The Jove Capella Reial de Catalunya directed by Lluís Vilamajó performs this Saturday, May 18, at the Espurnes Barroques festival, the sublime Misa pro defunctes by Cristóbal Morales. A proposal (11.30 a.m.) that will take place in the Cueva de Sant Ignasi de Manresa and that will feature five male voices, accompanied on stage by the dance interventions of the young dancer and choreographer Pau Altimira. On the way out, the Bages festival provides a tasting, in this case by Forn Coma and Celler Abadal.
This is one of the four concerts that Espurnes Barroques is giving in the Bages region this weekend, all of them around the mysteries of pain of the rosary that review various moments of the passion of Jesus of Nazareth. At 8:30 p.m. on Saturday, in the new Baroque Museum of Catalonia, in Manresa, and coinciding with International Museum Day, a dialogue between Maria Garganté and Raül Garrigasait has been scheduled about the Baroque. The conversation between the two patrons of the Fundación Espurnes Barroques who have published books on the Baroque, will be moderated by Francesc Vilà, director of the museum.
Before, at 7 p.m., in the Rosari church of Poble Vell in Súria, the mezzo-soprano Cristina Segura accompanied by the six musicians of the Ensemble Exclamatio directed by Oleguer Aymamí, will address several famous pages that Händel and Vivaldi dedicated to the notion of betrayal. Recalling the betrayal of Judas, the gastronomy will feature chocolate coins and a wine that has the name of a kiss.
On Sunday the 19th the festival moves to Berguedà for the first time, with the fusion of baroque and flamenco music, and a concert at the Konvent in Cal Rosal. At 11:30 in the morning, in the church of Sant Martí de Correà (where an extraordinary altarpiece has been preserved) Chicuelo’s flamenco guitar, the voice of Joaquín el Duende and the percussion of Jacobo Sánchez will meet the violin and the viola de gamba by Marta Ramírez García-Mina and Marina Cabello. It will be the premiere of the festival’s second production that fuses the music of composer H. Biber with popular music from southern Europe.
At 6 p.m., in a first collaboration with the Konvent art center, in Cal Rosal, the festival will move to its surprising facilities to unite a proposal from Austria with another conceived in Catalonia. The group Il dolce comforto, led by psalterist Franziska Fleischanderl (a world reference for this instrument), will meet the female ensemble Auditexaudi directed by Montserrat Oliveras who works on Gregorian repertoire.
Both groups will recreate the music that was played in the Neapolitan female convents of the 18th century during Holy Week. Contrary to what one might think, the music is not only of a stillness that invites introspection, but also of a liveliness not far removed from the operatic tastes of the time. The gastronomy will be provided by the Corpus Restaurant, in Berga, and you can try one of the minimal intervention wines that will be presented at the Que Rebenti La Baells fair.
