Dudamel and the Orfeó Català, the idyll continues through Europe

Barcelona"It is one more step in the internationalization of the Orfeó Català," said Joaquim Uriach, president of the Orfeó Català Association and the Orfeó Català-Palau de la Música Catalana Foundation, on Saturday. The phrase, reported by the ACN, came in light of the New York Philharmonic concert conducted by Gustavo Dudamel that was held at the Philharmonie de Paris and in which the Orfeó Català, the Girls' Choir, and singers from the Children's Choir participated. It is the first of a tour that this Monday will pass through L'Auditori in Barcelona, to inaugurate the BCN Clàssics season, and which will then continue to the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid (October 13), the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg (October 19), and the Musikverein in Vienna (October 22).

In a program that includes Symphony No. 5, by Sergei Prokofiev, and the European premiere of Invisible house, by the Canadian Zosha Di Castri, the choirs of the Orfeó Català participate in On the Transmigration of Souls, by John Adams, a work composed in 2002 as a tribute to the victims of the September 11 attacks in New York, and which was a commission from the New York Philharmonic itself. "It has been a very enriching experience, because it is a very different repertoire from what we are used to," explains Xavier Puig, director of the Orfeó Català, to ARA, who "highly" recommends listening to "this very emotional work" live because it is "a very transcendent experience." "In Paris, the entire audience left very moved by this memorial about the victims of the 2001 attack, in which the victims' families participate in a pre-recorded audio. And this combination of the recording and live music is very emotional and becomes a very profound experience," adds Puig.

This new collaboration between the Orfeó Català and Dudamel comes after the success of the concerts in Los Angeles in February, during the Venezuelan conductor's farewell at the helm of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. That experience in which they performed Beethoven's Missa solemnis, immediately paved the way for this new collaboration, now with Dudamel as artistic director of the New York Philharmonic. The orchestra changes, but the idyll continues, now in Europe. "After the Los Angeles concert it felt like we had reached the summit, but more and more projects keep coming our way for the level of the Orfeó and the other choirs," celebrates Uriach. "I am very proud of the concentration they have maintained on this work, which is not technically difficult but does require a lot of concentration," says Puig. "And they have had an exemplary, very professional attitude, sharing the stage with one of the best orchestras in the world."

For the Minister of Culture, Sònia Hernández Almodóvar, present at the concert in Paris, this tour with Dudamel "is a demonstration of the excellence of choirs that are vocational" and that explain Catalan culture very well, which mixes without making distinctions "popular or grassroots culture and high culture".

In addition to the concerts with the Orfeó Català, the European tour of the New York Philharmonic also includes other concerts with a program consisting of Symphony No. 5, by Gustav Mahler, and Imágenes Mestizas, by Tania León, and stops in Madrid, Berlin, Hamburg, and Vienna.