Levitating and with tears in their eyes, the singers of the Orfeó Català came out on Thursday to perform with the Berliner Philarmonikder. And within its concert season, at the headquarters of the German capital! The evening, which was repeated yesterday with Kirill Petrenko on the podium, was a preview of what will be experienced this May 1 at the Basilica of the Sagrada Familia, with Mozart's coronation Mass in the hands of the Orpheon and the orchestra that leads the ranking of the best in the world.
The charismatic director had first contact in the first rehearsal with the 95 singers who had traveled to the German capital. Short but enough for the Russo-Austrian maestro to demonstrate why he was elected – by vote – by the members of the orchestra. A tireless worker, he knows what he wants and is precise in the way he conveys it to the artists. The general director of the Palau de la Música, Joan Oller, commented minutes later, still excited. Kindness, enthusiasm and tenacity define the enigmatic director, who never, without exception, grants an interview. Petrenko only appears in front of the media three times per season.
Singing under his orders and alongside this Ferrari of orchestras is the zenith in the international projection of any choir, but even more so in that of an amateur like Orfeó. The pandemic had forced the cancellation of this adventure two years earlier, meaning that the singers arrived with the Coronation Mass – Mozart's 16th Mass – learned word for word. The detailer Petrenko sent them a note with the corrections they would put into practice in the last rehearsal, just before the concert.
The reaction of the demanding German public, with vibrant and continuous applause – which did not stop during the whole time he was leaving the room – confirmed the excellent work of the current head of the choir, Pablo Larraz, and his ambassador and former artistic director, Simon Halsey, who, in the absence of prior instructions from Petrenko, worked with Orfeó on all possible ways to interpret the piece, "so they knew in advance what he was talking about".
Undoubtedly, the dramatic ability that Petrenko exhibited from the podium - both in the Mass and in Symphony no. 4 by Schumann that closed the program and that in the Sagrada Família will be replaced by No. 25 by Mozart – speaks volumes about his operatic life. The 51-year-old director resorted to constant contrasts and daring, but perfectly structured, rhythm changes. And the entire text of the Mass in C major – which the choir sang from memory and without losing sight of the conductor – is reflected in its musical interpretation. Already from the first word of the Kyrie, or when, always with a very clear gesture, he accelerates to address the Credo ... Very unusual!
"It's magnificent that the choir has sung without a score", commented a Berlin critic during the break in the corridors of the Philharmonie. Part of the audience had attended the previous conference with which Halsey put the Orfeó Català in context. Knowing facts such as that the formation was the reason why the Palace was built, or details such as Richard Strauss and Lluís Millet preparing a tour in 1914 that was prevented by the Great War, the voices are appreciated in a different way arrivals from Catalonia.
But... these devilish rhythms with which Petrenko moves the music forward without losing a shred of clarity... will they make sense in Gaudí's nave, a temple with a reverberation of up to 11 and 12 seconds, designed so that the sound 'rise to the sky and get lost in the heights?
"Know that it won't be worse than at the Museé d'Orsay", said a manager of the orchestra that every May 1 performs in an emblematic space on the planet to commemorate its foundation, and that previously celebrated it at the old station Parisian where the Orsay is. "Petrenko is fully aware of this, but in the end it is an eminently media production, designed to be broadcast all over the world", clarifies Halsey. TVE's 2 will broadcast the event live from 10.45 a.m. (the concert starts at 11 a.m.) picking up the signal from the German production company EuroArt, which controls the recording at the Sagrada Família and guarantees the audio quality . The temple, in turn, will refer to the connection with TVE through a link.
The program begins with Symphony no. 25 by Mozart, followed by the Prayer for Ukraine by Valentin Silvestrov - which the Orfeo is rehearsing these days -, the Requiem for strings by Toru Takemitsu, the Ave Verum Corpus by Mozart and his motet Exsultate, jubilate. And, after the break, the Coronation Mass.
