The artistic director of the Granada Festival, Antonio Moral, has presented this week in London for the first time and in Paris for the second time the music and dance program that is held in the Andalusian city and that occupies magical places in the Alhambra. This year, in its 73rd. edition -from June 7 to July 14- Granada concentrates the most explosive of the international classical music scene -Kirill Petrenko, the Vienna Philharmonic, Charles Dutoit, the Suisse Romande, Klaus Mäkkela...- as well as jazz, flamenco and dance companies, such as those of Blanca Li, Sara Baras and Antonio Gades, which celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the premiere of Bodas de sangre. And the Cinderella of the Nice Méditerranée Ballet will be seen. In total there are 116 activities and shows in 33 days. Moral comes to the end of his mandate in a big way.
The project of internationalization of audiences has been one of Moral's priorities since he was appointed artistic director of the contest in 2019, replacing the Granada-based conductor Pablo Heras-Casado, although the pandemic prevented him from starting this pilgrimage work until next year. last, when in addition to Paris he presented the program in Luxembourg and Milan, since the orchestras from those two cities attended. This 2024 they will also present it in Toulouse, Munich and Vienna, in collaboration with TurEspaña and the Cervantes Institute.
"I think it is absolutely fundamental and necessary to be present in those cities to publicize the festival and Granada as a tourist place, and not only to the music media, but also to tour agencies and travel magazines," says Moral. "The festivals Spaniards generally have a marked local character, but the one in Granada has to go further, since it was always an international festival, although for quite a few years it lost that quality. And that is precisely what we are trying to recover. And I can! make sure it works!"
It is not so much about filling the capacity of the countless concerts and shows as it is about repositioning the event on the international map of summer festivals. In fact, 60% of the 40,607 seats available this year were sold on the first day they went on sale. The legendary Vienna Philharmonic, making its debut in Granada, sold out all 1,262 tickets in 57 minutes. Other handbell debuts are that of the Orchester de la Suisse Romande of Geneva, the most traditional orchestra in Europe, which in 1919 premiered The Three-cornered Hat in London with Diaghilev's Ballets, as Moral recalls, and which, As it could not be otherwise, he will perform it this time in the Carlos V Palace, in the Alhambra, under the orders of Charles Dutoit and with a luxurious soloist, Martha Argerich, in Schumann's Piano Concerto.
The Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester also debuts, opening the edition in the hands of none other than the chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, Kirill Petrenko, an unmissable symphonist who will address Anton Bruckner's 5th in the celebration of the Austrian composer's 200th anniversary. As for the Vienna Philharmonic, he goes with Lorenzo Viotti, the young Swiss maestro who is joked about if he has not mistaken his profession (or intends to combine it with that of a model). On the lectern they will have Spanish Capricho, by Rimsky-Kórsakov, The Island of the Dead, by Rachmaninov and Dvorák's 7th.
Another must of the contest will be the performance on the podium by Klaus Mäkkelä with the Orchester de Paris, of which he has been the owner since 2021, the year in which Moral presented him in Granada, already converted into the new young prodigy of orchestral conducting. The remarkable Finnish conductor will offer two evenings, the first with Schönberg's The Transfigured Night and the 4th by Mahler, together with soprano Christiane Karg performing the final lied. The second, with Petruchka (Stravinsky), the Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune (Debussy) and Mozart's 31st.
But also, the artistic director of the Granada Festival goes ahead again by presenting another very young Finnish orchestral director, Tarmo Peltokoski, who at 23 years old will demonstrate why he is the new sensation on the international podiums. He will make his debut with a Sibelius program leading the City of Granada Orchestra and with the pianist Juan Floristán in Rachmaninov's 2nd. And he will return to close the edition with one of the most prestigious orchestras in France, the Orchester National du Capitole de Toulouse.
Among the infinite camera offering, resident artist Paul Lewis stands out. The English pianist makes his debut in Granada in a big way, with Schubert's complete piano sonatas that will be played in both the Patio de los Mármoles and the Patio de los Arrayanes, two spaces of overwhelming beauty on summer nights.
