Encouraged by the good audience results it is having after the pandemic, the Palau de la Música Catalana has decided to increase the number of concerts: 156 in the 2024-25 season, to which we must add another 162 family and school concerts. . “And we would like to do even more… We think that the financing can come from the box office,” said the general director of the theater, Joan Oller, in the presentation, this Tuesday, of what remained to be announced about the poster.
This year, the Palau has sold 145,000 tickets, with an average occupancy rate of 80%. So they have not hesitated to increase their budget by 15%, going from 3.5 to 4.1 million euros. Without this implying an increase in prices, they assure, “although they will be developed concert by concert, taking into account the price-cost relationship.”
A few weeks ago the hall presented its star cycles, with the debut of Klaus Mäkelä and the return of Teodor Currentzis, Jonas Kaufmann and Juan Diego Flórez. “I am proud of the artistic level that we are reaching in Barcelona,” says the president of the entity, Joaquim Uriach. “That the Liceu vocal gala coincided last week with Sara Blanch’s debut at the Palau hurt us, but filled us with satisfaction: that wealth makes Barcelona grow as a cultural capital.”
The legendary Steve Reich, one of the pioneers of minimalism in New York in the sixties, will be the invited international composer, although at 87 years old (88 in October) it is ruled out that he travels to Barcelona. “We are struck by his creative longevity,” says Mercedes Conde, associate artistic director, “which is why we dedicate this tribute to him that ranges from his experimental beginnings, with tape recorder and electronic music, to his latest pieces.” In one of them he is inspired by works by Gerhard Richter. He will be performed by the GIO Symphonia and others will be performed by Frames Percussion, the Catalan ensemble that incorporates the Palau in residence while maintaining that of the Trio Fortuny.
The other invited creator is Raquel García-Tomás, “the essential composer of the national musical scene,” who “has a unique style because she embraces tradition and revisits it with new techniques and a surprising aesthetic,” adds Conde. Six pieces will be played from it, three of which will be absolute premieres. In fact, two are commissioned by Palau himself, which this season will make up to 9, spending a total of 150,000 euros.
“Right now I’m working on Ceci n’est pas une valse, jointly commissioned by the Palau, the Simfònica del Vallès, Galícia and La Pedrera, and I’m listening to a lot of waltzes, like that second movement of Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances,” he confesses. the Barcelona artist. “I want to do the opposite: I like to dialogue and recontextualize tradition. Hence, among the concerts there are works in which I dialogue with Bach or Monteverdi.” The Camerata Penedès also premieres one of her pieces, and her operatic inclination will be shown, in addition to her interdisciplinary love in her works with her own audiovisual creation.
Other invited artists are the American photographer Bill Armstrong, author of the image of a season whose common thread is the concept of hero and antihero. Also the artist and graphic designer from Alcanar Adela Beltran Sancho, who seeks to express femininity with pictorial portraits of anonymous women; the poet Lluís Calvo Guardiola, or the writer Jordi Lara, who in his work investigates marginal figures, such as the composer Juli Garreta, a watchmaker from Sant Feliu who later becomes a leading figure.
In addition to joining the bicentennial of Bruckner or the commemoration of the half century of Shostakovich’s death (which he already announced), the Palau is attached to other anniversaries, such as Garreta’s 150th (and 100th of his death), an archetypal figure of the antihero, yes, who was nevertheless considered the Catalan Richard Strauss. Sardanas, songs and chamber and orchestral works will sound from him. Also celebrated are the 75th anniversary of the death of Joan Lamote de Grignon – especially with Nadal’s La nit premiered by the Orfeó Català in 1902 and played by the Berlin Philharmonic under his baton – and the 125th anniversary of the birth of Grignon’s son. he Ricard.
In the piano cycle, we are betting on Emma Stratton and Martín García García, beneficiaries of the Alicia de Larrocha scholarship promoted by the Palau. And Alexandre Tharaud, Alice Sara Ott, Seong Jin Cho, Yulianna Avdeeva… or the incombustible Grigory Sokolov will play.
Catalan talent stands out in Palau Cambra, with the Casals or the Kebyart. He will also perform a piano quartet, with Benjamin Grosvenor and cellist Kian Soltani. And in Palau Bach, the traditional passions of Saint John and Saint Matthew will be performed by Vox Luminis with the Freibuger Barockochester and by the Berlin-based RIAS Kammerchor with Akamus.
