Thomas Dausgaard: Barcelona Symphony Orchestra

About the Event

Young pianist Javier Perianes and the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Thomas Dausgaard, will perform works by Gerhard, Saint‐Saens and Schumann at the Auditori de Barcelona.

Schumann finished writing his Second Symphony in C major in 1847. Written in a stormy period of his life, marked by health problems, the piece is a cry of hope, a constant play between the inevitability of fate and human will to overcome it. Thus we can hear in the staccati in the strong time of the Sostenuto assai — allegro ma non troppo, which begins the symphony, a real blow to counteract the designs of fate. Beethoven's influence marks the aesthetic of the piece, which follows with a marked Scherzo having an obvious existential pounding. Exceptional music, which ends with an Allegro molto, full of energy: a hymn to the strength of the human spirit.

The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in a minor by Edvard Grieg (1868) was the only concerto that the author was able to complete, and is one of the most popular piano concertos, an ideal piece for the pianistic talents of Javier Perianes.

Pedrelliana is the first symphony by the genius Robert Gerhard. It is a tribute to his teacher Felip Pedrell, mixing folk heritage with musical modernism stylistic advances like no other Catalan composer of the XXth century. A delicacy that further enhances the figure of this country's great composer.

Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya (OBC)
Thomas Dausgaard, conductor
Javier Perianes, piano