The San Sebastián Festival, the Basque National Orchestra and the SGAE Foundation return to the Velodrome with a film and music extravaganza

The conductor of the Basque National Orchestra Juan José Ocón will once again take up the baton for this hugely popular combination of films and their music. The concert will open with the soundtrack familiar to a whole generation, created by Carmelo Bernaola for Verano Azul / Blue Summer, Tormento / Torment, El jorobado de la morgue, La clave and Espérame en el cielo / Wait for Me in Heaven. The proceedings will continue with Papeles by the composer Carla F. Benedicto; Sacamantecas / The Harvester by Beatriz López-Nogales; Winnipeg, the Seed of Hope by Diego Navarro; and Evolution by Alfred Tapscott; ending with the operettas El cantor de México and El amor es como un ramo de violetas by Francis López, the two works that brought fame to the singer from Irun Luis Mariano and whose voice will be rendered by the singer from Getxo, Andoni Martínez Barañano. For this latest concert, the Basque Orchestra has invited the Orfeón Donostiarra choir to perform on several numbers: Winnipeg, Evolution, el Cantor de México and Violetas imperiales.  

Like in previous years, the concert will have an added visual slant: the music will tie in with the showing, on the 400m2 screen, of a montage of scenes from the films, specifically created for the concert by the Morgancrea team. In addition, the composers will attend the concert and take to the stage of the Velodrome to introduce their work.

Entry is free, although invitations must be collected, from 12-18 September, from the San Sebastián Festival information point at the Kursaal or the Donostia Turismo office (Calle Ijentea, 1), Monday-Sunday, 09:00-20:00. If invitations are still available, they can also be collected from the Velodrome ticket office on the same day of the concert, from 16:00.

The Basque National Orchestra with the Festival

Over the years, the Basque National Orchestra has repeated its presence at the San Sebastián Festival in different ways. One of the most notable was the 2012 edition, when the orchestra performed the complete soundtrack of Juan Antonio Bayona’s world-famous film Lo imposible / The Impossible, with a score penned by Fernando Velázquez. From the following year, 2013, the orchestra started to offer a live concert of film music, first of all at its Miramón headquarters, and, from 2015, on the enormous stage of the Velodrome, the venue still used today. In this decade of film music concerts, the orchestra has performed the soundtracks of feature films including Handia (Giant), Errementari (The Blacksmith and the Devil), Arrugas (Wrinkles), Pájaros de Papel (Paper Birds), The Oxford Murders, Tadeo Jones 2 (Tad, the Lost Explorer), Mientras dure la guerra (While at War), Buñuel en el laberinto de tortugas (Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles)… During this time, the Basque Orchestra has performed and drawn attention to more than 70 soundtracks from our films. It is also worth noting that the orchestra recorded the Festival soundtrack in its 1991 and 1992 editions.

In addition to its consolidated collaboration with the San Sebastián Festival, the Basque National Orchestra can boast several involvements in film music. Particularly interesting are the soundtracks for Patria and Maixabel, as well as a few earlier recordings, such as that of A Monster Calls —with which Fernando Velázquez won the Goya for Best Original Song in 2016, Ocho Apellidos Vascos (A Spanish Affair), Contratiempo (The Invisible Guest), Submergence, Momias / Mummies, etc.

The SGAE Foundation with the cinema

Since 2012, the SGAE Foundation has been co-organising the non-competitive Made in Spain section, showcasing a selection of Spanish films made in the last year, whether or not they have had their release, to which the Festival provides an excellent platform for their international dissemination. These works will screen from 22-26 September at the Sala Berlanga in Madrid.

For its part, the Territorial Council of the SGAE in the Basque Country supports the GIDOI-SGAE Award going to the Best Basque Screenplay, given annually by the Professional Association of Screenwriters of the Basque Country and which will be presented at the EITB Basque Cinema Gala on 22 September. The list of winners in other years includes acclaimed Basque screenwriters such as Enrique Urbizu, José Mari Goenaga, Aitor Arregi, Maider Oleaga, Marina Parés, Telmo Esnal, Iñaki Rikarte, David Pérez-Sañudo and Borja Cobeaga.   

For the first time, the foundation created by the Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers (SGAE) gives the SGAE Award for Best Original Music going to the score of one of the 17 films competing in the Festival’s Official Selection. This award is yet another example of the close collaboration maintained by the festival and the SGAE Foundation for more than a decade, recognising “the excellence of the original music composition and its artistic contribution to the cinematographic work as a whole”. The award will be presented at the Festival’s closing gala and will honour the field of film music composition for the first time.

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