The Basque National Orchestra's Season Concerts welcome the Malandain Ballet Biarritz and its show "Magifique. Tchaikovsky Suites"

Within this, its 9th Season Programme, the Basque National Orchestra joins the Malandain Ballet Biarritz to stage "Magifique. Tchaikovsky Suites." This is the first time the Orchestra's Season Programme has featured a project of this kind: on stage, the 18 dancers from the Malandain Ballet Biarritz perform Thierry Malandain's personal interpretation of Tchaikovsky's ballet suites, while, from its pit, the Basque National Orchestra, conducted by Eduardo Portal, accompanies the performance with selected passages from the Russian composer's scores.

A few short inserts are added to Tchaikovsky's magical music for dance by Nicolas Duperior and the director/choreographer of the Malandain Ballet Biarritz National Choreography Centre, Thierry Malandain. Their aim, to create a performance uniting memories, sentimental nuances, reminiscences of Tchaikovsky's ballets. Magifique is the word Malandain used to exclaim his astonishment as a child. "Magnificent with no n, that invented word, that short-circuit, is the perfect match for this creation, in Malandain's words: provoking magic or, rather, recycling the raw material of life to produce expressive, poetic forms." Backed by the acclaim of its presentation in December 2009, ‘Magifique' now comes to us adorned with the magnificence etched by the live music of a symphony orchestra upon the dancing, the stage design and its visuals.

The Orchestra conductor for the occasion is Eduardo Portal, from Burgos. This director, who takes to the Orchestra podium for the first time, has worked among others with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (more information at www.euskadikoorkestra.es).

Prior to the performance, an open rehearsal. A few hours before its Season Concert premiere and as part of the activities organised by the Orchestra's Music Room, over a thousand children from the third cycle of primary school and the first cycle of secondary school came together at the Kursaal to attend the open rehearsal of "Magifique," an endeavour undoubtedly set to become a very special first contact with the audience.