L’AUDITORI COMMEMORATES ITS 25th ANNIVERSARY BY CELEBRATING THE GREAT SYMPHONIES, CONSOLIDATING THE INSTITUTION’S COMMITMENT TO MUSIC HERITAGE AND ADOPTING CREATIVE INITIATIVES TO ATTRACT NEW AUDIENCES

• Today at midday, the heads of the Catalan public institution presented the programme for the coming season, the main theme of which is ‘Power or Revolt’.

• L'Auditori brings all its prestige and experience to the fore with a season featuring over 500 concerts and 23 different cycle -festivals, including home-produced works and co-productions- that will appeal to a range of audiences.

• Top international names such as Daniele Gatti, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Alisa Weilerstein, Kirill Gerstein and Nicholas Collon, together with great vocalists including Vivica Genaux and the mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron (who will perform with Barcelona Symphony Orchestra (OBC) at its concerts at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Konserthuset Stockholm) are just some of the luminaries appearing in the upcoming season.

• The OBC, led by principal conductor Ludovic Morlot, will perform works such as Beethoven’s Eroica, The Rite of Spring, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique and Verdi’s Requiem. The orchestra will also make a firm commitment to the musical heritage of Catalonia, which will feature in all the orchestra's concerts featuring the principal conductor.

• Regarding the chamber music season, highlights include performances of every one of Shostakovich’s quartets by the Cuarteto Casals and concerts by the legendary Hagen Quartet. In addition, L’Auditori will continue to show its support for national talent, in particular with its chamber music marathon, launched together with the institution’s first jazz marathon.

• In the field of education, the OBC are performing Toy Box (featuring stage direction by Marta Pazos), there is a new edition of la Cantania , and 2023 will also see the consolidation of other successful initiatives such as Sit Back, the Sampler Sèries, Sessions and Escenes, to mention just a few.

Barcelona, 4 May 2023.- At midday today, L’Auditori de Barcelona presented its most ambitious season ever, in terms of both its artistic and social objectives, the latter being the institution’s express desire to open its doors to the general public as a whole, as well as celebrating the institution’s first 25 years by promoting the nation’s own music and musicians. This was the main thrust of the presentation given by the heads of the institution, led by Robert Brufau, director of L’Auditori, and Ludovic Morlot, principal conductor of Barcelona Symphony Orchestra (OBC), now in his second season as leader of the ensemble. Also present were José R. Pascual-Vilaplana (who has just committed to two further seasons as principal conductor of the Barcelona Symphonic Band (BMB)) and Jordi Alomar, director of the Museu de la Música (Barcelona’s Museum of Music).

As the next season, 2023-2024, coincides with the 25th anniversary of L’Auditori (the actual celebratory events are scheduled for spring 2024) this has prompted the institution, with its national scope and focus, to release a few extremely significant figures for due reflection. One of the most important of these is the fact that over the past 25 years, L’Auditori has staged a total of 10,520 concerts attended by 8,567,441 people. Meanwhile, turning to the activities of the OBC, from 23/03/1999 to 31/03/2023 the orchestra performed 1,945 concerts, watched by audiences totalling 3,026,564.

‘Ours is a project that endorses the idea of access to music for everyone, and which aims to carry on forging links with the general public’, said Brufau, who, after having quoted the aforementioned figures that validate this memorable anniversary, turned to the subject of the 2023-2024 season.

And in fact, the figures for the upcoming season are also highly significant, the main ones being:

2023-24 season - L’Auditori de Barcelona:

<strongTotal number of concerts: more than 500
Total number of cycle-festivals (including home-produced works and co-productions): 23
Number of heritage works scheduled: 54
Number of world premieres: 15
Number of national premieres: 7
Number of commissioned works: 14
Number of guest conductors (for both the OBC and the BMB): 26
Number of guest soloists (for both the OBC and the BMB): 48
Number of guest artists: 369

THE LAUNCH OF A NEW THEME-BASED DIPTYCH: ‘POWER OR REVOLT’

‘Power or Revolt’ (2023-2024 season)
‘Against Nature’ (2024-2025 season)

The anniversary celebrations aside, L’Auditori is continuing to organise the season and enhance its programme by means of a unified artistic narrative. Now that the first cycle of three seasons inspired by the process of life has come to an end (and which succeeded in bringing coherence to the programme’s content and spreading the word about it), L’Auditori is now proposing a two-theme diptych. One of these tackles the dichotomy of ‘Power or revolt’ (2023-2024 season), while the other is ‘Against Nature’ (2024-2025 season), all of which are concepts that invite reflection on the enormous challenges facing society on the 21st century.

This new season, ‘Power or revolt’, features a programme that explores the themes of human relationships, struggle, class differences, competition and the monopoly of violence. Other subjects touched on during the season include the ways in which modern-day states are organised, nationalism, identity, memory and dialogue, exile and migration, tradition and modernity, counterculture and the dominant codes and values, the royal court, the church and laicism, and order and freedom.

CELEBRATING THE GREAT SYMPHONIES

To coincide with the first quarter-century of its existence, L’Auditori has proved itself to be a world-class public institution that reflects the cultural richness of the present-day; a project with an international scope and an institution that safeguards the future of musical life in light of the fact that it is rooted in tradition and its fidelity to the great universal repertoire.

‘After 25 years, it is important to emphasise that L’Auditori has staged more home-produced works than any other musical institution in Spain: specifically, the past season featured over 500 concerts’ Brufau noted. He went on to stress: ‘To find an institution comparable to our own we would have to look abroad; to places such as Amsterdam, Vienna, Luxembourg or Stockholm, for example’.

To celebrate this anniversary, special performances and events will be taking place in each and every one of the programmes and cycles at L’Auditori. Here are some of the most important ones:

BARCELONA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (OBC)

By way of context, L’Auditori was created 25 years ago as a grand symphony hall, designed according to the requirements of the artistic development of Barcelona’s orchestra and mirroring successful models in other major cities, such as the Cité de la musique in Paris. In this respect, for the coming season, the OBC – under the baton of its principal conductor Ludovic Morlot (while also continuing with Marta Gardolińska as principal guest conductor) – will be showcasing the great symphonies of all time. This goal is not only the raison d’être of the orchestra itself, it also establishes Sala 1 Pau Casals as a lodestar for the music-loving public and explains its ability to attract audiences.

Thus, the season will include many of the great symphonic masterworks, such as Beethoven’s Eroica, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique, Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony, Haydn’s Creation, Verdi’s Requiem and Brahms’ Fourth Symphony.

In addition, the OBC will be inviting as guest artists some of the most important figures from today’s international circuit. Big names such as violinists James Ehnes, Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Augustin Hadelich, cellists Alisa Weilerstein, Narek Hakhnazaryan and Jean-Guihen Queyras, pianists Kirill Gerstein, Lucas Debargue and Denis Kozhukhin, and top conductors such as Nicholas Collon, chief conductor of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and Eun Sun Kim, Music Director of the San Francisco Opera. Also appearing will be other conductors better known to L’Auditori audiences (though no less noteworthy), including Juanjo Mena, Matthias Pintscher and David Afkham. Without any doubt, one of the high points of the season will be a special concert featuring Danielle Gatti conducting the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. This is only one of the many unmissable upcoming appearances by leading conductors such as Ádám Fischer and Andrés Orozco-Estrada, in the section of guest orchestras.

Another of the important events scheduled as part of the 25th anniversary celebrations relates to the unwavering and indefatigable dissemination of Catalonia’s musical heritage. Thus, in an unprecedented move, Ludovic Morlot, principal conductor of the OBC, will be including in each one of his concerts (and without exception) works by our country’s leading composers, such as Baltasar Samper, Frederic Mompou, Josep Soler, Jordi Cervelló, Xavier Montsalvatge, Eduard Toldrà and Joan Lamote de Grignon. Furthermore, the institution’s inaugural concert will include a performance of Joan Guinjoan’s Fanfàrria to open the season, evoking memories of that historic concert when the work was premiered in Sala 1.

Also involving the OBC, the 2023-24 season will witness the launch of an outstanding project to record all of Maurice Ravel’s orchestral works on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth (a 6-CD pack is to be released by the end of 2025).

These recordings have been prompted by the Ravel Edition project, an initiative by an international group of musicologists and well-known artists, all of whom are recognised experts in Ravel’s works, and who have formed a reading committee to pool their experience and knowledge. Ludovic Morlot is one of the members of this committee, along with artists such as François-Xavier Roth, George Benjamin and Cristian Măcelaru.

SUPPORT FOR CREATION, MORE PLURAL AND COMMITTED THAN EVER BEFORE

This quarter-century celebration will come to embody a multifaceted, manifestly collaborative snapshot of music creation in our country. Thus, in addition to its efforts to promote our heritage, L’Auditori aims to shine a light on the true protagonists, the artificers responsible for creating new works of music that will guarantee the future of contemporary classical music: Josep Maria Guix, Oriol Saladrigues, Núria Giménez Comas, Joan Magrané, Octavi Rumbau, Raquel García-Tomás, Salvador Brotons and Hèctor Parra. All of the above have received commissions that will be premiered over the course of the coming season.

BARCELONA SYMPHONIC BAND (BMB)

Meanwhile, the Barcelona Symphonic Band, under the baton of its principal conductor, José R. Pascual-Vilaplana, will be performing some of the great original masterworks for concert bands, ranging from Ida Gotkovsky’s Concerto pour Grand Orchestre d’Harmonie to Symphony No. 1 The Lord of the Ring’ by Johan de Meij (a portrait of the artist by the BMB), and Joan de l’Ós by Ricard Lamote de Grignon, not forgetting James Barnes’ wonderful Ninth Symphony or Percy Grainger’s The Power of Rome. In addition, the BMB will also be performing exceptional interpretations of some of the best-known symphonies, such as Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, John Rutter’s Magnificat, Holst’s The Planets and Stravinsky’s Firebird. The BMB will also perform world premieres such as Albert Guinovart’s Simfonia Gaudí, as well as collaborating with some of the great soloists on the circuit (such as Judith Jáuregui) and featuring Paquito D’Rivera, one of the leading figures in the world of Latin jazz, as their guest in what will be an unforgettable opening concert.

CHAMBER MUSIC: INTOCABLES, CUARTETO CASALS AND A MARATHON

The chamber music programme includes the presentation of a new cycle – Intocables – which brings together four exceptional soloists who will be making guest appearances with the OBC as well as performing chamber concerts. These will take the form of snapshots of the artists by which L’Auditori selects several big names from the international circuit who will be visiting Barcelona at different times. Among the leading artists in this first edition is pianist Denis Kozhukhin, who will be performing Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 with the OBC and grand sonatas by Liszt and Schubert. Also performing will be the cellist Alisa Weilerstein, who will play Prokofiev’s virtuoso Symphony-Concerto, dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich, and will also perform the amazing feat of playing Beethoven’s entire repertoire of cello sonatas in one single concert. As if that were not enough, violinist Sergei Dogadin and cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan will perform Brahms’ Violin Concerto and Dvorak’s Cello Concerto, respectively. In a separate concert, they will jointly tackle two of the most bravura works for this combination of instruments – Ravel’s Sonata and Kodály’s Duo.

L’Auditori is also planning another historic achievement: staging performances of all of Shostakovich’s string quartets featuring the Cuarteto Casals. Six unmissable evenings over the course of the 25th anniversary season. Last but not least, the cherry on the cake will be a concert of works by Haydn and Beethoven by the legendary Hagen Quartet.

With regard to the chamber music marathon scheduled for December, in which the emphasis will be on heritage works and support for local musicians, the artists appearing will include Albert Cano Smit, Roger Padullés and Tomeu Moll, Trio Fortuny, the Azahar Ensemble and the pianist Javier Laso.

NEW PROJECTS FOR NEW AUDIENCES: SUBSÒNIC FESTIVAL AND CATA D’ORQUESTRA

True to its pledge to bring music in all its forms to increasingly diverse and discerning audiences, L’Auditori regularly presents works of new music. Consequently, the coming season will see the inauguration of the new Subsònic festival, a multidisciplinary event that explores the experience of music beyond sound, covering topics such as set design, video creation, lighting and sound installations. Music conceived as a vehicle, in which the latest technological resources are used to develop five ideas whereby various disciplines converge in one single artistic creation. Subsònic welcomes such diverse artists as the mediaeval music ensemble Sollazzo, the electronic music duo b1n0, the visual artists’ collective Cube, the new music ensembles Frames Percussion, Synergy Vocals, Contrechamps, CrossingLines, the dance company Mal Pelo, the early music vocal group Cantoria and the French sculptor-performer Olivier de Sagazan. By way of an inauguration for the festival there will be a performance of Steve Reich’s iconic work Music for 18 musicians, which has not been performed in Barcelona since 2011, the year it was heard for the first time in the Catalan capital, and also in L’Auditori.

Other new initiatives include the innovative Cata d’orquestra, devised with the aim of explaining what an orchestra actually consists of in a simple, easy way through events that will be held over the course of five Saturdays spread out through the entire season. Cata d’orquestra (literally, ‘orchestra tasting’) will present such iconic works as The Rite of Spring, Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique and Ravel’s Bolero, and features an introduction by a master of ceremonies who will divulge some of the secrets to help audiences enjoy the experience of listening to music much more.

CONSOLIDATION OF SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS: SIT BACK, SESSIONS AND ESCENES

With regard to jazz, artists such as pianist Ethan Iverson with his trio and the Marius Neset Quintet will be topping the bill. Meanwhile, Nils Frahm, Nico Roig, Oso Leone, Carles Belda and Sanjosex will delight audiences in the Sit Back section, while La Sullivan and Cia Miquel Barcelona present their new creations for the Escenes programme.

Also on the theme of jazz, L’Auditori will be holding a Jazz Marathon featuring local artists such as the Martín Leiton Quartet, Òscar Latorre, the Alba Careta Group, the Gorka Benítez Trio and Los Fumeros, all of whom will be showcasing brand-new or recently-released music.

SO ORIGINAL AND LLUMS D’ANTIGA

Moving on to the world of early music, resident artist Jordi Savall and his universal project So Original will be playing works by two renowned composers, Haydn and Vivaldi, as well as other works that explore the season’s particular themes. One of these focuses on the sea, as a medium of exchange and cultural dialogue, while the other (which is highly relevant to our present time) deals with war and peace. The early music season will also include such sublime works as Handel’s opera Aci, Galatea e Polifemo, in which Dani Espasa leads an outstanding ensemble that will feature the mezzo-soprano Vivica Genaux. Meanwhile, the Festival Llums d’Antiga will be hosting a selection of works ranging from Bach’s six motets to a project based on the world of Jean-Baptiste Lully, and which will feature leading artists such as the Ensemble O Vos Omnes, El Gran Teatro del Mundo, Forma Antiqva and the virtuoso recorder player Lucie Horsch.

SAMPLER SÈRIES AND NEW MUSIC

As for the world of new music, L’Auditori has also made a firm commitment to work more closely with Festival Mixtur, in which it will be presenting three workshops where audiences can hear classic works ranging from György Ligeti with the Quartetto Maurice to premieres of pieces by Joan Magrané, Ramon Humet and Hèctor Parra, and featuring such diverse artists as the Ensemble O Vos Omnes, countertenor Carlos Mena and the actor Pere Arquillué.

Other works in the Sampler Sèries include Focus Gerard Griséy performing Frames, the GIO Symphonia and the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC) Symphonic Band, which will be presenting – for the first time in Barcelona – two supreme works of French spectralism: Le Temps et l'Écume and the monumental Les Espaces Acoustiques, featuring the violist Jonathan Brown as soloist.

SERVEI EDUCATIU: MOVING BEYOND LA CANTÀNIA

By way of a house brand and a benchmark project in Europe, L’Auditori continues to develop new ideas for children in a new season in which, in addition to the projects that have brought the institution its current renown (namely Mambo!!!, Handel & Friends, Ma Me Mi Mozart and Monsters) this season’s wonderful novelty is TOY BOX, the latest show by the OBC, which features music from Debussy’s iconic ballet La boîte à joujoux and has stage direction by Marta Pazos.

BRINGING MUSIC INTO THE LIVES OF YOUNGER AUDIENCES

Building future audiences is one of L’Auditori’s driving ambitions, and so the institution not only works closely with more than 1,000 schools around the country, it also promotes initiatives such as Tarifa Plana, which gives people under 25 and 35 access to all the season’s concerts. Over the past season, more than 750 young people have benefited from this initiative, and this has been well reflected in terms of concert attendance, with each person going to an average of 50 concerts.

TRÀNSITS

Cultural diversity through music will also be placed centre stage in the form of a second edition of Trànsits, which will focus on the liturgical rites and ceremonies of the various religious communities existing in Barcelona, in which music is a central feature.

This season – and taking the example of ceremonies and rituals affected by the forces of power and revolt, we will be celebrating Reformation Day with the Lutheran community, who sing a liturgy that includes several Bach cantatas. We will also be transported to the other side of the Mediterranean by the Gnawa community, who will invite us to take part in a lila or purification ritual in which sound and music are central features. Trànsits will also explore key events in the liturgical calendars of other communities, such as the Murids from Senegal and the Filipino diaspora in Barcelona.

MUSEU DE LA MÚSICA: MUCH MORE THAN JUST A KEY COLLECTION

On the subject of exhibitions, and continuing with its goal of becoming a centre for reflecting and thinking about music, the Museu de la Música is organising two major exhibitions focusing on two revolutions that transformed the world of music: sound recording and the emergence of polyphony. The exhibition ‘Escoltar amb les Mans. Suports obsolets, missatges efímers’ (Listening with hands. Obsolete supports, ephemeral messages) highlights the way in which different analogue sound recording techniques have influenced both the experience of listening and that of music creation. This exhibition investigates the limitations of conservation and the consistency of material supports in the case of things ephemeral, and it will open to the public in December. Meanwhile in March, the Museum presents ‘Time Regained’, a projection of the ideas of the art historian Aby Warburg and his Atlas Mnemosyne (which he devised in an attempt to explain the history of the memory of European civilisation through images) into the world of early music and the revolutions that facilitated the emergence of new ways of conceiving music. This project, devised by Björn Schmelzer (the man behind Graindelavoix) and Margarida Garcia, examines the validity of some of the breakdowns and breakthroughs that have helped to shape what we today consider as ‘music’.

INTRODUCING OUR NEW ACOUSTICS

As our final new feature (albeit one that has nothing to do with our artistic programme), one of L’Auditori’s many new investment projects that will be inaugurated in the coming season is an acoustic structure designed to improve the auditory conditions on stage for musicians performing in Sala 1 Pau Casals. Another innovation that we will be able to enjoy as part of L’Auditori’s 25th anniversary celebrations.

CROWNING FINALE

In addition to the various events and features mentioned above, the 2023-2024 season at L’Auditori will also witness the following improvements:

• Greater collaboration with agents operating in our country: this applies to anything from hosting tours by visiting orchestras in collaboration with external promoters, to improving the institution’s links with major festivals such as Mixtur, for which 50% of its events and activities will be held at L’Auditori. This also applies to modern, popular music, given that the institution will continue to collaborate with events like Primavera Sound, Sónar, Festival de Jazz Barcelona, and many others.

• Promoting outside performances by the OBC during one week of the year when the orchestra will put on concerts in Catalonia, as well as its European tour that will take the OBC to venues such as the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Konserthuset Stockholm.

• Continuing to prioritise investment which, in the past three years, has surpassed €6 million. One of the results of this spending is the fact that L’Auditori is now one of the buildings in Barcelona with the most solar panels (commitment to sustainability and renewables).

• Continuing to facilitate accessibility and attendance for vulnerable persons with disabilities and impairments in auditoriums, theatres, festivals and museums throughout Catalonia, under the auspices of the Apropa Cultura program, launched 15 years ago. Our social commitment also includes specific projects such as An orchestral morning with the OBC and La Banda ens Apropa, a cycle of concerts in relaxed, matinee sessions.

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