This year we want to explore the multiplicity of perspectives that music gives us. Committed to excellence, the Palau de la Música Catalana has become a reference point for establishing a strong relationship with the great names of classical music, but also for exploring new repertoires and genres, and creating new relationships and collaborations with international partners. In addition, we are delighted that our choirs are the protagonists of this concert season, and we will entrust this in-house talent with works and conductors from around the country. Each season we work to improve and innovate, to surprise and offer new perspectives. In this vein, it is our pleasure to introduce to you Mercedes Conde Pons, the new Deputy Artistic Director of the Palau, who together with Joan Oller, General Manager, Simon Halsey, Musical Director of the Orfeó Choirs, and the directors of each of our choral ensembles, have built this multi-faceted programme.

This artistic offering is complemented by a dialogue with guest artists who, from a musical point of view, but also from other disciplines, such as narrative, visual arts and cinema, expand our perspective and our opportunities to enjoy this programme. In addition, this year I would like to point out that the dialogue with the artists is portrayed for the first time in the graphic language of this season, and you will find it permeating each page of this book. A previously unpublished artwork by de Alba G. Corral, created for the occasion, represents a step forward in our relationship with the guest artists.

We hope that reading this catalogue instigates in you, our valued audience, the desire to explore and discover the many perspectives we have set before you. We look forward to seeing you all in the Palau for all.

Looking first at the composers, Johann Sebastian Bach is probably the composer who has generated the most examination, the most interpretations and artistic creativity throughout history. This season we celebrate the centenary of the first performance in Spain of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, then and now with the Orfeó Català. Thus, Bach will be the central theme of this year's programme, in which we present some artists who seek to remain true to history, and others who inspire us with their more liberal interpretations of his work.

But there will be much more besides. We shall celebrate the birthdays of Stravinsky, Saint-Saëns, Gerhard, Manén and Toldrà. We shall hear the complete Schumann Symphonies, Strauss' s heroic poems and the music of our time by Kaija Saariaho and Marc Timón, this season’s guest composers. Committed to artistic excellence as a hallmark of our founding values, we will also be introducing new partnerships, artists who are emerging onto the international scene, as well as exploring the boundaries of classical music.

Bach, and everything related to his music, is what led us to choose the concept "perspectives" with this season’s film director. We are presenting perspectives that are enriched and contrasted with dialogue with other arts which the Palau continues to promote: visual artist Alba G. Corral will be our guest artist, and you can sample her work, rich in contrasts and perspectives, here, created especially to illustrate this book; also Irene Solà, whose narrative will accompany us on several occasions throughout the season.

All these historical composers and contemporary and multi-faceted artists invite us to embrace an openness, a curiosity and a sense of discernment. We at the Palau de la Música Catalana suggest that you choose your perspective and enjoy this plurality in our unique Concert Hall, and never lose your passion for music.

As before, so today, the passion for singing drives us to rehearsal after rehearsal, to singing lessons and to each of our concerts. But singing also moves us: when we sing we forget our worries, we are no longer individuals but part of a choir, with a single voice, and the emotion builds as one. Singing, then, enables us to face new challenges and partnerships with passion and enthusiasm, and propels us forward to become better singers and better people. This year we will learn under the batons of great conductors, such as Temirkánov and Petrenko, we will delight in performing with Julio Manrique, and bringing to life the words of Greta Thunberg.

Singing awakens our passion for celebrating and paying tribute to the landmarks, such as the thirty-year anniversary of our beloved Cor de Cambra. Our choirs are also passionate about touring, and this season we will not only be travelling in our own region but will be taking our voices to other countries such as Belgium, Lisbon, Spain (Canary Islands), Hungary and Germany. Finally, following in the footsteps of our predecessors, we are passionate about innovating and trialling new musical styles. This season we will achieve this through ambitious stage arrangements, far from our usual reality: the Cor de Noies will perform Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater as never before, the Escola Coral will present a production with Paco Mir (of The Tricycle) premiering a cantata by Marc Timón, and the Orfeó will reinterpret the Fauré Requiem in an ambitious and innovative production.

All our passions for singing, learning, celebrating, innovating, traveling, and for excellence... is brought together and multiplied in this creative, audacious and vibrant choral family that is the Orfeó Català.

Welcome to a season full of passion and multiple perspectives!

And just as El Primer Palau will nourish this season with the participation of an excellent selection of past winners, so we are also pleased to present some of the new international musical talents who, we are convinced, represent the future of music in the coming years and who, from different perspectives, approach the musical sphere with new ideas and a fresh and contemporary attitude. For example, musicians such as Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Teodor Currentzis, Kirill Petrenko, François-Xavier Roth, Barbara Hannigan, Raphaël Pichon, Javier Camarena, Jakub Józef Orliński, Valentina Lisitsa, Khatia Buniatishvili, Mari Samuelsen and Marc Timón. These will be relationships that foster innovative and enriching projects for the benefit of our audiences.

And in a programme where there are young talents and new partnerships, we are not forgetting the legends - those artists who at the beginning offered ground-breaking and unique projects that have now made their mark, and a range of perspectives, unique and inimitable in their interpretation. We are referring to Yuri Temirkanov, John Eliot Gardiner, Jordi Savall, Giuliano Carmignola, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Grigory Sokolov, András Schiff, a target="_blank" href="https://www.palaumusica.cat/en/obc-ros-marba_760165">Antoni Ros Marbà and Kaija Saariaho, guest composer this season.

In this new era, we seek to cross boundaries regarding how music is interpreted and received: new perspectives, new visions, readings and recitals to which we want to invite an ever broader and more diverse public. For this reason, and with the aim of reaching a very wide audience, we propose a series of pathways to guide as many people as possible to the productions which best suit their musical perspectives. This is a simple guide in the format of a #label (#popular #classics #youngtalents #newcreation #choral #newformats #elprimerpalau25 #catalanheritage #newreferents #celebrations #legends #families) before the title of each concert, that will serve as an indication of the diversity of paths and perspectives that we find throughout the season. Will you accompany us on this new adventure?