The ensembles of the three main classical music venues in Catalonia, The Auditorium, the Gran Teatre del Liceu and the Palau de la Música Catalana, are presenting a particularly prolific spring. The Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya (OBC), the Orquestra del Gran Teatre del Liceu, and three of the choirs of the Palau de la Música Catalana (Cor de Cambra, Cor Jove de l ‘Orfeó Català and Cor Infantil de l ’Orfeó Català) are set to lead international tours with the repertoires, or under the baton, of Catalan composers and conductors. These include Raquel García-Tomás, Xavier Montsalvatge, Marian Márquez, Alicia Serrat, Glòria Coma i Pedrals and Janet Costa, among others. The tours will also feature outstanding personalities and formations of the international classical music scene, such as Ludovic Morlot, Gustavo Dudamel, Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil) and the Ensemble Vocale Pro Musica de Porto. The tours will be facilitated through networks such as the Latin American Opera. It will also be an exceptional year for reference Catalan classical music ensembles such as Jordi Savall or the Casals Quartet, which will offer over a hundred concerts on the best stages in the world
In April, the OBC will give two concerts conducted by the resident master Ludovic Morlot at the Elbphilarmonie in Hamburg on the 4th and at the Konserthuset in Stockholm on the 6th. The repertoire, which will feature the interpretation of mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron, includes Las constelaciones que más brillan by Raquel García-Tomás, Cinco canciones negras by Xavier Montsalvatge, and three works by Maurice Ravel: Shehérazade, Pavane pour une infante défunte, and Daphnis et Chloé. The OBC will perform in the Nordic Countries for the first time, presenting the piece by Raquel García-Tomás, commissioned by L’Auditori from the composer for the National Music Award 2020, which will be presented internationally.
The Chamber Choir of the Palau de la Música Catalana and the Choir of the Gran Teatre del Liceu will perform Beethoven's Fidelio, directed by Gustavo Dudamelatto in the main auditoriums in Europe: the Gran Teatre del Liceu (26 and 27 May), the Philarmonie in Paris (31 May) and the Barbican in London (3 June). The Chamber Choir of the Palau de la Música Catalana will collaborate with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil) to offer a semi-staged version of this classic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles on 16 and 17 May. This innovative production of the only opera Beethoven created for both deaf and hearing audiences premiered in 2022 in a co-production with the prominent Deaf West Theatre in Los Angeles. The features the Venezuelan choir Coro de Manos Blancas. This tour is highly demanding and recognises the excellence and quality of the Palau and Liceu’s training.
The Gran Teatre del Liceu is expanding its Oh!pera project in Latin America in collaboration with the prestigious Teatre Biobío in Chile and the Ópera Latinoamérica network. From April to November, the team of artists, led by composer Marian Márquez and stage director Alicia Serrat, and under the supervision of the project’s mentor, Àlex Ollé, will perform the micro-opera Filles del mundo on stage at the Biobío Theatre in Concepción. The performance will include the participation of artists and university students from the city.
The Cor Jove de l ‘Orfeó Català will participate in a cultural exchange on stage with the Ensemble Vocale Pro Musica de Porto in April. The two groups will perform two concerts, one on 7 April at the Casa da Música in Porto, and the other on 14 April at the Palau de la Música Catalana. The project will explore the tradition of choral music of Portugal and Catalonia, as well as that of Latin America, and will incorporate current composers and historical allusions. Jazz standards will also be included in the journey.
The Children's Choir of the Orfeó Català will also travel to Portugal to participate in a special concert on 18 May, at the Church of Sant Francesc de Guimarães, accompanied by the Choir of Guimarães. The concert will be conducted by Glòria Coma i Pedrals and Janet Costa with Pau Casan on piano, which can also be seen at the Palau de la Música Catalana on 8 June.
Jordi Savall, one of the world's greatest representatives of Baroque music, will perform in some seventy concerts in the best international auditoriums this year, making it a year of great activity for the maestro. This spring he will visit some of the main cities in the United States with the Hespèrion XXI Orchestra, for which a large part of the tickets have already been sold. In May he will perform in the main European capitals with his Le Concert des Nations, highlighting the concert at the Philharmonie de Paris on 27 May.
The Casals Quartet will offer more than thirty concerts on its international tour, presenting different repertoires by Beethoven, Haydn and Shostakovich. He will continue to perform, internationally, the luminous repertoire of L’Art de la fuga de J. S. Bach, a programme that premièred last year and which this April will travel to Germany (13 April), Denmark (15 April), Finland (17 April) and the Netherlands (18 April).
