July 2019
On this tour, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra travels to Granada to perform
the final concert in this year’s Festival de Granada with conductor Pablo Heras-Casado and violinist
Isabelle Faust. This is a programme of many premieres, friendships and ‘Wiedersehen’.
2019 marks the 100th anniversary of the composition of Manuel de Falla’s El sombrero de tres picos,
commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev, and first performed in London with
sets and costumes designed by Pablo Picasso. In this special
performance, a new scenic concept, designed by Frederic Amat with a nod
to Picasso, will be premiered in celebration of the centenary.
Three years prior to the commission of El Sombrero,
Diaghilev asked Manuel de Falla to arrange and compose the music of a
ballet suite based on the Pulcinella stories. Costumes and set were to
be designed by Picasso. Manuel de Falla declined the offer, but closely
followed the work, which was taken over by his friend Igor Stravinsky,
and de Falla was much enamored of the neo-classical masterpiece, the Pulcinella Suite, which resulted.
Another
friendship to be celebrated in Granada is that of Isabelle Faust and
the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Isabelle Faust and the MCO have been
working together since 2008, and are strongly connected by the sense of
chamber music playing they bring to ensembles of any size. One of the
first MCO Artistic Partners, she joins the orchestra in Granada for the premiere of the Alhambra
Violin Concerto by Peter Eötvös. This work was commissioned by the
Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker, Orchestre de Paris, BBC Proms and Festival de Granada. The Mahler Chamber
Orchestra is a strong advocator of modern composition and is honored to
perform the premiere of this new work.
The concert takes place in the Palace of Charles V, which has held concerts since 1883.
