The Orfeó Català and the Chamber Choir of the Palau de la Música have culminated his time with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Triumphantly, once again with the audience on their feet and with even more euphoria. "Gustavo Dudamel is euphoric with the Orfeó Català," stated the general director of the Palau de la Música, Joan Oller, after the last of the concerts in Walt Disney Concert Hall. Dudamel has found the heart to make the Solemn MassAnd they are expected to resume their collaboration in the coming years, perhaps with the New York Philharmonic, of which Dudamel will be principal conductor starting this fall. But, for now, Oller isn't revealing any further details about future projects with the Venezuelan conductor. "The relationship with Gustavo was already very good, and now he's seen that we've responded by coming to Los Angeles well-prepared, with everything in place, and I think that's why he's so euphoric these days," Oller explains.

Los Angeles. Grand Avenue flanked by the characteristic palm trees of the Pacific. In the background, the peaks of the Saint Gabriel Mountains, still dusty in places. This morning, Spanish time, the afterglow of the Orfeó Català's explosive US debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel has triumphed over unusually cold days in the Californian metropolis.

The architect Frank O. Gehry (1929-2025) discovered classical music as a child when his mother took him to concerts in his native Toronto. As an architect, his first major concert hall was the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, home to the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a steel ship that this weekend will host the Orfeó Català's US debut with a Solemn Mass Beethoven's concert hall, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. "What interested me most was giving the hall a soul and bringing people together," Gehry said about this project. "In the end, I created a kind of intimacy surrounding the orchestra, which begins to break down the traditional shape of the space." shoebox "The hall is enclosed, reducing the distance between the orchestra and the audience, bringing them closer," he explained. Gehry was convinced that comfort and good hall qualities allow the audience to better connect with the music. That's why Walt Disney Hall was inspired by Hans Scharoun's Berlin Philharmonic. Gehry's seats are arranged in concentric terraces around the stage, and the upholstery features a multicolored floral print. "Somehow, people would feel more connected. So I was thinking about the object itself, separate from the walls of the hall. This gave me much more freedom. It was like putting a ship inside a box," Gehry said.

The Solemn Mass Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 is one of the most demanding works in the symphonic-choral repertoire. It is usually tackled by veteran conductors, but increasingly, younger generations are not afraid to take on its challenge. Among them is the Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel, who will conduct it for the first time this weekend with the LA Phil in Los Angeles, on February 20, 21, and 22. For this exceptional occasion, Dudamel has invited the Orfeó Català and the Palau de la Música Chamber Choir to perform. The Orfeó Català will make history with its US debut, and, to top it all off, this is Dudamel's farewell season with the LA Phil.

"From the heart: let it go to the heart," wrote Ludwig van Beethoven in the heading of the Solemn MassHe composed it between 1819 and 1823, when he was also working on the Ninth SymphonyIn fact, he premiered both in the same performance in Vienna in 1824, although the version of the mass was not the final one. Solemn Mass It is a work of full maturity and, at the same time, from a very difficult period, marked by overwhelming deafness. Those close to him maintained that this mass was his masterpiece, and also the Solemn Mass It has gone down in history as one of the most demanding works in the symphonic-choral repertoire.

With the record number of plays on Spotify that it achieved LuxRosalía's latest albumIt's plausible to imagine that some of the people who attended Tuesday's presentation of Barcelona's cultural offerings at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid might have heard some of her new songs on their way to the event organized by Turisme de Barcelona. "The Palau de la Música Chamber Choir is featured on the album every day," asserted Joan Oller, general director of the Palau de la Música. "It was recorded at L'Auditori," added Víctor Medem, his counterpart at the Barcelona music venue. Valentí Oviedo, director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, chimed in: "Rosalía hasn't sung at the Liceu, but I invite her to come and sing there whenever she wants. I'm not going to let the others down now," he joked.

"It's just about sitting back and being overwhelmed by the music," says Simon Halsey, music director of The veil of the temple, The masterpiece by composer John Tavener (1944-2023), which will be performed at the shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Barcelona this Saturday (9 p.m.) as part of the Grec Festival. This is the first time the work will be performed in Barcelona, and it will be performed in a reduced version of two and a half hours, as the original, premiered in London in 2003, lasts almost eight hours. The piece will be performed by the choral family of the Orfeó Català—the heart of the Orfeó Català, the Cor Jove and the Cor de Noies—and the Albada and Roig Korai choirs, with solo voices led by soprano Montserrat Seró. "Beautiful sounds that will fill all parts of the building," explains Halsey.

Xavier Puig (Cervera, 1973) detailed this Tuesday what his first season as director of the Orfeó Català will be like, a responsibility he will combine with that of the Chamber Choir of the Palau de la Música, which he has directed since 2018. Precisely in the Orfeó's rehearsal room, at the Palau de la Música, Larraz, who is leaving the position for family reasons but will continue to be linked to the choral formations of the house as director of the Cor Jove and the Escola Coral. "I want to thank Pablo for the work done, his wisdom"; said Puig, who takes on the challenge of "giving continuity to the excellence and artistic progression" of the heart, as Joaquim Uriach, president of the Orfeó Català-Palau de la Música Catalana Foundation, said.

At the beginning of April, The Catalan Orfeó visited Stockholm to offer, with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, a vibrant interpretation of Mahler's Second Symphony (Resurrection), directed by Daniel Harding. Now, the same program, featuring the same performers, has been seen and heard in Barcelona.

The fact that the Orfeó Català sings the Symphony No. 2, Resurrection, by Gustav Mahler, is nothing new. However, having performed it in Stockholm to a euphoric, standing-room-only audience is a milestone that he proudly adds to an unstoppable career. After performing with the prestigious orchestras of Hamburg and Berlin, the vocational heart of the Palau de la Música debuted last Friday in the Berwaldhallen, accompanied by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and under the baton of British conductor Daniel Harding. "The truth is that the heart is in a very sweet moment; it's a work we know very well and have performed often," says the director of the Orfeó, Pablo Larraz. The concert will be repeated at the Palau de la Música on May 26 and at the Auditori-Palau de Congresos in Girona on May 27.

"The challenge is enormous," says the director general of the Palau de la Música, Joan Oller. The challenge is taken on by the Orfeó Català and the Chamber Choir of the Palau de la Música: 120 singers who will travel to Los Angeles to perform the Solemn masses with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, LA Phil, under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel, on February 20, 21 and 22, 2026. Also participating as soloists will be the soprano Pretty Yende, the mezzo-soprano Sarah Saturnino, the tenor Seokj. "It's one of the most difficult works in the repertoire," says Oller to recall the magnitude of a colossal work. "It's like singing the song nine times." Ninth Symphony. And Dudamel will surely be demanding," he adds.