Ravel / Falla

Juanjo Mena, the most internationally-renowned Basque conductor, returns to the Basque National Orchestra Season to tackle a programme in which folklore occupies a prominent place. Basque folk music resonates in the Overture of Ramuntcho that Gabriel Pierné wrote in 1908 to accompany a theatrical version of this novel by Pierre Loti, and also in Maurice Ravel’s Concerto in G, which opens with a sonic ecstasy that evokes txistus, tambourines and panderos. Another musician from Vitoria with a great career, Alfonso Gómez, will be the piano soloist in this Ravelian score that illuminates the orchestra with hundreds of colours. Finally, and accompanied by mezzo-soprano Clara Mouriz from San Sebastian, Mena will transport us to Andalusia at the end of the 18th century, where the adventures of the millers who are the main characters in Manuel de Falla's El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat) take place.