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 the ones this Tuesday at the Franz Schubert Filharmonia concert is one of them.
Because the golden dream of every musician and composer is not within the reach of everyone: who do you think you have tied with to aspire to step on this stage? You have to show your credentials so that the artistic commission of the New York venue agrees to rent the space to an unknown artist or orchestra. But this private Catalan group that boasts 90% of fabulous native musicians and promoted and directed by maestro Tomàs Grau arrived in Manhattan with plenty of resume.
His determination to have, in his 18 years of career, guest soloists of the stature of Anne-Sophie Mutter, Maria Joao Pires and Igor Pogorelich earned Grau the respect of the Carnegie. They were also impressed by his stable season at the Palau de la Música Catalana and El Vendrell, birthplace of Pau Casals. And, finally, his excellence in a wide repertoire documented on video. Who would dare reject it!
However, the orchestra’s own staff called Grau crazy when he proposed that debut two years ago. “I like to have a bit of crazy ideas, but possible crazy ideas, and at the moment they are all happening,” explains the Barcelona musician, reclining on the sofa in the hall of his hotel, next to the Carnegie. Midori [the violinist] came to the concert, on her only day off in New York and she came to the concert!”
But the most beautiful thing, he points out, is that the room accepted his first program proposal, which links Barcelona to New York with works written in exile: the sardana Sant Martí del Canigó, which was most likely directed here by its author, Pau Casals, whose portrait observes the artists from a corner of the backstage; The Aranjuez concerto, by Rodrigo, which had not been performed at the Carnegie for 23 years – and which, with Rafael Aguirre on guitar, attracted tourists ready to applaud between movements – and, finally, Dvorak’s New World Symphony, which premiered in this same room 130 years ago and which the FSF performed with a sincere game of rhythm and contrasts, at the level of the greats.
At this point, the audience went crazy with joy. “It was the best New World Symphony I have ever heard,” said a Carnegie regular who a week before had enjoyed the opening gala, with Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony, and now demanded up to two encores from this Catalan orchestra of the which the room had informed him in a newsletter. This is how a Cant dels Ocells sounded in the version by Enric Casals with the cello of Bruno Hurtado and the violin of the Ukrainian concertmaster Oleh Kuroshkin in a pure state of grace. It was followed by the spirited Slavic Dance no. 1 by Dvorak.
The FSF had achieved a full capacity of 1,800 seats (Carnegie advised against putting the 3rd floor up for sale) thanks also to its communication efforts. The crème of Catalan eminences living on the East coast were informed and invited: there were the cardiologist Valentí Fuster, the oncologist Joan Massagué, the economist Xavier Sala Martín, the architect and urban planner Ramon Gras, the artist Santi Moix… whom Grau He wants to make an order for the 20th anniversary of the FSF. A Catalan public that exuded pride, because when he left Catalonia this excellence did not exist nor the idea of ????building a private orchestra that operates in the American way: it receives only 245,000 euros per year from the Generalitat.
Without going any further, for this project Grau has gone to look for the Catalan sponsor from across the Atlantic, which deducts taxes. Now he would like to regularize those contributions. “Yeah? Well, we will have to achieve it,” a confident Gras encourages him. In America things are possible.
