Joan Oller recommends a book to understand the so-called artificial intelligence.

The human factor is crucial in concert halls like the Palau de la Música, the home of song, and therefore, with a founding commitment to tuning and the unmicrophoned (or filtered) voice. However, nothing is immune to artificial intelligence. The general director of the Palau de la Música, Joan Oller, knows this well, and recommends it as summer reading. Between Paradise and Apocalypse: The Economics of Artificial Intelligence (Rosa de los Vientos, 2025), by Xavier Sala i Martín. A good example of the interest aroused by what the economist from Cabrera de Mar analyses is that The book was the best-selling non-fiction book in Catalan last Sant Jordi, ahead of The pass to space, by Manel Vidal Boix; Crimes 4. The Hour of Truth, by Carles Porta, and The art of being human, by David Bueno.

Joan Oller chooses Between paradise and the apocalypse because it is an essay that helps us "understand what the so-called artificial intelligence really is, its origins, its usefulness, and where it may go in the future." "It is an extensive, intelligent, and at the same time accessible analysis due to the very informative way in which it is written," highlights Oller, who arrives in August with the work done after presenting the 2025-2026 season of the Palacio de la Música, which he has programmed with Mercedes Conde, the institution's deputy artistic director.

It will be a special season, with big names such as Teodor Currentzis, Zubin Mehta, Iván Fischer, Myung-Whun Chung, Simon Rattle, and Daniele Gatti; tributes to Juli Garreta, Joan Lamote de Grignon, Joan Guinjoan, and Eduard Toldrà; the determined support for composers such as Joan Magrané, Gabriela Ortiz, Raquel García-Tomás and Bernat Vivancos, and the great challenge of the trip of the Orfeó Català and the Chamber Choir of the Palau de la Música to the United States to sing the Solemn Mass by Beethoven with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.