The Mozart Nits d'Estiu Festival reaches its second edition with today's great names in classical music. The cellist Kian Soltani, the violinist Nicola Benedetti and the soprano Julia Lezhneva are the soloists who will lead the three concerts scheduled at L'Auditori Barcelona and the Palau de la Música Catalana between June 30 and July 16. The British Stephanie Childress, the French Lionel Bringuier and the Catalan Dani Espasa will conduct the performances that will be starred by the Barcelona and National Symphony Orchestra of Catalonia (OBC).
"I think one of the things I really learn from this orchestra is that they are very close," Childress said yesterday, at the festival's presentation. “You have to find people who really want to ‘play’ together and are there to ‘play’ together,” she attested. At just over 20 years old, she is one of the most prominent emerging conductors on the international scene, and she returns to lead the OBC after her successful tour of Catalonia this season.
"We have been lucky enough to be able to reinvite her at L'Auditori to conduct Mozart", revealed Robert Brufau, director of the room. The young woman will be in charge of opening the Mozart Nits d'Estiu Festival this Thursday, June 30, with two of the best-known symphonies of the genius from Salzburg, the dramatic Symphony No. 25 and the forceful Symphony No. 38. In between, there will be Haydn's Cello Concerto in C and Lieux retrouvés, by the British composer Thomas Adès, both with the cello of Kian Soltani as the protagonist.
The cycle will continue on Thursday, July 7 with the violinist Nicola Benedetti performing Violin Concerto No. 3, with which Mozart revolutionized the genre at the age of 19. In this case, Lionel Bringuier will be the director of an evening in which the Austrian composer's Adagio and Fugue in C minor for strings and Beethoven's Fourth Symphony will also be played.
The third and last date of the summer festival will take place on July 16 at the Palau de la Música. In this concert, the soprano Julia Lezhneva returns to the programming of Catalan auditoriums to sing Mozart's concert and opera arias, such as Ch'io mi scordi di te? or I leave, ma your good mine.
It will be under the direction of Dani Espasa, "one of the most experienced batons in the field of ancient music and classicism", according to Brufau. The soloist will perform, alongside the OBC, a selection of arias from Christoph Willibald Gluck's opera Orfeo ed Euridice. The recital will be completed with the three-act ballet-pantomime Don Juan and the opening of Idomeneo. Subscribers to La Vanguardia have a 20% discount on tickets, as long as they buy them at Entradas de Vanguardia.
With this program, the Mozart Nits d'Estiu Festival wants to "value the work of the Salzburg composer, as well as explore the connection with his contemporaries and those authors who have been inspired by his music". "It allows us to make an incursion into classical repertoire with the Orchestra", added the director of L'Auditori. Robert Brufau recalled that the activity of the OBC does not end with this cycle, but that it will be present at the Grec, where it will offer La cançó de la Terra by Mahler with visuals by Alba G. Corral.
