The Cobla Sant Jordi flies to Hamburg and Mexico

BarcelonaThe most extraordinary highlight of the Cobla Sant Jordi - Ciudad de Barcelona's new season will be their concert at Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie on November 15th: a sold-out performance in the main hall. "It's a historic milestone in the world of copla," rightly insists Miquel Massana, principal conductor of the ensemble founded in 1983. The concert program, "a calling card" of what they want to "show the world," includes two sections of sardanas. In the first, the Cobla Sant Jordi will "trace the transformation of the sardana from its popular essence to its consolidation as concert music," featuring works by Enric Morera, Juli Garreta, Eduard Toldrà, Ricardo Lamote de Grignon, Marc Timón, and others. In the second, the aim is to connect different generations of composers who have contributed to enriching the repertoire, such as Juli Garreta, Joaquim Serra, Joan Albert Amargós, and Xavier Pagès-Corella. Material eloquent enough to showcase the expressiveness of the copla's sound. "We are reclaiming the copla as an instrument of contemporary creation," says Massana. The day before, there will be a popular sardana dance in the Elbphilharmonie square, led by choreographer Anna Romaní. Both activities are part of Focus Catalunya, a week in which the German venue, in collaboration with the Institut Ramon Llull, also presents concerts by Jordi Savall, Chicuelo & Marco Mezquida, the Barcelona Symphony and National Orchestra of Catalonia, Tarta Relena, the Chamber Choir of the Palau de la Música Catalana, and Sílvia.

The Hamburg performance will not be the Cobla Sant Jordi's only international tour. They will also travel to Mexico, coinciding with the Guadalajara International Book Fair, where Barcelona is the guest city. They will perform two concerts, one in Guadalajara and another in Mexico City with Roger Mas, with whom they previously collaborated. The best album of 2024 according to the ARA"Whenever we go abroad, people are amazed because they discover a new sound," says Pep Moliné, flugelhorn player for the Cobla Sant Jordi. These international concerts are part of a 2025-2026 season that the Cobla Sant Jordi is approaching with renewed enthusiasm and "new aspirations," says Moliné, and the intention to "go further with the cycle at the Palau de la Música," and to continue with a busy concert schedule in Castellar del Vallès, as well as those they regularly perform at the Casino la Aliança del Poblenou. One of the highlights will take place on November 10 at the Palau de la Música, with one of the programs from the complete cycle of 62 sardanas by Juli Garreta (1875-1925). "The objective is twofold: to promote Garreta's work and to establish him as a universal composer," explains Massana. "We've delved deeply into the sources, the manuscripts, to see how Garreta wrote and to approach his work with greater musicological rigor." The Cobla Sant Jordi's main season at the Palau, which will take place in the Petit Palau, will include a concert with Andrés Salado as guest conductor (April 27) and a premiere by Joan Albert Amargós (June 16), as part of the commitment to contemporary composition that is also a core element of the ensemble's founding principles. In addition to the program, the season features other new developments, such as a new recording phase with FICTA, the appointment of Antoni Ros-Marbà as honorary conductor, and a redesign of the cobla's graphic identity.