Repertoire

Oscar Navarro: Leyendas (Legends) for clarinet and symphony band (2019) 35’
Bert Appermont: Trencadís (10’) – World premiere, commissioned by Barcelona Symphony Band
Bert Appermont: A Brussels Requiem (2017) 19’

Artists

Barcelona Symphonic Band
Jose Franch-Ballester, clarinet
Marta Mathéu, soprano
José R. Pascual-Vilaplana, conductor

Program

Art often attempts to explain what is incomprehensible or inscrutable. Belgian composer Bert Appermont composed A Brussels Requiem just after the terrorist attack the city suffered in March 2016. The four movements depict in music the range of emotions that affect us after a disaster of this magnitude: from anguish and rage to the deepest grief. In the second part of the concert, José R. Pascual-Vilaplana conducts the world premiere of a work by Appermont, a piece commissioned in connection with this season’s portrait of an artist tribute by the Band. 

Leyendas, by Oscar Navarro, a composer from Alicante with an international reputation, is much more than a spectacular concerto for clarinet. It invites the audience to immerse themselves in an experience involving theatre, music and video-art. Dedicated to clarinettist Jose Franch-Ballester, it presents three narratives that are full of mystery, through which the audience discover a monastery that has been burnt down, an enigmatic circus and a princess who is under a spell.