JULY 2020
Repertoire
J.S. BACH: Air from Suite No. 3, BWV 1068
L. VAN BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 3, Op. 55 ‘Eroica’
Performers
Orquestra Simfònica Camera Musicae
Jordi Mora, conductor
Programme notes
There are few events more emotional than a tribute. Memories of the past are united in a shared present that, in some way, will be projected in the future of each one. The Pau Casals Orchestra was created a hundred years ago, and one of the most memorable concerts was the one held in Plaça Nova del Vendrell, in 1927, which paid tribute to Pau Casals.
Johann Sebastian Bach wrote four orchestral suites, all of extraordinary beauty. However, the Aria from Suite No. 3 occupies an emblematic place because of its apparent simplicity but which concentrates all the complexity of the music: the fascination of a melody that repeats but does not bore because it always advances; the intrigue of a harmony that seems to follow the canons that are, at the same time, unique and a contrapuntal texture within which the instruments say different things. They speak at the same time, but they are heard, they are understood.
Beethoven understood perfectly that this composition was about that: making the difficult seem easy and, conscious of it, he decided to speak of the human being through music. With his third symphony, he demonstrated his genius and courage by showing that he did not renounce musical inheritances, but he did not tie himself to them. Considered by most experts as the symphony that marked the passage from Classicism to Romanticism, the title “Heroic” symbolizes more an ideal than a specific person. His four movements perfectly reflect ‘per aspera ad astra’ (from adversity to triumph), which so inspired 19th century composers. At the moment the world is in today, the strength and momentum of this symphony is comforting.
CONCERT DATES
Centennial Commemoration Pau Casals Orchestra
Born in Barcelona, he studied orchestral direction mainly with Sergiu Celibidache. He has been the principal conductor of the National Orchestra of Greece and the Orquestra Simfònica del Vallés.
As a guest conductor, he regularly directs in Germany, Spain, Argentina, Lebanon, Italy, USA, Russia, Romania, Greece and Venezuela.
He performs a wide pedagogical task, especially in Spain, Switzerland (Foundation Résonnance), Argentina (Fundación Cultural Argentina, Lyric Soul), Norway, Holland and Germany, putting into practice the system of the phenomenology of music, for both directors, as instrumental soloists, singers or chamber groups.
He is professor of orchestral conducting at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (Barcelona) and guest professor of the Grieg-Akademie in Bergen (Norway). He is currently the director of the Orquestra Simfònica Segle XXI and the Bruckner Akademie Orchester, orchestra with he is making the integral of the symphonic work of this composer.
In 2014 he was named principal guest conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Lebanon, where he has expanded his repertoire especially with the Schostakovich symphonies.
He has recently directed the Orquesta Nacional de Argentina and the Sinfónica Simón Bolívar of Venezuela. From 2014 to 2017 he was the main guest conductor of the Orquestra Simfònica Camera Musicae (Catalonia).