Friday 30 November, 2018

The Basque National Orchestra is ready for its next international challenge: Austria and Germany

Left-right: Elena Mtz. de Murguía (viola), Héctor Marqués (percussion), Mojca Erdmann (soprano), Robert Treviño (musical director), Joxean Muñoz (culture vicepresident), Oriol Roch (CEO), Amaia Asurmendi (violin), Tomás Ruti (bassoon)

The orchestra's three-concert tour will take in prestigious concert halls in Linz and Bregenz (Austria) and Munich (Germany) between December 4th and 8th.

The final rehearsal before the Basque National Orchestra’s tour of Austria and Germany—with three concerts in Linz, Bregenz and Munich—takes place today, Friday November 30th.

The tour is the most significant international artistic challenge of the season for the orchestra and its first tour with its principal conductor, Robert Treviño.

Treviño and the Baskisches Nationalorchester (as it is being presented) will be joined by the German soprano Mojca Erdmann and the Israeli violinist Vadim Gluzman, the two great soloists invited to join this concert tour.

Programmes and concerts

The orchestra will hit the road on Monday, December 3rd and will give three concerts in noteworthy Central European cities and concert halls with a long musical tradition and demanding audiences: December 4th in the Brucknerhaus, Linz, December 6th in Herkulessaal, Munich, and December 8th in the Festspielhaus, Bregenz.

All three concerts will open with Basque music: Meditación by Aita Donostia in Linz, and Siete Lieder (selection) by Pablo Sorozábal in Munich and Bregenz, with the voice of Erdmann heard for the first time in Basque. Sorozábal, a great admirer of German culture, wrote this work in Leipzig in 1929. His music is infused with Basque rhythms and modulations and each lied is dedicated to one of his friends, each of them personalities from Basque culture. His Siete Lieder are part of the Basque Music Collection recorded by the Basque National Orchestra for the Claves label. The collection has become an undisputed benchmark of Basque symphonic music.

The second part of all three concerts will include Mahler's Fourth Symphony, one of the German composer’s most popular pieces. The German soprano Mojca Erdmann will again take up the solo sections. Each city will set a different tone in the first part of their respective concerts.

After Aita Donostia in Linz, the orchestra and the soprano Erdmann will perform a selection of arias for soprano and church sonatas by Mozart.

Following a selection of Sorozábal's Siete Lieder in Munich, the orchestra’s music stands will carry Elgar’s Enigma Variations in the first part of the programme, in contrast to Mahler’s Fourth Symphony. Under the baton of Robert Treviño, this hugely demanding programme will showcase the strengths of the Basque National Orchestra.

Lastly, in Bregenz, the first part of the programme will feature Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 2 with Vadim Gluzman as soloist, in addition to the work by Sorozábal

Before setting off on tour, the orchestra will offer an open general rehearsal tomorrow, December 1st at 11:00 as part of the Miramon Matinees programme. This is a rare and first-class feature in the programme of small-scale chamber concerts usually offered in this cycle. The orchestra will be joined by the soprano Mojca Erdmann for a concert comprising part of the orchestra's tour programme: Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, and a selection of arias for soprano and church sonatas by Mozart. There are no tickets left for the matinee concert.

Treviño and his intense international career

The North American conductor is developing an intense international career. In Europe alone he has conducted, and with immense success, orchestras including the Stuttgart Symphony, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Rotterdam, the Viena Tonküstler, and the Munich Philharmonic, precisely at the Herkulessaal and where his Fifth Symphony by Mahler is still remembered. Robert Treviño is earning fame as a conductor for his performances of Mahler’s work and his recent versions of the German composer as frontman of the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic and the Zurich Tonhalle received public and critical acclaim. Now he wants to return to this legendary hall with Mahler on the music stands and with his Orchestra, which also gives a repeat performance after its first time round in 2003.

International presence of the Orchestra

The Basque National Orchestra is an institution which never fails to fulfil its vocation as ambassador of the Basque culture. That’s why, over its 36 years, it has taken to international stages in different ways and with a variety of objectives.

It has performed in several Festivals and Seasons, such as the Biennale di Venezia and the Opéra Royal Château de Versailles (which it regularly attends with the Malandain Ballet Biarritz, an experience it will repeat in March 2019 with the premiere of “Marie Antoinette”).

Also in the orchestra exchange format, such as its exchanges with the Düsseldorf and Milan’s Giuseppe Verdi orchestras or the classic exchange with the ONBA from Bordeaux.

But its best known format is that of its concert tours, of which this one represents international tour number 18. Since 1984, the Orchestra has toured Argentina, Chile, England and Italy. But above all it has given numerous performances in different Central European cities in Germany (Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Passau, Bayreuth, Augsburg, Hamburg, Bremen, Düsseldorf and Munich), Austria (Vienna, Salzburg and Linz) and Switzerland (Lucerne, Gstaad and Zurich). It will now repeat its performance in Munich (for the third time) and Linz (for the fourth time) and will appear for the first time in Bregenz.

We should highlight, as a new example of relations between the Basque Country, Bavaria and the Austrian region of Vorarlberg, that our visit to Bregenz has been preceded by a collective exhibition “Bilbao – Bregenz” at the Kunsthaus Bregenz, an exhibition commemorating the work of the 40 artists who have participated in exchanges between the Kunsthaus Bregenz and BilbaoArte over the last 10 years (2006-2016).