Wednesday 01 December, 2021

The Basque National Orchestra cancels its December trip to Salzburg

Invited to give three concerts at the prestigious Grosses Festspielhaus in Salzburg on 15, 16 and 17 December, the Basque National Orchestra has decided to cancel its trip due to the current situation caused by Covid and a possible extension of restrictions in Austria. Right now, the entire population is in lockdown, in principle, until 13 December.

Under the direction of the chief conductor Robert Trevino, the orchestra was to bring the prestigious harpist, Xavier de Maistre, as soloist to Salzburg in December, with a double programme on three consecutive days and with the concert hall expected to be full. Xavier de Maistre is also scheduled to appear in the new concert programme that we will present in the next few days (3 to 10 December) and that was to be a preview of our presentation in Salzburg.

The orchestra had been working on the Salzburg trip since before the pandemic. The Summer Festival and the programme of the ‘Large Festival Hall’, in which the orchestra still hopes to perform, is one of the most important and prestigious events in Central European classical music. Recently, orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra have performed on that same stage. The Basque National Orchestra premiered in Salzburg in the early 1980s, but has not returned since. Two years ago, the orchestra received an invitation to give three concerts with two different programmes conducted by Robert Trevino, but the progressive worsening of the pandemic has led to the cancellation of all travel plans at the last minute. The promoter of these concerts has proposed alternative dates to the orchestra and the possibility of attending later, in 2023 or 2024, is being considered.

Given the importance that performing in Salzburg implies, the Basque National Orchestra had modified its schedule and set aside some of its usual commitments, such as participating in the traditional Christmas Concert of El Diario Vasco, in which it will be replaced by the Navarra Symphony Orchestra on 16 December. In its place, during that same part of December the orchestra will undertake the recording of a second album dedicated to Ravel, an idea the orchestra was already working on as a result of the enormous success that the first of the series, recorded with the record company Ondine, continues to enjoy around the world.