Repertoire

Octavi Rumbau, Joan Magrané and Raquel García-Tomás: Tres elegies for baritone and orchestra (2024) 15′ – World premiere, commissioned by L’Auditori
Giuseppe Verdi: Messa da Requiem (1874-75) 84′

ARTISTS

Barcelona Symphony Orchestra (OBC
Joyce El-Khoury, soprano (Verdi)
Rinat Shaham, mezzo-soprano (Verdi)
Andrei Danilov, tenor (Verdi)
Josep-Ramon Olivé, baritone (García-Tomás, Magrané, Rumbau)
Dmitry Belosselskiy, bass (Verdi)
Orfeó Català
Ludovic Morlot, conductor

Programme

Ludovic Morlot closes the season with the premiere of a work for baritone and orchestra. L’Auditori has commissioned this piece from not one but three of Catalonia’s most outstanding home-grown composers: Raquel García-Tomás, Joan Magrané and Octavi Rumbau. It is not the first time they have collaborated: they have already written one opera together, thanks to an initiative from the cultural organisation Òpera de butxaca i nova creació.

Giuseppe Verdi attempted a similar collaboration when various musicians were commissioned to compose a requiem on the occasion of Rossini’s death, but the work was never performed. Years later, with the loss of the poet Alessandro Manzoni – Verdi’s personal friend and a fellow supporter of Italian unification – the composer retrieved the “Libera me” he had prepared for Rossini and used it as a basis for his Messa da requiem. Written for four soloists, double choir and orchestra, the Requiem brings this season to a close.