Orquesta Nacional de España

On February 6, 7 and 8, David Afkham conducts in Madrid once again, in a program featuring Turina, Schumann, Richard Strauss and de Falla.

Pablo Ferrández will be the soloist in Schumann’s Cello Concerto, which Schumann wrote shortly before he took up the post of conductor of the Düsseldorf orchestra. It was an exciting moment in his career, reflected in a serene and poetic score that challenged—perhaps too optimistically—the low status still enjoyed by the cello as a solo instrument.

Seville and the clichés of southern sensuality enliven Strauss’ symphonic poem Don Juan and José Más’ La orgía, the novel that inspired Joaquín Turina’s Danzas fantásticas. The entirely Germanic musical style of the former contrasts with the impressionistic colouring and nationally inspired elements of the latter. Premiered in London a year earlier, Manuel de Falla’s ballet El sombrero de tres picos definitively broke the secular isolation of Spanish music.