Source: CARM
The musician, considered one of the best in his specialty, will perform the Concerto for Clarinet by Corigliano in an evening that will also include works by Bernstein and Gershwin
The Symphony Orchestra of the Region of Murcia (OSRM), with the support of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, offers two concerts this Friday and Saturday February 16 at the El Batel Auditorium in Cartagena and at the Víctor Villegas Auditorium in Murcia, that will star along with the prestigious clarinetist José Franch-Ballester.
Under the direction of Virginia Martínez, the musicians will perform an attractive program based on the creations of three composers, Corigliano, Gershwin and Bernstein, very influenced by each other, with works premiered in a short space of time and characterized by a color that identifies the music of the United States.
The program will begin with the Clarinet Concerto by John Corigliano, which premiered in December 1977 with clarinetist Stanley Drucker as soloist and Leonard Bernstein as head of the New York Philharmonic. This impressive work, which José Franch-Ballester will play as a soloist, has an eclectic language, with neoclassical elements and the modernist rhetoric of American music of the time.
The general director of the Institute of Cultural Industries and the Arts (ICA), Marta López-Briones, said that «José Franch-Ballester is considered one of the best clarinetists in the world, and the public of the Region will have the unique opportunity to check this Friday and Saturday in Cartagena and Murcia, respectively. »
Currently Assistant Professor of Clarinet and Chamber Music at the British Columbia University in Vancouver (Canada), where he currently resides, Franch-Ballester is visiting these days in the Region of Murcia after having performed with orchestras such as the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra , the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra or the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others.
The OSRM concert will continue with ‘Divertimento para orquesta’ by Leonard Bernstein, an entertaining work composed of eight short pieces of varied style, orchestration and musical sense, showing elements of American popular music, Bernstein’s own compositions and some of the repertoire that he had directed. It even makes a set of solo interventions thinking about the members of the orchestra.
The last work will be ‘An American in Paris’, by George Gershwin, «a well-known work that captivates and excites all kinds of spectators,» said López-Briones. It’s like a ‘postcard’ in the Hollywood way with great color; he who provides his particular and brilliant orchestration, with about a hundred musicians on stage.
Tickets for the Cartagena concert, to be held on Friday, February 15, at 8:30 p.m. in the El Batel Auditorium, can be purchased for 12 euros at the box office (telephone 968 123 827), through the web www.bacantix.com and in El Corte Inglés. There will be a pre-concert talk with the director and the soloist that will start at 7:45 p.m.
The Murcia concert will take place on Saturday, February 16, at Víctor Villegas. It will start at 8:00 p.m. and the pre-concert talk will be 7:15 p.m. Tickets can be purchased, for 8, 11 or 13 euros, depending on location, at the Auditorium box office (open from Monday to Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and from two hours before the start, telephone 968 343 080) , at the Filmoteca (afternoon hours) and through www.auditoriomurcia.org.
At the end of the concert, as usual, the public will have at their disposal the ‘Line Symphony’, a free bus that departs from the Auditorium Víctor Villegas spends the center of Murcia, making stops in the main streets of the city.