The winter season at L’Auditori de Barcelona is already in full swing and this January, the piano takes centre stage. The Russian pianist Varvara, currently one of the world’s most renowned soloists, joins the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra to perform Piano Concerto No. 3 by Béla Bartók, a true tour de force, which will be conducted by the British maestro Duncan Ward. The programme that will also feature music by the French composers Jean-Féry Rebel and Maurice Ravel, as well as the world premiere of Nostalgia of Light, Yearning for… by the composer Núria Giménez Comas. To be held on 23 and 24 January.

Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra are returning to Hall 1 Pau Casals for three concerts, in a co-production by L’Auditori de Barcelona and Ibercàmera. The first two will be on Thursday 21, with two performances of the overture from Wagner’s opera Tannhäuser and Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique. The first concert will be at 6 pm and the second at 9 pm. The following day, on 22 January, there will be an extraordinary concert by the same line-up, with a programme comprising two major Russian masterpieces: Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique Symphony and Piano Concerto No. 2 by Rachmaninoff. The latter piece will be interpreted by Alexei Volodin.

During the same weekend, on Sunday 24, the Barcelona Symphony Band, conducted by Salvador Brotons, will perform the world premiere of Les Càrregues (The Loads), a work by Jordi Cervelló, whose 85th birthday we are celebrating this year. The concert will be completed by symphonic suites from Puccini operas and a recovered work that forms part of Catalonia’s musical heritage, Puigsoliu, by Joaquim Serra.

As part of the programme for the coming weeks, we must highlight two projects that feature the most cutting-edge new music as part of the Sampler Sèries. The first, on 17 January, is the national premiere of the work In Order to Avoid Disorder by the Portuguese composer Alfredo Costa Monteiro, which has already sold out. The next one is on 2 February , with the Crossinglines ensemble, conducted by Lorenzo Ferrándiz and with music by the renowned composer Clara Iannotta.

Family audiences will once again be able to enjoy one of the classics at L’Auditori de Barcelona, the Planet Clarinet show, which will be held in Hall 2 Oriol Martorell on 23 and 24 January.