of the Pau Casals Orchestra, sponsored by the Catalan Ministry of Culture aimed at bringing classical music to the whole of Catalonia.
The programme, presented in the style of a tribute, features a selection of works closely associated with the Pau Casals Orchestra; an ensemble that paved the way for the subsequent creation of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra. Under the direction of Alexander Liebreich, the concert will open with Divertimento for Orchestra by Joan Manén, many of whose works were originally premiered by the Pau Casals Orchestra.
It will be followed by Sis cançons populars catalanes (Six Catalan Folksongs) by Robert Gerhard, premiered in 1931 at the Palau de la Música, conducted by the composer and accompanied by soprano Conxita Badia. On this occasion, the audience will hear mezzosoprano Anna Alàs i Jové. The concert will conclude with Beethoven's Eighth. Throughout the history of the Pau Casals Orchestra, this composer's works were one of the mainstays of its repertoire: its first concert included the Eighth Symphony, and the last, performed behind closed doors with no audience due to the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, featured the last movement of the Ninth Symphony, music that should have inaugurated the 1936 Popular Olympics in Barcelona.
The Pau Casals Orchestra gave its first concert in 1920 and it was disbanded in 1936 due to the Spanish Civil War. Founded and directed by maestro Pau Casals, the orchestra forged a leading international reputation. Conductors and composers including Béla Bartók, Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky and Manuel de Falla were invited as guests to conduct the orchestra.
News
Aleix Palau | 22 February 2021
The Barcelona Symphony Orchestra takes the music of Manén, Gerhard and Beethoven to Tarragona and Manresa
The programme is made up of a selection of works associated with the Pau Casals Orchestra, the centenary of whose foundation is this year being celebrated.
Alexander Liebreich will be conducting both concerts, accompanied by mezzosoprano Anna Alàs i Jové.
