Something so vital in the poetic song (or lied, in German) as it is the letter will take a singular role in the 31st edition of the Schubertíada, this August. And also in Catalan key. The festival, which will run from August 11 to 27, with 19 concerts and 48 artists, has commissioned the composers Salvador Brotons, Jordi Domènech and Albert Guinovart a cycle of songs based on poems by Joan Margarit (1938-2021), which sometimes they are inspired precisely by the Empordà.
The unusual event –in two sessions, on August 11 and 12– will take place in the also unusual and very modern Espai Misteri de Vilajuïga, and will feature the baritone Ferran Albrich –who has participated in the festival's Academy in three editions– and the young cellist Oriol Prat, accompanied on piano by Guinovart himself. The new pieces will coexist in the program with Cinc Cançons by Eduard Toldrà and a Schubertian selection.
The intervention of the baritone from Manlleu in this world premiere is part, in turn, of the new Lied the Future scholarship program with which the Schubertíada wants to give a new impetus to its Acadèmia. This commitment to the future, which is sponsored by the Fundació Banc Sabadell, involves a lied course and master classes throughout the year; mentorships to eight musicians (four duets) for four months by stars such as the tenor Christoph Prégardien –who is currently performing at the Palau de la Música with the cycle La bella molinera– or the soprano Dorothea Röschmann and the pianist Wolfram Rieger (who they will perform together on the 23rd). And finally –and as a novelty– it also contemplates a bag of paid concerts for the selected students. A way, in turn, to introduce the song in cycles where it is not so programmed.
So, they will perform in Figures, where the initiative will be presented in June, and apart from being present in the Schubertíada, in the Life Victoria or the Cercle del Liceu, they will perform in Reus, Pals, Manlleu, Valls, Vic... the Ateneo of Madrid, the Music Festival in Segura (of Segura de la Sierra) and the Liceo de Salamanca. Among the scholarship recipients are four Germans (attention to soprano Katja Maderer), two Catalans (sopranos Elionor Martínez and Mireia Tarragó), a Swiss pianist and a Cantabrian.
"The generational coexistence is very enriching in the Schubertiad. It makes it possible for emerging young people to learn from established artists, who were not the first time they performed at the festival", highlighted the director of the Music Area of the ICEC, Xavier Cester, during the presentation of the edition.
Masters like Matthias Goerne, Julia Kleiter, the aforementioned Prégardien, Andrè Schuen, Katharina Konradi or Konstatin Krimmel will return to this summer event with the elite of accompanying pianists.
“It is difficult to have so many renowned artists in the Schubertíada and not because it is habitual, it is still very notable”, indicates Víctor Medem, direct from this event chaired by its founder, Jordi Roch.
The debut of the Russian-American soprano Erika Baikoff, inaugurating the festival in the canonical church of Santa Maria de Vilabertran on August 16, would be the first of Medem's prescriptions this year. Other? The Russian-Lebanese soprano Anna El-Khashem, who will interpret the delicate Italian Songbook by Hugo Wolf together with the pianist Imogen Cooper.
The chamber music section has nothing to envy from the rest of the programme: apart from the usual closing ceremony (they have been doing it for ten years) by the Casals Quartet, the Cosmos Quartet will perform, the pianist Javier Perianes – with Falla, Albéniz, Debussy and the Goyescas by Granados– and, be careful, the jazzman Marco Mezquida, who had been haunting the idea of taking inspiration from Schubert for the Empordà festival for a long time. His intervention will be as an after-party, in the same Canónica, after the performance (on the 19th) of Krimmel.
