The Auditorium puffs out its chest for the 2026-2027 season
The programming deploys 500 concerts, and includes 48 premieres and 13 commissions
Barcelona"Legacy and discovery," insists Víctor Medem, director of L'Auditori since July 2025Víctor Medem, director of L'Auditori since July 2025The legacy is easy to follow among the 500 concerts programmed (including those of the exemplary educational service), with 48 premieres and 13 commissions. The Barcelona and National Orchestra of Catalonia (OBC) will tackle the grand repertoire, this time with "a focus on the classicism of Haydn and Mozart" and with symphonic challenges such as Mahler's
Second and Ninth and Shostakovich's Fourth and Eighth, as well as Brahms' First, Prokofiev's Fifth, and Mendelssohn's Italian, among others. In Ludovic Morlot's fifth season as principal conductor of the OBC, the orchestra, says Medem, "is mature enough to perform Richard Strauss's symphonic poems and Rachmaninov's symphonic dances." For the inaugural concert on October 2nd, Morlot has chosen Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 (with Jan Lisiecki as soloist), and Robert Gerhard's Concertino for String Orchestra.
In fact, Gerhard will be the most visible figure in the vindication of Catalan legacy. "We want him to have a regular presence. We want to be encyclopedic, with Gerhard," assures Medem. This heritage intention also involves programming works by Toldrà, Garreta, Albéniz, Freixas, Mompou, Serra, and Alís, among others. In this regard, the recovery of Pere Joan Llonell's
Requiem from the 18th century, and Joaquim Cassadó's Violin Concerto, and the OBC's program around Toldrà's La rosa als llavis, completed with five Catalan songs orchestrated by Joan Magrané, should be highlighted.
Regarding discovery, the OBC will premiere fourteen works and will program pieces by composers such as Blai Soler, Gabriela Smith, Cassandra Miller, and Helena Cánovas, among others, in addition to Ariadna Alsina and Merche Blasco, who will be two of the four resident artists of the season; the other two are pianist Saskia Giorgini and soprano Elionor Martínez.
In the OBC season there will be guest conductors such as Vasily Petrenko, Edmon Colomer, Kent Nagano and Sebastian Weigle (who was conductor of the Liceo Orchestra from 2024 to 2008), and soloists such as violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann, baritone Matthias Goerne, and pianists Alexei Volodin, Kirill Gerstein and Imogen Cooper, among others. The chamber season also features a good selection of soloists, such as pianist Yunchan Lim (who will debut in Barcelona) and mezzo-soprano Anja Mittermüller, both enthusiastically recommended by Medem, as well as soprano Sabien Deviellhe (also a city debutante) and pianist Seong-Jin Cho. And in the Quartet Biennial, which is once again conducted by the Casals Quartet, the Modigliani, Cosmos, Leonkoro, Arete, Quiroga, Brentano and Javus quartets will participate.
A New Year's Eve concert by the Municipal Band
The Barcelona Municipal Band continues to be in great form, and in its ninth season under the baton of José R. Pascual-Vilaplana, it proposes very interesting programs, including one with Ottorino Respighi's Roman Festivals and John Corigliano's Circus Maximus Symphony to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Esmuc; another with Rimski-Kórsakov's Capricho español and one with Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 with Raül da Costa as soloist. Also noteworthy is the concert to commemorate the centenary of Gabriel García Márquez, in which the band will perform The Solitude of Latin America, with actor Francesc Orella as narrator. And as a new addition, a New Year's Eve concert conducted by Marcel Ortega and featuring musician Arnau Tordera and comedian Peyu.
In the vast programming of L'Auditori, the ninth edition of the Llums d'Antiga Festival also stands out, which will be inaugurated by the Orquestra de Miracle, and the cycle El So Original by Jordi Savall, which will tackle Brahms's German Requiem
, Händel's Te Deum, and Beethoven's Fifth and Sixth. The programming of the Sampler Series also continues, with a focus on composer Charlotte Bray, and the Subsònic festival. As for the Museu de la Música, which will host concerts from the Bienal de Cuartetos, it will dedicate exhibitions to Pau Casals, Ricard Viñas, and Antoni Gaudí. And the educational project will premiere a new show: Xopluc, which adds to an extensive programming.