The 2022-2023 Miramon Matinée Season will begin on Saturday 8 October at the headquarters of the Basque National Orchestra. The matinées have been running for more than three decades as part of the Basque National Orchestra's schedule, offering a quality musical alternative. The season, which since its creation has been supported by Kutxa Fundazioa, will extend until 3 June and includes a total of sixteen events.

Chamber ensembles in the Basque National Orchestra usually occupy a large part of the season’s schedule, and this Season will be no exception. Several different string and wind instrument ensembles will continue to offer classical repertoires and other more hidden treasures of chamber music: Sexteto Apasionado, Hemiola Quartet, Belle Époque Quartet, Haize, Arima Quartet or Cuivres en Pays Basque, a curious ensemble of almost thirty brass wind instrumentalists from orchestras in the French Basque Country and the Basque National Orchestra.

However, there will also be room for proposals that differ from this format. For example, the Basque National Orchestra's percussion section will resume the percussion performance with domestic elements, Living Room Music, which was so successfully launched in the Music Room educational activity but could not be carried out during the last season in the Matinées due to the pandemic. Also worth highlighting is the presence of two choir ensembles from the territory offering a concert each: Akelarre Abesbatza and Vocalia Taldea. All of these proposals make up an attractive menu where everyone can find their own particular treasure.

This is the complete schedule of this season's Matinées:

• 8 October: Ensemble Oiasso
• 22 October: Le Monde Quartet
• 5 November: Sexteto Apasionado
• 26 November: Belharra
• 3 December: Minerva Quartet
• 17 December: Izai
• 14 January: Haize
• 28 January: Basque National Orchestra Percussion Section
• 11 February: Queentettas
• 4 March: Akelarre Abesbatza
• 11 March: Hemiola Quartet
• 1 April: Vocalia Taldea
• 22 April: Groupe Damasienne
• 6 May: Arima Quintet
• 13 May: Cuivres en Pays Basque
• 3 June: Belle Époque Quartet

Ensemble Oiasso opens the Matinées Season next Saturday

Next Saturday 8 October at 11:00 the ensemble of seven musicians from the Oiasso Ensemble will start the new season of the Miramon Matinées, with a concert titled ‘Sounds on the Danube: from Budapest to Vienna’. The line-up includes Laura Balboa (violin), Delphine Dupuy (viola), Gabriel Mesado (cello), Paloma Torrado (double bass), Luis Cámara (clarinet), François Proud (bassoon) and Cristian Palau (French horn).

Ensemble Oiasso will play two pieces at this Matinée: the Intermezzo for String Trio by Zoltan Kodaly and the Septet by Ludwig Van Beethoven.

Kodaly is considered one of the most important Hungarian composers of the 20th century. His Intermezzo for String Trio, which will be heard at the start of this first Matinée of the Season, dates back to around 1905. It was during this period when the composer started his travels visiting remote villages to compile Hungarian folk songs. As a result of all this fieldwork, folk melodies play an important role in Kodaly's music. In the Intermezzo there are abundant sounds from real Hungarian folk melodies, instead of the image of gypsy music made popular by Austrian and German composers such as Brahms. This piece, with just one movement, has the character of a relaxed serenade.

The central piece of this concert will be Beethoven's Septet, which was launched with great success in April 1800, within the same program that included the presentation of his Symphony No. 1. In spirit and in form, the Septet follows the model of 18th-century divertimenti, a lighter entertainment in a series of short movements. However, it opens with an almost symphonic movement, with a slow introduction followed by an adagio which offers lyrical opportunities for the soloists. The Minuet is based on a theme of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 2, which had been composed in 1796. The German composer uses all the instrumental variety he has available in the theme and variations that follow. The French horn introduces the rustic scherzo, and the contrasting section of the trio presents a beautiful melody for cello. A solemn march introduces the final part, a luminous and elegant presto

Season tickets and tickets

The season ticket for the 16 concerts has a general price of €96 and €75.20 for beneficiaries of the special price (over-65's, under-30s, holders of season tickets for other seasons of the orchestra, for Kursaal Eszena, holders of K26 and K26+ cards from Kutxabank, friends of Eureka! Zientzia Museoa and Musikene). Already available for purchase by calling the Basque National Orchestra's offices (943 01 32 32) or via the website euskadikoorkestra.eus.

Tickets for single concerts cost €11 and are available for purchase on euskadikoorkestra.eus, at the ticket booth of the Kursaal Auditorium and on the same day of the concert, if seats are available, at the ticket booth of the orchestra's headquarters in Miramon.

Free bus service

The concerts will be held at 11:00 am, at Basque National Orchestra's headquarters in Miramon. In order to attend them, the orchestras will continue to provide a free public bus service. It leaves at 10:25 from Gipuzkoa Plaza 4 and stops at Sancho El Sabio 18 and Avda. de Madrid 34.

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The film music concert is a classic event in the San Sebastian Festival and is a staple among the offerings of the Velodrome, undoubtedly the Festival’s most popular stage, with a capacity for an audience of 3000. The director from San Sebastian Juan José Ocón will be in charge of directing the orchestra at this multitudinous event with films and film scores.

This year's Concert & Screening features the adaptations of music composed for seven films. The composers chosen for this occasion have been: Alejandro Amenábar in Mientras dure la guerra; Eva Gancedo in La buena estrella; Carles Cases in El portero; Carmelo Bernaola in Nueve cartas a Berta; Arturo Cardelús in Buñuel en el laberinto de las tortugas; Aitor Amezaga in La sombra de nadie; and Manel Gil-Inglada in Cher ami.

For this new concert the Basque National Orchestra has invited Andra Mari Abesbatza, which will perform in Buñuel en el laberinto de las tortugas and La sombra de nadie.

As in previous years, the concert will have an additional visual element: the music is linked to the screening, on a 400m² screen, of a medley of scenes from the films and which has been specifically created for this concert by Carlos Rodríguez, from Morgancrea. In addition, several composers will attend the concert and will be on the Velodrome’s stage to present their work.

Admission is free of charge and it will be necessary to collect the corresponding invitation from 10 to 16 September at the information point of the San Sebastian Festival in the Kursaal, from 9:00 to 20:00, or at the Donostia Tourism office, from Monday to Saturday from 9:00 to 20:00 and on Sunday from 10:00 to 19:00.The last tickets can be collected at the ticket booth of the Velodrome on the day of the concert starting at 10 AM.

CONCERT & SCREENING
Saturday 17 September, 12:00
San Sebastian Velodrome

Programme
Alejandro Amenábar: Mientras dure la guerra (Director: Alejandro Amenábar)
Eva Gancedo: La buena estrella (Director: Ricardo Franco)
Carles Cases: El portero (Director: Gonzalo Suárez)
Carmelo Bernaola: Nueve cartas a Berta (Director: Basilio Martin Patino)
Arturo Cardelús: Buñuel en el laberinto de las tortugas* (Director: Salvador Simó)
Aitor Amezaga: La sombra de nadie* (Director: Pablo Malo)
Manel Gil-Inglada: Cher ami (Director: Miquel Pujol)

Juan José Ocón, director
Andra Mari Abesbatza, choir*
Basque National Orchestra

Approximate duration of the concert: 1h15

Over the years, the Basque National Orchestra has been present at the San Sebastian Festival in a variety of ways. One of its most notable participations was at the 2012 edition, when the orchestra performed at the live première of the film score for the world-famous film Lo Imposible, by Juan Antonio Bayona, a score signed by Fernando Velázquez. Starting the following year, 2013, the orchestra began to offer on a continuous basis a live film music concert, first at its headquarters in Miramon, and from 2015 in the Velodrome, the big stage it has stayed on until this year. During this decade of film music concerts, the orchestra has performed the film scores of feature-length films such as Handia, Errementari, Arrugas, Pájaros de Papel, You’re the One, Los crímenes de Oxford, Frío sol de invierno, Alatriste, Tadeo Jones 2… It should also be highlighted that the orchestra recorded the theme music for the Festival for the 1991 and 1992 editions. This year new theme music has been recorded for the Festival, with the collaboration of the tuba soloist of the Basque National Orchestra, Óscar Abella.

In addition to its consolidated collaboration with the San Sebastian Festival, the Basque National Orchestra has explored film music on many occasions. Worth mentioning are the recent recordings of the film scores of Patria and Maixabel, as well as some previous recordings such as Un monstruo viene a verme —for which Fernando Velázquez received the Goya for the Best Original Song 2017—, Ocho Apellidos Vascos, Contratiempo, Submergence, etc.

The SGAE Foundation closely collaborates with and supports the San Sebastian Festival. Over the decades, the foundation of the Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers has focused its participation on both initiatives of the festival and on the development of events and calls of its own, which the San Sebastian Festival has always generously accommodated.

Among the prominent activities of the entity during these 25 years we could highlight: collaboration with the organisation of the non-competition section Made In Spain, an international showcase for our most recent audiovisual production. In addition, at the Sala Berlanga in Madrid, which belongs to the entity, on dates close to the festival we organise a screening of films that will compete in this section. Likewise, it has promoted professional gatherings, presentations, and in particular, awards dedicated to the screenwriter’s collective such as the SGAE’s Julio Alejandro Screenwriting Award for feature-length fiction films, the Prize for the Best Basque Script by the Basque Professional Screenwriters’ Association, and recently, to address gender equality in this medium, the Dunia Ayaso Award, which this year will be given on 22 September. Lastly, we should not forget an unmissable part of the festival with the film scores thanks to the celebration of Concert & Screening, where the Anoeta Velodrome will host a concert with a selection of film scores performed by the Basque National Orchestra, accompanied by the screening of fragments of the films referenced. Learn about all the activities of the SGAE Foundation at the 70th San Sebastian Festival on the website of the SGAE Foundation.

Alejandro Amenábar – Mientras dure la guerra

Director, screenwriter, producer and music composer, a facet that is highlighted in this programme, his career started in the early 1990s when he made a number of short films, though his first success as a director came in 1996 with Tesis. Mientras dure la guerra is in fact his latest film, for which he is the screenwriter, director and score composer: 17 nominations and 5 Goya Awards in 2020, among them Best Production Supervision. All in all he is behind another five films and several television series, the latest La Fortuna, an international production based on a comic by Paco Roca and Guillermo Corral. This creative based in Madrid stands out for being the screenwriter and composer of the music scores for his feature-length films, as well as others done by commission. He won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Mar Adentro, a film featuring Javier Bardem, and received some twenty awards at the main film festivals around the world: Among them Venice or Tokyo. With The Sea Inside he received a Goya for Best Original Score, also in 2005. In total, for his work he has received 9 Goyas, the awards given by the Spanish Film Academy.

Eva Gancedo – La buena estrella

She studied music at the Higher Music Conservatory of Madrid and at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. As a film music composer she has worked with directors such as Rafael Gordon, Manuel Palacios or Ricardo Franco, for whom she became a regular composer. She also has created works for stage performances with directors such as José Monleón (theatre) or Carmen Senra (dance). Her works have been performed, among others, by the Orchestra of Radio Televisión Española or the Prague Symphony Orchestra. She received a Goya from the Spanish Film Academy for Best Original Score for the music in The Lucky Star, for which she also won the Award from the Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos (Cinema Writers Circle). She currently combines her activity as a composer with that of an educator. She teaches at the Master's Degree in Composition for Audiovisual Media and at the Music Education Degree in the Katarina Gurska Higher Education Centre, as well as at the Higher Conservatory of Madrid.

Carles Cases – El Portero

Carles Cases has dedicated 25 years to composing and creating scores for films, both European and American. A regular composer for films by directors such as Gonzalo Suárez, Ventura Pons, Jaume Balagueró, Eduardo Rossoff, Jaime Chávarri or Stuart Gordon, Carles Cases has an extensive musical legacy with 70 film scores, some 50 albums published and around three thousand concerts given. He is currently immersed in the composition and recording of his own productions, combining it with offering concerts of his works, in solo piano, duet, trio or orchestra formats. In 2021 he published Minimal, his first minimalist work. In the 1980s he was exclusively dedicated to the musical direction of singer-songwriter Lluís Llach, both the recording of albums and live performances, offering 800 concerts. The Charles Cross Academy (Paris) gave him the Best Album award for T’estimo by Lluís Llach.

Carmelo Alonso Bernaola – Nueve cartas a Berta

Considered one of the great composers of the second half of the 20th century in Spain, he studied harmony and clarinet in Burgos and at the Madrid Conservatory. Greatly influenced by the music of Bartók, Stravinski and Hindemith, he composed Cuarteto para cuerda (String Quartet), which would earn him the National Music Award (1962). He continued his studies at the Chigiana de Siena Academy, which enabled him to modernise his musical language and become a powerful innovator -not without controversy- in his first premières for full orchestra.  To his credit: more than 100 film scores, around 50 theatre productions, eight television series plus programmes and theme music. A work acknowledged in this field with the National Film Music Award (1969 and 1973), the Goya Award for Best Original Score (1989) and the Gold Medal from the Spanish Film Academy (2002). The following acknowledgements can be added to these awards and his work as a teacher and educator at universities and conservatories: Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts (1987), National Music Award (1992), membership of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando (1993), Medal for Artistic Merit from Madrid City Council (1993) and Honorary Doctorate from the Complutense University of Madrid (1997), among many others.

Arturo Cardelús – Buñuel en el laberinto de las aceitunas
Arturo Cardelús is a composer from Madrid based in Los Angeles. His work for Buñuel en el laberinto de las tortugas was hailed as the “soundtrack of the year” by The Wrap, nominated for the Goya and awarded the Biznaga for Best Music at the Málaga Festival and Best Music award at the Annecy Festival. Other works by Cardelús are the viral phenomenon In a Heartbeat, Black Beach, the immersive Frida Kahlo exhibition, the Netflix Original mini-series Call me Francis, Descendants, The People's Fighters by Frank Marshall and Altamira, el origen del Arte by José Luis López Linares. The contributions by Cardelús to the world of concert music were acknowledged when he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2016. He studied piano at the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, the Higher Music Conservatory of Salamanca and the Professional Conservatory of Guadalajara. In 2008 Cardelús changed direction, studying composition and film at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude and received the highest award from the composition department.

Aitor Amezaga – La sombra de nadie
Born in Bilbao and trained in a Conservatory, he completed his education at L’aula de música moderna y Jazz with Arthur Berstein and received the Recital Certificate of Keyboards from the prestigious Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. Since 1973 he has collaborated as an arranger and recording musician for over 80 albums; there are six albums on the market with his work and he has made music for television, radio and different media in Spain, Argentina, France, Germany, Israel or Switzerland, among others. In the field of soundtracks for feature-length films he has carried out four projects: Ione, sube al cielo by Joseba Salegi, Frío sol de invierno by Pablo Malo, Skizo by Jesús Ponce and La sombra de nadie by Pablo Malo. He currently combines his creative activity with education by teaching at the Music School of San Sebastian, and by collaborating with the Conservatory of Irun and Udako Euskal Unibertsitatea. In addition, as an author he has published three sheet music books for piano.

Manel Gil-Inglada – Cher ami

Manel Gil-Inglada a renowned and multiple award-winning composer of soundtracks with more than 45 international recognitions between nominations and awards during the last ten years only. With more than 30 years of experience in the audiovisual sector aside from as many as a performer, he studied at the Aula de Música Moderna y Jazz in Barcelona, specialising in Film Scoring at a number of seminars and courses with José Nieto, Armando Trovaioli and Ennio Morricone. He is the author of many television theme tunes and music scores for films (feature-length and short films), and teaches in several master's degrees related to animation film scoring. He is currently single-handedly immersed in composing for film, orchestra and video games, such as the recent Endling - Extinction is Forever, whose soundtrack includes the participation of the great Tina Guo and Rusanda Panfili, both regular collaborators of Hans Zimmer. A soundtrack that is receiving many excellent reviews.

More information

From 1 September tickets are on sale for the 22-23 Season concerts by the Basque National Orchestra, which will be held in the usual four Basque capital cities starting from 23 September in Vitoria-Gasteiz.

Tickets on sale starting at 10 euros

Tickets for all the concerts in Bilbao, Pamplona, San Sebastian and Vitoria-Gasteiz can be purchased on euskadikoorkestra.eus, as well as on the websites of the venues themselves (euskalduna.eus, baluarte.com, kursaal.eus and principalantzokia.org) and at the ticket booths and usual sales channels.

Requests for Season tickets can still be made here (starting at 80 euros).

Special prices and discounts

Basque National Orchestra season ticket holders, students, under-30s, over-65s, unemployed people and other groups (Artium, Kursaal Eszena…) can enjoy special prices when purchasing tickets. In addition, thanks to Última Hora Joven, people under the age of 30 can purchase tickets for all seat locations for 10 euros, 30 minutes before the start of the concert at the ticket booth of the corresponding concert venue.

22-23 Season: from Tragedy to the Spirit of Achievement

The Basque National Orchestra's new Season takes us from tragedy to the spirit of achievement through music and its great examples: from the rawness of Shostakovich to the ghosts of Tchaikovsky, Bruckner’s greatest symphony and the most famous work by Carl Orff.

The orchestra will recover projects that were abandoned during the pandemic, such as the première of ‘Mamu kantak’ by Carpenter, a piece commissioned jointly with three British orchestras.

Basque creations will also be prominent with the première of ‘Mare Marginis’, commissioned to Ramon Lazkano, and with the closure of the project ‘Elkano: Mundubira musika bidelagun’ which will be brought by Zuriñe F. Gerenabarrena and her work ‘Lorratz’, after completing a round-the-world trip through the imagination of our composers.

Likewise, the Basque National Orchestra will foster the discovery of rarely-performed works that deserved to be listened to, such as 'Doctor Atomic Symphony' by Adams and other works by little-known authors in the Basque Country such as Veprik and Dzenitis.

In order to fulfil this goal, we will have artists of the stature of Alexei Volodin, Alena Baeva, Yulianna Avdeeva, Dinis Sousa, Roderick Cox or Frank Peter Zimmermann. And we will receive great artists from our land such as the Orfeón Donostiarra on its 125th anniversary, Easo Gazte and Easo Eskolania, Carlos Mena and soprano Jone Martínez.

Robert Trevino will continue as the chief conductor of the Basque National Orchestra.

Expanded information about the 22-23 Season can be found here

More information

¡De película! is a film music concert for all ages that plays around with the ‘invisible’ elements in every film screening: the music and the characters’ voices. Thanks to dub actors Jordi Brau and Luis Posada, Hollywood’s biggest characters will be participating in this concert. The evocative effect of their voices, in combination with the musical performance by the Basque National Orchestra and the projection of images, will transport us to films such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Titanic, The Mask, The King's Speech, Forrest Gump or Mission: Impossible, among many others.

This project was originally by the Vallés Symphony Orchestra, with a script specifically created to accompany it, becoming a huge success in all the concert halls it has already been performed in. Now the Basque National Orchestra adopts this original and different concert format for this unique event in San Sebastian on 1 September.

Jordi Brau regularly dubs the voices of actors such as Sean Penn, Nicolas Cage, Kenneth Branagh, Dennis Quaid, Robin Williams, Tom Cruise, Daniel Day-Lewis, Roberto Benigni and Tom Hanks, among others. On the other hand, the voice of Luis Posada is used for actors such as Johnny Depp, Jim Carrey, Adrien Brody, John Cusack or Leonardo Di Caprio. Their speech at this concert will be in Spanish, with subtitles in Basque.

The conductor for this concert will be Rubén Gimeno, the current conductor of the EGO (Euskal Herriko Gazte Orkestra) and is sponsored by Laboral Kutxa.

Tickets are on sale for this event at a general price of 25 euros on the website euskadikoorkestra.eus and at the Kursaal's ticket booth. Those with Basque National Orchestra season tickets can purchase a maximum of two tickets at a reduced price of 20 euros.

Concert information

1 September
Kursaal, 20:00
Tickets: €25
euskadikoorkestra.eus / Kursaal Ticket Booth

Basque National Orchestra
Dub actors: Jordi Brau, Luis Posada
Conductor: Rubén Gimeno

Programme

• Good morning Vietnam!: ‘What a wonderful world’, Bob Thiele / George Weiss
• Child's Play: Joe Renzetty
• The Mask: ‘Hey Pachuco’, Randy Edelman
• The King's Speech: ‘Symphony No. 7’, Ludwig Van Beethoven
• Titanic: James Horner
• Born on the Fourth of July: John Williams
• Mission: Impossible: Lalo Schiffrin
• Mrs. Doubtfire: ‘The Barber of Seville' (Figaro's Aria)’, Gioachino Rossini
• Catch Me If You Can: John Williams
• Life is Beautiful: Niccola Piovani
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Hans Zimmer
• Forrest Gump: Alan Silvestri

Sponsor

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Season Concert Programming

The course of History has always been an immense source of inspiration for artistic creation. Also for music, which very often becomes a mirror of the soul, of adversity, of the most brutal tragedy, but also of its spirit of achievement. And these are the foundations on which the new Concert Season has been built. We are talking about the story of overcoming adversity and in which music, as a sublime art, has given us excellent examples throughout its history, some of which will accompany us in the 22/23 Season. We are referring to the rawness, sometimes hidden, that Shostakovich expresses through his notes (Symphony no.8), the ghosts of Tchaikovsky (Symphony no.4), Bruckner’s greatest symphony (Symphony no.8) and the most famous work by Carl Orff that is still heard around the world, Carmina Burana, with the Orfeón Donostiarra on its 125th anniversary.

The Basque National Orchestra’s 2022/2023 Season Concerts will begin on23 September in Vitoria-Gasteiz, and they will wrap up on 9 June 2023 in San Sebastian. It will be a total of 10 season programmes which, distributed between Vitoria-Gasteiz (10), Bilbao (10), San Sebastian (10x2) and Pamplona (10), totalling 50 concerts. This are just the Season Concerts. Following the line of argument explained above, the starting point of the season will be set by the tragedy that Shostakovich looks over in his Symphony no. 8 and which is signed in 1943 as a result of his shock at the millions of dead in World War II. Shostakovich will also provide the end with the spirit of achievement that can be detected in his Symphony no.15, written in 1971 and full of optimism.

We are looking at a Season with huge doses of realism and adversity, but also of the spirit of achievement, optimism, energy and passion.

Robert Trevino continues as the chief conductor

With the end of the 21/22 Season, Robert Trevino completes his fifth and last season as the chief conductor. However, the great artistic results that the orchestra is achieving in recent years, and which has received widespread backing from critics, have led to the decision to continue and extend his tenure without specifying an end date.

The orchestra's chief conductor will conduct four of the Season's ten programmes. He will direct some of the most symbolic works of the new season, such as Symphonies no. 8 and no. 15 by Shostakovich, which will open and close, respectively, the Season. Also Bruckner's Eighth, acknowledged as the cathedral of symphonies par excellence, and Mahler’s Fifth, turned into a new story of achievement. He will also feature in the premières by Zuriñe F. Gerenabarrena (Lorratz) and Ramon Lazkano (Mare Marginis), in this case with pianist Alexandre Tharaud as a soloist.

Shared premières and new repertoire

Mamu kantak (Ghost Songs) by Gary Carpenter is a work commissioned between 3 British orchestras (Royal Scottish National Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra) and the Basque National Orchestra, a result of the existing relationship between the latter two through Robert Trevino. The score includes some texts by Marion Angus that will be translated and sung in Basque by Easo Gazte and Easo Eskolania.

Mare Marginis is the name of the concerto for piano worked on by Ramon Lazkano. It is a joint commission by Radio France, the Basque National Orchestra and the WDR orchestra (Cologne Radio Orchestra). The work will première on 11 February at the Festival Présences 2023 by Radio France with the French National Orchestra directed by François-Xavier Roth. The Basque National Orchestra will do so one week later and on 20 May it will presented by the WDR Orchestra.

The third première of the Season will be brought by Zuriñe F. Gerenabarrena with Lorratz within the project Elkano: Mundubira musika bidelagun. After Mikel Chamizo, Mikel Urquiza, Joël Mérah, and Teresa Catalán, Gerenabarrena will conclude the commemoration of the first circumnavigation of the world through the imagination of our composers.

In addition to the premières, ten works will be performed by the orchestra for the first time and will therefore be added to its repertoire. Their performance will also be a big discovery for the audience. Two of them stand out over the rest: on the one hand, Doctor Atomic Symphony, by John Adams, which shows a desperate faced with the stress, anguish and pain suffered by those who were in Los Álamos, New Mexico, preparing the first atomic bomb test during World War II; and on the other, 2 poémes by Alexander Veprik, a Russian author sent to the Gulag from 1950 to 1954 accused of being a nationalist Jew and who, after being freed and at death's door, wrote these poems.

Along with this new repertoire the orchestra will also perform works such as Shostakovich's Concerto for violin No.2 featuring Alena Baeva; Elgar's Concerto for violin with Frank Peter Zimmermann; the Concerto for cello by Korngold with Anne Gastinel; and Chopin’s Concerto for piano No.2 in the hands of Yulianna Avdeeva. Beethoven's and Mahler's Fifths will also be on the music stands, until adding up to the 28 works that will make up the new concert season. 

Conductors, soloists, and choirs

The orchestra will once again receive a good handful of artists throughout its programming, although it is worth noting that it will tackle three programmes alone, without guest soloists, allowing it to retain a leading performing role.

CONDUCTORS: Robert Trevino will open and close the concert season and will direct a total of four programmes. For the rest of the programmes the podium will be shared by Roberto Forés, Dinis Sousa, Roderick Cox, Christoph-Mathias Mueller and Karel Mark Chichon, all of them in their début with the Basque National Orchestra. The line-up of conductors will be completed by Spaniard Pablo González.

SOLOISTS: In this section we will welcome for the first time Alexandre Tharaud (piano) and Anne Gastinel (cello). Greats such as Alexei Volodin and Yulianna Avdeeva on the piano, in addition to Alena Baeva and Frank Peter Zimmermann with the violin, will be returning. As for vocals we will be opening with soprano Jone Martínez, followed by tenor Carlos Mena and baritone Javier Franco, three soloists who along with the Orfeón Donostiarra will feature in Carmina Burana by Carl Orff.

CHOIRS: Although we have shared a number of performances at festivals, etc., for the first time we will receive Easo Gazte and Easo Eskolania during the Subscription Season. They will feature in the première of Mamu Kantak (Ghost Songs), which will be sung in Basque. On its 125th anniversary, the Orfeón Donostiarra will accompany the orchestra for the performance of Carmina Burana.

Other orchestral activities

Polish tour

The Basque National Orchestra's last international journey took place on 9 March 2020 soon before the full lockdown. Last year it had to cancel its trip to Salzburg due to the unexpected lockdown in Austria and those concerts were postponed until February 2024. But before that, we are able to announce the invitation received from the Beethoven Festival held in Poland and which the orchestra will go to in March 2023. The cities included in this tour are Kraków, Warsaw, Katowice and Wrocław.

Recordings

As well as its significant concert activity, the orchestra is also immersed in an ambitious recording project. This Season will highlight the second volume of orchestral work by Maurice Ravel. The Basque National Orchestra continues along the path started with the Ondine record label and with Robert Trevino conducting. After Ravel and Americascapes, which continue to receive very good reviews and awards from the most prestigious specialised media (Gramophone, France Musique, BBC Music Magazine, Diapason, The New Yorker…), a second Ravel has been confirmed. The recording has already been made and its international release is expected for after the summer.

Shared projects

The orchestra will maintain its commitment with the ABAO Bilbao Opera Season, Musika-Música in Bilbao, the Gala of the Frontiers of Knowledge Awards by the BBVA Foundation, the Musical Fortnight in San Sebastian and Musikaste. And after an absence of 2 years due to the pandemic, it will bring back its now traditional film score concert in the Velodrome, with the San Sebastian Film Festival. Its commitments include new engagements with Viralgen, the members’ concert by the Orfeón Donostiarra, 40 years of EITB and the Christmas Concert of El Diario Vasco.

The Miramon Matinées and Musika Gela by the orchestra will be presented in the future.

Season tickets and tickets

Sale of season tickets from 15 June onwards

With the removal of capacity restrictions we can again process new season tickets for the concert Season. After the renewal period for current season ticket holders, the sale of new season tickets will open starting from 15 June. Reservations can be already made on euskadikoorkestra.eus. Season tickets will be issued in the order applications are received in. The price of season tickets for 10 concerts ranges from €80 to €235.

Sale of single tickets from 1 September onwards

All tickets will be on sale starting from 1 September on euskadikoorkestra.eus and on the websites of the auditoriums and ticket booths.

Patronage

Through the conviction of being a cultural instrument that is very necessary in society, the Basque National Orchestra has activated a new tool to connect with the public through patronage. This will make it possible for people who wish to help towards the development of this national cultural project to do so with their contributions.

Patronage is presented as a necessary long-term tool that complements the grants provided by the public administrations, and is being implemented as a way to contribute towards and develop culture and society. Contributions to the orchestra in any of the forms available will be eligible for tax deductions. More information on euskadikoorkestra.eus

Special thanks

Finally, the orchestra would like to express its gratitude for the significant collaboration and support received from all the entities that participate in the fulfilment of its different activities: its season ticket holders and the public in general, sponsoring and collaborating entities, cultural agents, communication media, etc., that make the Basque National Orchestra's activity possible.

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Fernando Velázquez: “Although I don’t see a fundamental difference between other works and those released now, it's the first time I’m presenting to the public in album format music that does not belong to a film or theatre project. My whole life I've been writing all kinds of music and it's the first time we're releasing music that is not related to anything. The fact that it’s with the Basque National Orchestra, Johannes Moser and Kup Taldea, is very exciting due to the admiration I feel for them and their involvement in the recording. As well as doing it with Pentatone, a referential record label worldwide”.

Fernando Velázquez regularly collaborates with the Basque National Orchestra. Together they have achieved huge success with the soundtracks for films such as A Monster Calls -with which Velázquez received the Goya Award for Best Original Score 2017-, Spanish Affair, The Invisible Guest, Submergence or series such as Patria. Velázquez has close ties to the Gipuzkoan choir Kup Taldea, with whom he recorded the score for the series Patria or the film The Orphanage. Viento is his first collaboration with Johannes Moser, a prestigious German-Canadian cellist and guest soloist in the recording of “Concierto para violonchelo”.

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West Side Story is a classic Broadway musical that continues to be relevant after the new adaptation by Steven Spielberg of the original film, for which he has received Oscar nominations. The Basque National Orchestra will start the concert with a performance of the popular “Symphonic Dances” of the soundtrack composed by Leonard Bernstein to then continue with the début in Europe of Concerto for Orchestra by Zhou Tian. The Chinese-American composer has travelled to the Basque Country to attend the première and will also attend working and studying sessions with composition students from Musikene. The programme of concerts will end with Symphony No. 2, also by Bernstein, and which belongs to a very different category in his production, being more focused on philosophical and religious reflection. Muscovite pianist Yulianna Avdeeva will be the protagonist of this score, which will be for the first time by the Basque National Orchestra.

The concerts in this programme will be held over the coming days in the four usual capital cities: on Monday 21 February, in the Teatro Principal in Vitoria-Gasteiz; on Tuesday 22 February, in the Baluarte Auditorium in Pamplona; on Wednesday 23 February, in the Euskalduna Conference Centre in Bilbao; and on Thursday and Friday 24 and 25 February, in the Kursaal Auditorium in San Sebastián. They will all start at 19:30.

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Leonard Bernstein was one of the most complete musicians of the 20th century and an essential figure for music in the United States. He stood out in everything he did: as an orchestra conductor he was and still is a fundamental reference; he was a magnificent pianist, often conducting from the keyboard; and he was also an exceptional communicator, featuring in a series of videos about the secrets of music that today are still cult classics. But his most influential facet was undoubtedly that of a composer, as he helped to shape the still young North American music with highly original and popular creations. In these concerts we will listen to two that are not very far apart in time but are very different.

West Side Story premièred as a musical in 1957 in Washington, D.C. before it moved to Broadway, where it achieved the wild success that would lead to the production of the legendary film directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, and which is now nominated for the Oscars in Steven Spielberg's revision. West Side Story is a modern revision of the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, but this suite focuses on the dances, and therefore, the love story takes a back seat to give protagonism to the tense hostility between two rival gangs, the Jets and the Sharks.

Symphony No. 2 belongs to a very different category in Bernstein's production, his works dealing with philosophical and religious reflection. Bernstein started working on it in 1947, after reading the poem The Age of Anxiety by W. H. Auden, about the difficult search for faith in contemporary society. The idea of including a soloist piano arose from Bernstein's personal identification, as he was a pianist and practised Judaism. Symphony No. 2 will feature an extraordinary pianist, Yulianna Avdeeva, winner of the Chopin Competition in 2010 and one of the great current performers of piano repertoires.

Zhou Tian was born in China in 1981 into a musical family, but at the age of 18 he moved to the United States to pursue his composition studies at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music, New York’s Juilliard School and the University of Southern California. At the start of his career, Zhou developed a wide variety of activities, creating soundtrack music, jazz pieces and even proposals that combined Chinese folk music with Western classical music. His leap to fame took place in 2018 when he received a Grammy nomination for the work that the Basque National Orchestra will be performing, the Concerto for Orchestra. Since then the score, commissioned by the Cincinnati Symphony, has travelled a long way, with performances by many North American orchestras and also by those in other countries, particularly China. The performance of this work by the Basque National Orchestra means its début in Europe. Zhou states that his Concerto for Orchestra is “a love letter to the symphony orchestra, with passages ranging from epic to extremely intimate. It mixes jazz harmonies with popular Chinese melodies”.

Taking advantage of his stay in the Basque Country during the week of concerts, Zhou Tian will participate in a number of activities organised by Musikene for its composition students, and will attend the concert offered by Ensemble Kuraia on Saturday afternoon, where it will perform works by him.

Tickets on sale starting at 10 euros

There are tickets on sale for all the sessions on euskadikoorkestra.eus, as well as on the websites and at the ticket booths of the auditoriums, from 10 to 35 euros.

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Behind that front page of The New Yorker published on Monday 31st is our orchestra reviewed by one of the most renowned and selective music critics right now in the US, Alex Ross: “few people in the international classical-music world were paying heed to the Basque National Orchestra, which is based in San Sebastián, Spain, and is under the direction of the young Texas-born conductor Robert Trevino. Two startlingly excellent recordings [referring to Ravel and Americascapes] have raised the ensemble’s profile”. A preview of the review can be seen in digital format here (the last two paragraphs of the article).

The appearance of the Basque National Orchestra in The New Yorker is the most relevant mention achieved until now by the orchestra. The two recordings, one dedicated to Ravel and the other to a selection of little-known American composers under the title Americascapes, have been the reasons for which the orchestra is receiving attention all over the world. A good recording and international distribution, carried out under the Ondine record label, have caused it to come to the attention of referential publications such as The New Yorker.

Just a few weeks ago we informed of our recognition as “orchestra of the month” in the also prestigious magazine Gramophone and of more mentions in other publications.

Complete review

“Until this past year, few people in the international classical-music world were paying heed to the Basque National Orchestra, which is based in San Sebastián, Spain, and is under the direction of the young Texas-born conductor Robert Trevino. Two startlingly excellent recordings on the Ondine label have raised the ensemble’s profile. One is devoted to celebrated works by Maurice Ravel, who was born about twenty miles east of San Sebastián, just over the French border. The other explores little-known but worthwhile American repertory—scores by Charles Martin Loeffler, Carl Ruggles, Howard Hanson, and Henry Cowell.

Let the Basques’ rip-roaring rendition of Ravel’s “La Valse” stand in for the rest. It explodes with characterful touches: sinister noodling of bass clarinet, slashing cross-rhythms, kitschy swoops of portamento, concussive thuds on the bass drum. At the same time, Trevino maintains irresistible momentum, absorbing each detail into the general crescendo. “La Valse” was composed in the wake of the First World War, and conductors often make a point of enacting a brutal stampede toward catastrophe. Trevino doesn’t skimp on the menace, but he and his musicians keep swinging to the end, dancing into darkness".

Alex Ross, The New Yorker

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After the excellent reviews received by the Ravel and Americascapes albums, the Basque National Orchestra has been highlighted as ‘Orchestra of the Month’ in the January 2022 issue of the prestigious classical music magazine Gramophone. In his review, Andrew Mellor writes that "…an ensemble like the Basque National Orchestra exists for more than the provision of fine concerts”, referring to its quality as a national orchestra committed to the dissemination and promotion of Basque culture, and continues: “whatever its musical DNA, it is a modern, versatile ensemble". The Basque National Orchestra thus becomes the first Spanish ensemble to achieve this recognition.

The publication praises the display of effort and resources by the Basque National Orchestra, offering many concerts within the extensive region it owes itself to and where it has a faithful audience, as well as its work recording and disseminating Basque music. It also points out that the Basque National Orchestra was ‘one of the first European orchestras to seek solutions in order to return to the stage during the pandemic’.

In addition, this recognition as ‘Orchestra of the Month’ takes place within the context of the recent release of two internationally-acclaimed albums recorded under the direction of Robert Trevino and through the Ondine label. The first of them was Ravel, which received numerous accolades in prestigious publications: 'Disque du jour' by Radio France Musique; 'Critic's Choice' by Japanese magazine Record Geijutsu; ‘Recording Of The Month’ by Australia's leading arts magazine Limelight; ‘Recording Of The Week’ by Australia's ABC Classic (radio) and Apple Music's 'Best New Classical Releases'. Recent weeks have seen a surge of equally enthusiastic reviews for Americascapes. The album, dedicated to neglected American authors whose works were selected by Robert Trevino, has been named 'Editor's Choice’ and ‘Urgently recommended’ by Gramophone, a 'Recording Of The Year' by Presto Music, 'Editor's Choice' by Limelight, and given five stars by Classics Today. The New Yorker called it "superb", while MusicWeb International wrote, "Simply one of the best and most unique classical CDs of 2021”.

In the words of Robert Trevino, music director of the Basque National Orchestra: "To be named as an 'Editor's Choice' in Gramophone is a great honour, but for the orchestra then to be further recognised is truly wonderful. This is an orchestra that means a great deal to a proud nation, and further more they are a fantastic group of people whom I am privileged to call my musical family. These last two albums have shown that relationship at its strongest, in fact. And with Americascapes I, as an American, brought them important, if little-known, music of my own homeland. Ravel is in the BNO's blood and I have learnt so much about him from them, over our years together. I am also glad to announce that, after a successful first volume, we have completed the recording sessions for a second collection of orchestral works by Ravel, and I know that I speak for the whole orchestra when I say that I can't wait to share these performances with listeners.

On the other hand, Oriol Roch, General Manager of the Basque National Orchestra, said: "Orchestras in Spain quite rarely have the international spotlight shone upon them, so we do not take the honour of the wonderful recognition in Gramophone and elsewhere lightly. It makes us all the more inspired and determined - even in tough times like these - to represent the Basque Country to the world, through playing great music as well as we possibly can!".

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After close to four decades of a prolific output, there are close to 70 of its own albums in the Basque National Orchestra's music collection, which continues to be expanded and enriched in recent times. In the year 2021 that we are about to leave behind, four new recordings have been added to this great collection of albums: Ravel, Americascapes, Kalakan + Euskadiko Orkestra and Gutizia.

Ravel and Americascapes, the first recordings with chief conductor Robert Trevino

Two years ago the Basque National Orchestra and its chief conductor Robert Trevino signed a two-year contract with the Finnish label Ondine Records in which they agreed to record several albums over the coming years. The first fruit of this important agreement came this year with the release of two albums that are very different to each other: Ravel and Americascapes.

On the one hand, during the first half of the year Ravel saw the light, a collection of orchestral pieces by the universally renowned composer from Ziburu and which the Basque National Orchestra makes its own. This is the first time that Trevino has recorded Ravel, but not so for the Basque National Orchestra. Its discography includes another album of Ravel recorded in 2000 with its then conductor Gilbert Varga and the pianist Joaquín Achúcarro from Bilbao. The record included Ravel's two piano concertos performed by Achúcarro along with Alborada del gracioso, which also features on this new recording together with La Valse, Boléro, Rapsodie espagnole, Pavane pour une infante défunte and Une barque sur l´océan.

On the other hand, for the second recording, Americascapes, Robert Trevino and the Basque National Orchestra have chosen four American composers who wrote music that received widespread recognition, though none of them enjoyed popular ‘success’: Charles Martin Loeffler, Henry Cowell, Carl Ruggles and Howard Hanson. Relatively little-known works by them have been chosen, in a repertoire that does not feature in the big concert circuits. This album released in early October has recently received glowing reviews from specialised publications of worldwide prestige. To highlight a few of them, last week one of the most important portals for classical music album sales, Presto Music, put Americascapes on its list of the ten best classical music albums of 2021; and important magazines such as Gramophone and Limelight have recently made special mentions of the album.

Basque tradition takes centre stage in ‘Kalakan+Basque National Orchestra’ and ‘Gutizia’

The other two albums that the Basque National Orchestra has released this year have focused on recovering a traditional Basque repertoire.

On the one hand, the orchestra has partnered with the Kalakan trio to collect traditional Basque pieces and turn them into symphonies thanks to the orchestration of Jagoba Astiazaran in an album also released in October with the Elkar label. Several of the traditional instruments that the Kalakan group uses habitually play a major role in this album. These include the txalaparta, the txirula and the alboka, all instruments that have been combined with the rest of the instrumental sections of the orchestra. This album was also presented during a concert tour across the Basque Country between October and November.

On the other hand, two worlds which, on the face of it, are completely unrelated, have come together in Gutizia – a smorgasbord that directly links the txistu, an instrument deeply rooted in Basque culture, with a symphony orchestra. This is what Garikoitz Mendizabal and the Basque National Orchestra have worked on in Miramon under the direction of Jaume Santonja, as they prepare to record and promote a compendium of works for txistu and orchestra. The record, published by Orpheus Classical, includes a total of eight works written or arranged by authors of diverse origins, rendering this collection of music a journey in itself. For most of them this has been their première and they are accompanied by different stories and motivations.

The orchestra will also be recording this week

After the release of the four albums described above, the orchestra's recording activity continues. This very week the musicians are back under the baton of Robert Trevino to record a second volume of orchestral pieces by Maurice Ravel, which will also be released by the Ondine Records label during 2022. This new recording will include the works Shéhérazade, Menuet Antique, Valses nobles et sentimentales, Ma mère l’oye and Frontispice.

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