This morning, the Barcelona Symphony Band presented its artistic programme for the 2019-20 season in the lobby of Sala 1 Pau Casals at L’Auditori, with the participation of Robert Brufau, director of L’Auditori, and the Symphony Band’s principal conductor, José Rafael Pascual-Vilaplana and its technical director, Joan Xicola.
The 2019-20 season seeks to disseminate a pluralistic, divergent and eclectic artistic message with the desire to move and touch audiences. During the upcoming season, the Band will offer 18 programmes at L’Auditori, 12 concerts in the city of Barcelona and two family concerts.
Great names
The season will open on 20 October with the Venezuelan trumpet player Pacho Flores, one of the most celebrated of the moment, and will continue with acclaimed soloists including the harpist José Antonio Domené, the soprano Marta Mathéu and the tuba player Sérgio Carolino.
These musicians join a long lineup of conductors which, headed by the Band’s music director, José Rafael Pascual-Vilaplana who will begin his second season as principal conductor, and guest principal conductor, Salvador Brotons, will include Beatriz Fernández, Miguel Etchegoncelay, Isabelle Ruf-Weber and Juan Miguel Romero.
The Barcelona Symphony Band will also enjoy a visit by one of the world’s most renowned film score composers, the maestro Roque Baños, who will direct a programme with film and audiovisual music for band, arranged by Baños himself.
Artist’s Portrait: Philip Sparke
The highlight of the season is the start of the Artist’s Portrait, where both the musicians and the audience will be able to enjoy the monographic work of a composer who will also be premiering a commissioned work. This season promises us a deeper understanding of the creative universe of one of the most international and prominent figures in band music: the English maestro Philip Sparke, who will also conduct the Band in one of the concerts.
On 10 May 2020, Sparke will lead the ensemble in conducting his own music and premiering a work. Sparke is one of the world’s most renowned band music composers. He was born in London and habitually works in England. However, his music has crossed borders and since the eighties he has graced the music stands of leading bands across the globe, from the United States to Japan, taking in several European countries. In addition to treating us to a world premiere he will also perform recent works, including Symphony No. 2, dedicated to the North American city of Savannah, and the Three Washington Statues, inspired by Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King and Duke Ellington.
Beethoven250 Festival and Festival Emergents Barcelona
L’Auditori begins a new phase with the objective of creating a unified and cross-cutting artistic project aimed at establishing a discourse that will permeate every area of its programme. Thus, for the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven, the Beethoven250 Festival will offer an extensive and cross-cutting reading of the composer’s music and influences.
For the Beethoven250 Festival, the Band offers a bold and attractive proposal: to perform the complete works composed by the genius from Bonn for Goethe’s stage drama, Egmont.
As a fundamental part of L’Auditori’s programme, and now in its fourth edition, the Festival Emergents Barcelona has consolidated itself as the most important event of the year, giving us the opportunity to discover new national and international musical talents. Over nine days, the Festival Emergents will offer more than 20 concerts with 200 young musicians and of all genres: from early music to new music, from recitals to chamber music, concerts for soloists and the great vocal and instrumental ensembles, as well as jazz and the best of local flamenco.
The Band will participate in the Festival with Rhapsody in blue by Gershwin, offering an incredible version for the solo trumpet of Austrian Selina Ott. L’Auditori will premiere a concert for marimba —inspired by Renaissance works of art, Romanticism and Naïve art— performed by marimbist Conrado Moya from Alicante.
Music in the city
In addition to the 18 concerts that the Barcelona Symphony Band will perform during its season in Sala 1 and Sala 2 at L’Auditori, the ensemble continues its commitment to Barcelona by performing 12 concerts around the city.
Over its more than 130 years of history, one of the main pillars of the Band’s activity has been to disseminate music to all audiences and in all corners of the city. To this end, the ensemble will perform a concert in every neighbourhood in Barcelona, which will be free and open to all, between 17 May and 28 November 2019.
Family concerts
The desire of the Band and the Servei Educatiu (Educational Service) to bring music closer to families is reflected in the two family concerts that we will be able to enjoy next season. The first of these is Banda Ampla (Broadband), which premiered during the 2018-19 season. The concert was commissioned to composer Joan Albert Amargós and dramatist Jordi Oriol and was inspired by Benjamin Britten’s famous Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra.
The second concert is Maaambo!!!, a L’Auditori classic, which takes the audience on a journey through the rhythms of Latin America, with stage direction by La Cubana.
La Banda ens Apropa
The Barcelona Symphony Band continues it collaboration with Apropa Cultura through the La Banda ens Apropa (The Band Brings Us Closer) programme, a series of weekday morning concerts designed for elderly people in Barcelona who are in a situation of dependency or at risk of social exclusion.
In addition to the concerts, which we will provide more details about later, running in parallel with each concert will be a workshop and a meeting between the musicians of the Band and social centre users. The objective is to bring music closer to social groups and also to raise awareness among the musicians about a social reality.
Subscriptions
There are two subscription types for the Barcelona Symphony Band season. The Series A subscription includes 12 concerts in Sala 1 Pau Casals at L’Auditori. The Series B subscription includes 6 concerts in Sala 2 Oriol Martorell. Subscription prices start at 45 euros.
Tickets for all Barcelona Symphony Band and L’Auditori concerts will go on sale tomorrow, 9 May.
Perejaume creates the image for the season and Canada produces the promotional video
Artist Perejaume was commissioned to create the image for the season, which is entitled Botànica del so (Botany of Sound) and plays with the concept of wind blowing through trees and making music.
The collaboration with Perejaume highlights the merit of encouraging dialogue between the arts and it consolidates L’Auditori’s goal to build a unified and cross-cutting artistic project that accommodates all disciplines.
Perejaume has created an image for the season and also one for each of the areas included in L’Auditori’s programme, from the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra and the Barcelona Symphony Band to the Chamber Music and Early Music seasons, OBCPops, Jazz Sessions, Escenes and Sampler Sèries.
To further advance this interdisciplinary dialogue and to provide an innovative perspective, L’Auditori commissioned the prestigious and multi-award-winning Barcelona production company Canada to make an audiovisual. The company is renowned for its groundbreaking aesthetics and pursuit of new artistic languages.
Directed by Héctor Herce, the video takes Perejaume’s concepts of nature and wind as a starting point and develops a three-minute story that departs from the customary narrative of classical music.
Flat Rate 25
One of the great novelties of the season, and which applies to all L’Auditori seasons, is the Flat Rate 25 project aimed at attracting a younger audience.
The viability of the traditional subscription model is called into question with the arrival of platforms that offer unlimited access to a vast amount of content, especially in the digital realm. This new dynamic of consumption and of understanding the value of the subscription has firmly taken root, especially amongst younger generations.
L’Auditori, aware of this new reality, is offering a special season ticket for young people under 25. The ticket will give them unlimited access to the hundreds of concerts offered by L’Auditori at a flat rate of 50 euros per season. From 48 hours before each concert, holders of this season ticket can obtain their tickets free of charge (subject to availability), allowing them access to over 300 concerts that include everything from early music to electronic music.
You can use this video if you need images of the Band.
Els grans artistes internacionals i la música de nova creació defineixen la temporada 2019-20 de la Banda Municipal
08-May-2019 – Aleix Palau