More than 10,500 concerts have been held at L’Auditori in its 25 years of existence. And eight and a half million people have attended (3.5 in the OBC performances). The gigantic project of the Barcelona venue –500 concerts per season– reaches an important artistic peak in the 2023-2024 academic year, celebrating its first quarter of a century. And it does so by reflecting on other international reference projects, such as the Cité de la Musique in Paris, and by emphasizing the great works of the symphonic repertoire.
And there it includes from Beethoven’s Seventh to Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique, Verdi’s Requiem, Brahms’ Fourth, Mahler’s Seventh, Sibelius’s First or Bolero. from Ravel. The latter is the composer on whom the orchestral work of the OBC will revolve during this academic year and from whom, on the occasion of its 150th anniversary, they will record the entire orchestral works on six CDs (until 2025).
There will also be extraordinary concerts, such as the one at the Mahler Chamber with Daniele Gatti at the helm. The OBC will resume its tours and will travel to Hamburg and Stockholm. On the other hand, he will close the course with a selection from Wagner’s Twilight of the Gods ( Götterdämmerung ). All this under the motto of the season: Power or revolt.
But the orchestra is also making an unprecedented commitment to Catalan musical heritage, an action that means that Ludovic Morlot, the conductor of the Barcelona Symphony, will include at least one piece in each program. “It’s been wonderful to expand my repertoire with Mompou or Toldrà , but they won’t just be pieces from the past but, as the season progresses, there will be more contemporary voices and we’ll embrace modernity,” points out the French orchestra director. Gix, Giménez Comas, Rumbau, Magrané, GarcÃa-Tomas, Guinovart, Brotons, Parra…
Thus, the season will start in the Pau Casals room, on September 29, with Joan Guinjoan’s Fanfà rria with which the Auditorium was inaugurated in 1999. And in the same program, and after cellist Alisa Weilerstein interprets Prokófiev’s Sinfonia concertante, Un cant a Pau Casals by Jordi Cervelló, a work from 1991, will be heard. And next week Ritual de peasantia (1935) will be addressed , a Symphonic Suite by Baltasar Samper, before the Piano Concerto no. 4 by Rajmáninov in the hands of Francesco Piamontesi, and the aforementioned Consecration. Among the 14 commissions that will be premiered, there will be three hands, such as that of Joan Magrané, Raquel GarcÃa-Tomás and Octavi Rumbau, who have already collaborated on other occasions.
Among the soloists, to highlight the violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja or the pianist of the moment, Kirill Gerstein, or that young man who resoundingly ascends to the keyboard, Lucas Debargue. And among the guest teachers, Nicholas Collon, Stephanie Childress, Mathias Pintscher and Eun Sun Kim, director of the San Francisco Opera.
The Municipal Band will also go out to the city –with a concert at the Sagrada FamÃlia– and to the city, so that “also in Terres de l’Ebre, where they think they already have theirs, they can hear the particularity of the one in Barcelona” , indicates its owner, José Rafael Pascual-Vilaplana. The Band will attend the Innsbruck festival in Austria for the first time.
As for chamber music, another highlight of the season will be the complete string quartets by Shostakovich by the Quartet Casals, as well as the visit of the legendary Hagen Quartett, with a program dedicated to Haydn and Beethoven.
Two new projects will add luster to the room: Orchestra Tasting –to break down a symphonic work before the public– and the Subsònic festival, which explores the hybridization of music with other artistic disciplines. And here, for example, the project of the Mal Pelo dance company dedicated to Bach will marry. Or contemporary music proposals with ensembles such as Contrechamps, pioneers of electronics, as well as the sculptor and performer Olivier de Sagazan.
The 26 million euro budget will also be used to present the opera Aci, Galatea e Polifemo at the Llums d’Antiga, with Dani Espasa and the mezzo Vivica Genaux. And so that half of the Mixtur festival is now held at L’Auditori.
