If you still need convincing that classical music's for you, this is the concert you really need to go to. You’ll discover music by a modern and brilliant Romantic composer which will not just move you, but make a deep impression on you.
Young and old, classical music lovers and complete newcomers to these sounds: this is a concert for every type of audience. You only need be prepared to watch, listen and enjoy the infinite beauty that comes from the musical universe of Gustav Mahler. His songs are the cornerstone of a performance that offers not just plenty of concert but also theatre production with choreographic elements, a proposal where music is accompanied by feelings as contradictory as life itself. Night and day, light and darkness, sunrise and sunset, are all part of the existence and music of Mahler. We’ll be listening to all that while the performers contextualise the compositions, with references to Alma Mahler, Gustav Mahler’s wife who later married the expressionist writer Franz Werfel and the architect Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus movement. You will hear the painters Gustav Klimt and Oscar Kokoschka talking at a different concert that speaks to us both of the Modernista Vienna Secession and of the existential journey confronting modern man.
All this will be presented by a group of eight multi-faceted musicians performing a selection of music excerpts arranged by Pedro Pardo and based on not just Mahler's music but also compositions by Richard Wagner and Johann Strauss II. We will be listening to Mahler's music at its purest, with salsa airs and some excerpts accompanied by the ukulele, and always with a profound respect for the original work. It is, in short, a different way of discovering the music of Mahler, one of the last great Romantic composers, the musical heir to Beethoven and a great champion of the musical modernity of the 20th century.
Jointly directing the production are choreographer and stage director Francesc Abós, who trained in dance with David Campos in Barcelona and has extensive experience in musical theatre, and, on the music side, Pedro Pardo, the composer, orchestra and choir conductor and a versatile, especially innovative and eclectic pianist who, what is more, is the current conductor of the Victoria de los Ángeles Symphony Orchestra and the Orfeó Lleidatà Choir.
The show will start with a brief introduction on the figure of Gustav Mahler, by presenter Ramon Gener.
An Orfeó Català - Palau de la Música Foundation production.
Conducting and arrangements: Pedro Pardo Stage direction and choreography: Francesc Abós Music performed by: Germán de la Riva (baritone, percussion), Nerea de Miguel (mezzosoprano, cello, percussion), Mireia Vila (violin, percussion, voice), Laura Díaz (oboe, percussion, voice), Ramon Figueras (trumpet, voice), Rafael Planelles (horn, percussion, voice), Jeremy Friedman (glockenspiel , timpani, drums, small percussion, voice), Pedro Pardo (piano, ukulele, voice) Presenter: Ramon Gener Photography: A. Bofill
