Of the 15 al 21 of April, the 58Th edition of the Religious Music Week in Cuenca (SMR). In his third year as artistic director, Christopher Soler has brought together outstanding performers and ensembles from the international and national music scene, as Gidon Kremer, the Kremerata Baltica, Xavier Sabata, Lina Tur Bonet, Manuel Blanco, the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra, he Coro de RTVE, Together conductus, Plural Ensemble, Nacho de Paz, Fahmi Alqhai and the Academy of Pleasure, among others, to perform at various venues throughout the city: Theater - Auditorium, the church of La Merced, the Torner Space, the Chapel of the Holy Spirit Cathedral and the Romanesque church of Arcas.
The composer Arvo Pärt and the chamber orchestra Kremerata Baltica, founded by violinist Gidon Kremer, they receive the Honorary Awards 58 SMR "to the defense and dissemination of religious music" in the individual and group modalities. Arvo Pärt is the highest representative of the sacrum minimalism. Estonian composer's work is crucial to understanding the evolution of religious and spiritual musical creation of the last half century. La Kremerata Baltica, created by Gidon Kremer two decades, It is formed by young virtuosos of the Baltic states. Kremer has been a strong advocate of contemporary religious and spiritual production. The two opening concerts attest this commitment edition.
The Theater-Auditorium of Cuenca will host the six concerts of the SMR - Passion Week: Homenaje a Arvo Pärt (works by Pärt and Weinberg), Mystical sounds of s. XX (Shostakovich, Weinberg, Kancheli), by violinist Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica; Missa Solemnis Beethoven, in interpretation of the Lisbon Metropolitan Orchestra (Pedro Amaral, director), RTVE Choir (Juan Pablo de Juan, director), the soprano Look Urbieta-Vega, mezzo-soprano Lorena Valero, Fabian Lara and tenor bass-baritone André Henriques; When the body dies, a baroque program in which countertenor Xavier Sabata and the Cappella Cracoviensis, directed by Jorge Jimenez, will perform arias from oratorios by Alessandro Scarlatti and Antonio Caldara, as well as the well-known Stabat Mater Vivaldi. It will also host the Passion according to San Marcos, J. S. Bach, with conductus Ensemble, and the direction of Andoni Sierra, Y Meister Eckhart, Tristan Tzara: a spiritual axis with Plural Ensemble and the soprano Estíbaliz Martyn, under the direction of Nacho de Paz. Works by Dünser will sound, Radvilovich and the world premiere of Meister Eckhart: Mystical Song, Fabian Panisello, commissioned by the festival for 58 SMR.
SMR Antigua will consist of four concerts, from the Renaissance to the Baroque, in different scenes of the city: the trumpeter Manuel Blanco and the organist Pablo Márquez Caraballo will present the program The Trumpet shall sound, with works by J.S. Bach, Haendel, the Buxtehude, in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit of the Cathedral of Cuenca; the violinist Lina Tur Bonet will offer a Trek Bach Partitas in Torner Space; tenor Vivien Simon and Ariel Abramovich (Renaissance lute) propose From the bottom of my thought, an anthology of psalms and spiritual songs in the Church of Arcas, y the Academy of Pleasure y su director Fahmi Alqhai, show the French influences in the music of Bach, in the Church of the Merced.
SMR Contemporary has scheduled a new edition of the ‘Concert 6 + 9’, in which six composers SMR Contemporary Workshop, closely with the UIMP, present their new works based on the motif of the Paschal Victim. They will be performed by the Trio Brouwer, formed by the violinist Jenny Guerra, cellist Elena Solanes, and pianist Carlos Apellániz; SMR nine directors Contemporary Workshop, led by Professors Arturo Tamayo and José Luis Temes, They are put in front of the Harmonie Ensemble, with The master without hammer Pierre Boulez. further, soprano Carole Sidney Louis, Puente and pianist Isabel, will offer a recital melodies by Olivier Messiaen. Francisco Coll, SMR Composer-in-Residence and ICMA Composition Award 2019, It will be the subject of a conference that glossed his career.
With the aim of training as spectators to children and youth, adult audiences tomorrow, the 58 SMR proposes the 'Introduction to Classical Music program: Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven ', especially aimed at students of Elementary and Secondary Education
As every year, programming 58 SMR will be completed with a series of lectures and symposium open to the public, taught mostly by professors from the University of Castilla-La Mancha. Once again, Religious Music Week in Cuenca has coverage Classical Radio and RTVE, through 'the concerts of the 2'.
Photograph: Paolo Pellegrin-Magnum Photos