The soprano Núria Rial, one of the most highly acclaimed singers on the ‎international music scene, returns to L’Auditori de Barcelona to perform the programme for ‎this weekend with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra. ‎

Conducted by Francesc Prat, Rial will perform Sis cançons ‎populars catalanes (Six Catalan Folksongs) and Cançoner de ‎Pedrell (Songbook by Pedrell) by Robert Gerhard, a composer the ‎‎50^th anniversary of whose death is being commemorated this year. Sis ‎cançons populars catalanes was premiered under the baton of the composer himself, ‎with the Pau Casals Orchestra and vocals by soprano Conxita Badia, in 1931 at the Palau de la ‎Música. In this work, traditional music is just another component in a rich mosaic of sounds ‎that brings it closer to avant-garde interests from a completely personal angle.‎

‎Cançoner de Pedrell is similarly composed of a number of Catalan folksongs ‎compiled by Felip Pedrell, Gerhard’s teacher, and reworked by the latter from an advanced ‎and heavily Béla Bartók-influenced musical perspective.‎

Felip Pedrell’s influence on the most important Catalan composers of the first half of the ‎‎20^th century (Manuel de Falla and Robert Gerhard) is well known. These two ‎composers paid tribute to their teacher while living in exile. Pedrelliana is the ‎last of the Homenajes de Falla (De Falla Tributes) as well as the last movement ‎of Gerhard’s symphony Homenaje a Pedrell (Tribute to Pedrell), composed in ‎Cambridge on the occasion of the centenary of Pedrell’s birth and not fully published until ‎‎1972, although only the third movement, Pedrelliana, is ‎currently in print.‎

The programme concludes with the Variations on a Theme by ‎Chopin, Frederic Mompou’s greatest work, based on ‎Chopin’s Prelude No. 7, Op. 28. The work, originally written for piano, has been ‎arranged for orchestra by Josep Soler.‎

‎You can watch the concert live on Sunday at 11 am on L’Auditori Digital.‎