In the year of its 130th anniversary, Barcelona's symphony orchestra performs two works, one by Beethoven and one by a contemporary composer, Bert Appermont, who takes his inspiration from a sixteenth-century Dutch nobleman, a hero to the Flemish people.
A descendant from a wealthy Dutch family, Count Lamoral of Egmont Spain received military training and fought at the service of the Spanish crown until 1565. A supporter of a change in religious policy in the Netherlands, Egmont reneged his Catholicism after the outbreak of a new revolution. Arriving in Brussels in pursuit of those responsible for this rebellion, the Duke of Alba had Egmont arrested and sentenced to death for treason, although he had always expressed his loyalty to the king. This made him a hero in the eyes of the Flemish people, and in 1787 he also became the protagonist of a tragedy based on his life by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. A few years later, in 1810, the composer Ludwig van Beethoven presented various pieces of incidental music designed to accompany Goethe's work. Beethoven’s composition was Egmont, op. 84, which will be performed at the Teatre Grec in an evening that Barcelona Municipal Band, conducted by Salvador Brotons and accompanied by the voice of Mariona Pallach and actor €lex Casanovas, will open with a piece inspired by the same historical character: Egmont, by Bert Appermont, a Belgian composer born in 1973 who takes the same story to compose a work comprising four movements. Founded in 1886 and one of the oldest ensembles of its kind in Europe, this year Barcelona Municipal Band celebrates 130th years of activity in close communion with the musical life of the Catalan capital.
Production: L'Auditori de Barcelona.
Autoria: Ludwig van Beethoven i Bert Appermont; Dramatúrgia: Marc Artigau; Interpretació: Mariona Pallach, Banda Municipal de Barcelona, €lex Casanovas; Direcció musical: Salvador Brotons; Programa: Egmont, de Bert Appermont / Egmont, op. 84. Música d'escena per a la tragèdia de Goethe, de Ludwig van Beethoven (instrumentació de Joan Lamote de Grignon);
