The history of classical music is built on chimeras. And debuting at Carnegie Hall with the warmth of the public and two standing ovations like those on Tuesday at the Franz Schubert Philharmonic concert is one of them.
Because the golden dream of every musician and composer is not within everyone’s reach: who do you think you have tied with to aspire to set foot on this stage? Credentials must be shown in order for the artistic committee of the New York venue to evaluate and agree to rent the space to an unknown artist or orchestra. But the private Catalan formation, which boasts 90% of fabulous native musicians aged 38 on average and which is promoted and directed by maestro Tomàs Grau, arrived in Manhattan with a surplus of curriculum vitae.
The desire to have guest soloists of the caliber of Anne-Sophie Mutter, Maria João Pires or Igor Pogorelich who has had Grau during the 18 years of the FSF’s career has earned him the respect of the Carnegie. They were also impressed by the stable season at the Palau de la Música Catalana and the Vendrell, birthplace of Pau Casals. And, finally, the excellence in a wide repertoire that they have documented on video. Who would dare to refuse it!
However, the same staff of the orchestra labeled Grau de boig when he proposed this debut two years ago. “I like to have some crazy ideas, but crazy ideas are possible, and at the moment they are all happening – explains the Barcelona musician reclining on the sofa in the lobby of his hotel, next to the Carnegie. Midori [the violinist] came to the concert, her only free day in New York and she came!”.
But the most beautiful thing, he points out, is that the room accepted the first program proposal, which unites Barcelona and New York with works written in exile: the sardana Sant Martí del Canigó, which the author most likely directed here, Pau Casals, who now observes the artists from a corner of the backstage; Rodrigo’s Aranjuez concerto, which had not been performed at the Carnegie for 23 years – and which, with Rafael Aguirre on guitar, attracted tourists eager to applaud between movements – and, finally, the New World Symphony of Dvorák, which premiered right here 130 years ago and which the FSF presented with a sincere play of rhythm and contrasts, at the level of the greats.
At this point, the audience went crazy with joy – “the best New World Symphony I’ve ever heard”, said a Carnegie regular who a week earlier had enjoyed the opening gala with Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony and now he claimed up to two encores from the Catalan orchestra that advised the hall in a newsletter. So it was that a Cant dels Ocells sounded in Enric Casals’ version with the cello of Matarón Bruno Hurtado and the violin of the Ukrainian concertino Oleh Kurotchkin in a pure state of grace. To end with the fiery Slavic Dance no. 1 by Dvorák.
The FSF had achieved a full house of 1,800 seats (Carnegie advised against putting the 3rd floor up for sale) also thanks to a communication effort. The crème of Catalan eminences established on the East Coast were informed and invited: the cardiologist Valentí Fuster, the oncologist Joan Massagué, the economist Xavier Sala i Martín, the architect and town planner Ramon Gras, the artist Santi Moix. .. whom Grau wants to commission for the 20th anniversary of the FSF… The Catalan public exuded pride: when they left Catalonia there was no such excellence nor the idea of ??setting up a private orchestra that works in the American: receives only 245,000 euros per year from the Generalitat.
For the project, Grau has gone to find the Catalan sponsor on the other side of the Atlantic, who is paying. Now I would like to regularize the contributions. “Yes? Well, it must be achieved”, says Gras, confidently. In America, things are possible.
