Clarinettist Martin Fröst and the premiere of Mauricio Sotelo's Urrutiko urdin in a new BNO Season Concert Programme
Lejano azul, lejana Finlandia (Distant Blue, Distant Finland) is the title of the Basque National Orchestra's 7th concert programme to be held in Vitoria, San Sebastián, Pamplona and Bilbao from 25 to 31 January. Finnish conductor Ari Rasilainen will lead the Orchestra in this series of concerts featuring Swedish guest soloist, clarinettist Martin Fröst. Another highlight of this programme is the world premiere of Mauricio Sotelo's Urrutiko urdin, one of the pieces included in the musical mosaic, Tesela, a project celebrating the Orchestra's 30th anniversary.
This is not the first time Martin Fröst joins the BNO's Season Concert programme. Orchestra audiences had the opportunity to hear the talented Swedish clarinettist in May 2009, when he won critical and audience acclaim debuting with the BNO in Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra by C. Nielsen. The following was written about the artist at the time: "a soloist of extraordinary musical talent", "a highly nuanced version, transparent despite its complexity", "robust sound [...], incredible runs of notes, with masterly ease" and "superb clarinet; a soloist of incredibly beautiful tone". On this occasion he will join the BNO in a rendition of Mozart's Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, In addition to his BNO Season Concert performance, on 26 January Martin Fröst will offer a recital as part of the Miramón Matinées series together with pianist Javier Pérez de Azpeitia; The concert will be held at the BNO Miramón headquarters. On the 28th Fröst will give a master class to students of Musikene as part of the "Aula Jordá" cooperation agreement between Musikene and the BNO
Urrutiko urdin by Mauricio Sotelo, a new "tessera" in the mosaic of contemporary compositions commissioned by the Basque National Orchestra. After the previous debut of Ravel à son âme by French composer Gerard Pesson, the BNO Orquesta is now proud to present Urrutiko urdin by Spanish composer Mauricio Sotelo. The peformance is part of Tesela, a project supported with funding by Fundación BBVA. Sotelo is a disciple of Luigi Nono and winner of the Spanish National Music Prize in 2001. His work is rooted in the intense forms of cante hondo, a style that has brought him in collaboration with Enrique Morente, Carmen Linares, Marina Heredia, Pitingo, Arcángel and Miguel Poveda. In Urrutiko urdin, however, the composer takes his inspiration from his boyhood summers in Euskadi, invoking the the sky and the sea.
Ari Rasilainen debuts in the BNO Concert Season. Finnish conductor Ari Rasilainen to debut this season as guest with the Basque National Orchestra. But this isn't the first time Rasilainen takes up the baton with the BNO: In September 2010, as part of the San Sebastián Classical Music Festival, he conducted a concert featuring the music of Rachmaninov. In addition to Urrutiko urdin and Mozart's Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, the programme will feature Symphony No. 2 by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Rasilainen has conducted on numerous occasions for orchestras including the Suisse Romande, Tonkünstler Orchester Niederösterreich, and the radio orchestras of Frankfurt, Leipzig, Stuttgart and Berlin, and has worked with soloists such as Montserrat Caballé, Julia Fischer, Shlomo Mintz, Daniel Müller-Schott, Gregory Sokolov and Nikolaj Znaider.
