It will bring together the four major symphonic ensembles of the Valencian Community
The City Council has announced today the programming of the I Festival of Llíria which will be held from 21 to 24 July. The city of Llíria will bring together the four major symphonic groups of the Valencian Community in this event that has the artistic direction of Justo Romero.
The Orquestra de València, the Jove Orquestra de la Generalitat Valenciana, the ADDA Simfònica and the Orquestra de la Comunidad Valenciana will perform, for the first time, together in the same event. In addition to the total of eight concerts that can be enjoyed at the festival, there is also the participation of the Choir of the Generalitat Valenciana, the Center for the Improvement of the Palau de les Arts, the Orfeó Valencià and Mestres de Vent de Llíria.
The theaters of the Primitive Band and the Musical Union, and the Church of the Blood, will be the settings for these extraordinary performances.
Mayor Joanma Miguel emphasized that Llíria, “as a Creative City of Music for UNESCO, is once again committed to organizing these great artistic meetings that aim to project, once again, our cultural potential, and that it serves to position the musical excellence of our land internationally ”.
For his part, the Mayor of Music, Pedro Vicente, pointed out that this new festival, which will highlight the important artistic units we have in the Community, will also serve to recognize the figure of Alfonso Aijón, music promoter, founder of Ibermúsica and a person linked to our population as a promoter of the visit of great international orchestras and soloists to Llíria in the 70s and 80s ”.
The artistic director, Justo Romero, highlighted “the demanding programming in contents and performers that the festival will offer, thanks also to the collaboration of the Generalitat, the Alicante Provincial Council and the Valencia City Council that have made it possible for these four days of concerts are marked by excellence and guided by the illusion of establishing in the city of music an annual event that is a meeting and crossing of musicians and music lovers, audiences and artists ”.
Justo Romero has shelled out this high-quality program that will begin with the Orquestra de València and “the first work to sound at the Festival is precisely the one that inaugurates the catalog of the Valencian composer Francisco Coll, the most universal Spanish creator of the 21st century. An opus 1, Aqua Cinerea, which is also opus 1 of a plural and open quote that listens to past, present and future ”.
It also highlights “the double presence of the music of the also Valencian Óscar Colomina, served by the Young Orchestra of the Generalitat Valenciana and Albiach. Not to mention the recovery of the unknown Sonata del Sud, for piano and orchestra, by Alicante’s Óscar Esplá, who will be defended by his fellow musicians from the ADDA Simfònica and Josep Vicent, with the virtuoso and expressive prominence of Carlos Apellániz, one of the greats of the Spanish piano of our days ”.
“The Portuguese Rhapsody by Ernesto Halffter, the other great work of the Spanish concert piano along with Esplá and Noches en los jardines de España, by Falla, will also be heard at the Festival. It will be defended -not by chance- by two leading Portuguese artists: the pianist Marta Menezes and the maestro Nuno Coelho, one of the most solid emerging figures in the international field of conducting. The program also included the editor Álvaro Albiach, a master of fine and evaluated carats, who, together with another illustrious countryman, the violinist Vicent Huerta, will perform Brahms’s Violin Concerto.
“An unmissable appointment is the Beethoven meeting that closes the Festival, with Javier Perianes, the name of the Spanish and universal piano, who will play and conduct from the keyboard two concerts for piano and orchestra by Beethoven. The First and the Third. It will be an event full of affection and recognition, as the medal of the 1st Llíria Festival will be awarded to Alfonso Aijón, a legendary figure in Spanish music ”.
“The best symphony is represented by emblematic works, such as Sibelius’s Second Symphony, Stravinsky’s The Firebird, or Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. But the festive event, open and diverse, covers other genres and disciplines. Vocal and symphonic choral music has a rich representation. Event will be the hearing of Anton Bruckner’s Mass in E minor in the unique setting of the Church of the Blood. Brucknerian performers are the Orfeó de València and a wind ensemble made up of select Llíria instrumentalists. All under the baton of Cristóbal Soler ”.
“Vocal music is also present in the concerts starring the Perfection Center of the Palau de les Arts in Valencia, which features a program made up of well-known vocal pages of zarzuela, operetta and opera; while the Choir of the Generalitat, conducted by its head, Francesc Perales, is presented with choral pages also focused on the Spanish and international lyrical repertoire. The best chamber music arrives in a classical program that embraces the contemporary music of Mozart and the Valencian Vicente Martín i Soler. It will be interpreted by a formation – Masters of Wind of Llíria – configured expressly for the occasion ”.
International Management Forum
In parallel to the festival, the 22nd Llíria International Conducting Forum will be held on 22 and 23 July in collaboration with the Spanish Association of Conductors (AESDO). This meeting, which will take place at the Multipurpose Center, will be attended by leading professionals in the sector to share experiences and discuss the present and future of music.
