Repertoire
Philip Sparke: Orient Express (1992) 8’
Saint-Saëns: Orient et occident, op. 2 (1869) 9’
Richard Strauss: Zueignung (Devotion) (1885) 5’
Johann Strauss, son: Overture from Die Fledermaus (The Flittermouse) (1874) 9’
Béla Bartók: Romanian Folk Dancess, Sz. 56 (1915) 6’
Franz Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 in C-sharp minor, S. 244/2 (1842) 10’
Artists
Barcelona Symphony Band
Carlos Ramón, conductor
Program
The Orient Express was a train that used to link the cities of London and Paris and went from one end of Europe to the other, all the way to Istanbul. In 1934, Agatha Christie turned it into the scene of a murder in a novel that has been adapted for the big screen twice. Carlos Ramón, the deputy director of the Symphony Band, proposes to travel along the old rails and savour the musical cultures of an iconic journey.
DOWNLOAD THE PROGRAM HEREThe concert will start with two works that, in spite of being chronologically very far apart – they are written by Philip Spark and Camille Saint-Säens respectively – are united by the symbolic imaginary that separates the East from the West.
We will then move onto the imperial Vienna of waltzes and operettas, the same Vienna where a young Richard Strauss composed his first song collection. The journey will end with music inspired on popular tunes, Franz Liszt’s virtuoso Rhapsody and some Romanian dances transformed by Béla Bartók’s musical avant-garde vision.
