New Music Season in Barcelona

The city’s new music season gets under way in September with a varied and attractive programme.

You could start by sampling the programme at the Palau de la Música, which has a “Mozart in jazz” concert on 1 September, with Llibert Fortuny on sax and Manel Camp on piano. Also awaiting you will be the Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès (18 September) and the guitarists Xavier Coll (8 and 17 September) and Pedro Javier González (24 September).

If you visit the Liceu between 4 and 7 September, you can enjoy an opera in four acts, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, with music by Christoph Willibald Gluck and a libretto by François Guillard. It opened in Paris in 1779. This is the second version of Iphigenie auf Tauris, which marked the end of the composer’s Paris period and is one of his truly brilliant operas.

On 27 and 30 September you will find Marc Piollet and Calixto Bieito directing the comic opera Carmen, with music by Georges Bizet, a libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy and based on the novel by Proper Mérimée. It opened in Paris in 1875 and in Barcelona in 1881, coming to the Liceu in 1888.

As regards symphonies, the OBC will be at the Auditori (24-26 September), conducted by Pablo González and playing compositions by Ramon Humet, Debussy and Shostakhovich.

Everything ready at Gracia

Gràcia’s 2010 Festa Major or annual local festival (14 to 22 August) will be filling the district with concerts, workshops, exhibitions, sporting events and competitions, street parades, fire, giants, food, human towers and much more. There’ll be something for everyone. Prizes will be handed out for the best decorated streets on Tuesday 17 August.

Activities such as free beer tasting, children’s jigsaw-puzzle competition, exhibitions, story telling, gastronomy, courses and workshops for everyone, karaoke and street concerts to suit all tastes in the old town, from Habaneras to pop rock and disco music, as well as Celtic music, jazz, blues and rap, among other things.

Catalan tradition will be present as well, with bonfires, correfocs, traditional dances and parades, passacaglias, giants and human towers.

Free activities in Barcelona during summer!

Whatever you’re into, you can enjoy summer to the full in Barcelona! Even if you’re on a budget, there are many free activities this August.

Outdoor cinema buffs can head to the CCCB in the Raval for the annual “Gandules” cycle, which this year complements the contemporary culture centre’s intriguing exhibition on labyrinths.

Films such as Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville or David Lynch’s Lost Highway are screened from Tuesday to Thursday at 10pm. Get there early to grab a sandwich and a seat.

For the ideal combination of art and air conditioning, check out one of the many free exhibition centres in town. They include the Caja Madrid Espai Cultural in Plaça Catalunya, Gaudi’s Pedrera, and Palau Robert on Passeig de Gràcia, which takes you on a tour of the Mediterranean. Caixa Forum on Montjuic explores the work of internationally renowned Majorcan artist Miquel Barceló.

What’s more, other museums and galleries waive their entry charge on Sunday afternoons, including the Picasso and the nearby Design museums in the Born, or the CCCB and the Virreina photography space in the centre.

For those that prefer to be outdoors, the many lovely parks in the city offer a shady haven from the heat, and a very special experience at night, set the scene for free concerts in classical music, jazz and sarsuela.

And if you’re in party spirits don’t miss the lively and colourful street celebrations in Gràcia, in the third week of August, and Sants in the last week, with their extravagant street decorations and live bands in the evenings.

http://www.vimeo.com/13913483

La Mercè: city festival of Barcelona

Designer Claret Serrahima, the creator of Barcelona Football Club crest, is the artist behind the official image of La Mercè (city festival of Barcelona), for which she engaged some thirty of the city’s key personalities to design a letter.

He used these letters to create as many as five different versions of a poster based on the notion of simplicity, using a plain white background to give prominence to the letters themselves. “La Mercè is a festival of the people, one of participation“, said Serrahima, when explaining the concept behind the poster.

Sol Picó, Tortell Poltrona, Tomàs Molina, Josep Bohigas, Lucrecia, Ferran Monegal, Eugènia Balcells, Ada Parellada and El Delgado Buil are just some of the Barcelona residents whose handiwork is featured in the poster for the upcoming Mercè celebrations.

At the poster unveiling, some of the contents of this year’s festivities were also revealed. The guest city for this year’s Mercè celebrations will be Dakar, and this will be the first time that a city of the Sub-Sahara has ever participated in one of Barcelona’s fiestas.

The capital of Senegal will bring you the contemporary dance group Tenane, percussionist N’Diaye Rose and even fashion designer Cheicka, among others.

Gracia Festival: Barcelona’s biggest and most colorful street party

Probably Barcelona’s biggest and most colourful street party, the Festa de Gràcia gets underway on August 15th and, during one week, seventeen streets will be decorated for the celebrations, on another year of this historical event. The first reference of this festivity dates back to 1817, when Gràcia was a small village, and not yet absorbed as a neighbourhood by Barcelona.

Gràcia was established in 1626, in the surroundings of a convent called Nostra Senyora de Gràcia (Our Lady of Grace). Gràcia was an independent municipality until it was annexed to Barcelona in 1897 along with other villages in the plain of Barcelona. The expansion of the Eixample  district in the 19th century eventually led to the northward expansion of Barcelona, connecting Gràcia to the growing metropolis.

Given the confirmation that some two thirds of the event’s visitors will be attending its morning, afternoon and early-evening activities, it will hold its main family-interest shows and cultural events at those times.

Still, the night party may stretch out to 2 am during the week and 3.30 am during the weekend, with concerts and music.

The first event of the Festival was the poster contest. Aina Cordoncillo, local illustrator, has been selected among 268 participants, and her poster will be the Official Poster of the Festival.

The Mas i Mas Festival in August

For eight years the Mas i Mas Festival has been adding rhythm to the warmest days of the year. This edition’s festival, which kicks off on 29 July with a performance by the Malian diva Rokia Traoré, has programmed over 160 concerts to suit all tastes with world music, flamenco, classical and electronica.

Among all that will be going on, one concert stands out, the Plaça Reial tribute to the city’s most iconic jazz club, the Jamboree, which is 50 this year. Musicians like Chet Baker, Ella Fitzgerald and Ornette Coleman have been here, so jazz will be the star of this free concert on Monday 30 August, starting at 6 pm.

The Big Acoustic Band, the best national jazz outfit, and WTF All Stars, the musicians that liven up the WTF Jam Sessions every Monday at the club, will have the job of bringing the Jamboree out into the light in Plaça Reial.

Appearing at the Mas i Mas Festival besides Rokia Traoré will be Flavio Rodríguez, Lucrecia and Sole Giménez, accompanied by the saxophonist Perico Sambeat. This last recital will close the festival on 1 September at the Palau de la Música.

The inclusion of the Palau de la Música as a festival stage is one of the new features of the eighth Mas i Mas Festival. There the chamber music room will hold three latin and jazz concerts a day.

In all the festival will have seven stages around the city. La Pedrera once again provides the stage for classical music, with three concerts a day, while flamenco will be based at the Tarantos, with six sessions a day, and electronica at the Moog. The Auditori will open the festival and there will also be concerts at Luz de Gas and the Jamboree.

All those people who say nothing happens in Barcelona in August have got it all wrong!

Primavera Sound. 10 years of the best indie scene

Barcelona has been enjoying the very best on the indie scene for ten years now, with wide-ranging genres including rock, pop and even electronica. In fact, Primavera Sound has gained a reputation for avoiding labels and for hosting all and sundry artists, from the very new to the most established.

The 10th Primavera Sound festival will be held on 27, 28 and 29 May at the Parc del Fòrum but throughout the week there will be fringe concerts at the city’s clubs and other places like the metro and the parks.

With over a hundred groups playing at the festival, there will be a huge range of acts. One of this year’s main themes will be 1990s pop, with groups like The Charlatans, Bis, Pavement and Pixies.

The Athens group is one of those returning to Primavera, along with Wire, The Fall, Low, Shellac and Wilco. The latter, along with the Pet Shop Boys and Orbital, will be topping the bill at a festival where small print is very important.

For example, you need to bear in mind groups like The XX, Beach House, Wild Beasts and No Age, who are coming with some of the year’s most interesting ideas.

All that, not to mention cult figures like Gary Numan, the pioneer of electronica, Marc Almond, a real pop icon, and Hope Sandoval, who will be accompanied by The Warm Inventions.

Lo-Fi is another feature of Primavera with The Bundles, a new group made up by Kimya Dawson, a former member of The Moldy Peaches, and the singer-songwriter and comic artist Jeffrey Lewis.

More inf@: Primavera Sound website

Aerosmith Tour 2010 in Barcelona

Aerosmith

- the biggest, most enduring and thrilling band in rock history will make a spectacular return to the UK and Europe this summer with the COCKED, LOCKED, READY TO ROCK TOUR! spawning what will be the ultimate music event of the new decade.

Aerosmith are one of the great American rock bands of all time. Steve Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer Aerosmith formed nearly four decades and throughout his career have sold over 150 million albums worldwide. The so-called “bad boys of Boston” have a lot of number ones and a multitude of records.

Barcelona and in particular the Palau Sant Jordi is the venue chosen by Aerosmith for what is undoubtedly one of the most important events of the year with the rock life. They visit us in its 40th anniversary with a single action which will give a full review of his vast career.

Palau Sant Jordi -> Passeig Olímpic, 5-7 Barcelona
Date: 27/06/2010 -  Time: 20.45h

“Barcelona is the best city in the world” by Woody Allen

Playing to a full house last Sunday March 28, film director Woody Allen and his regular band showed their jazz repertory, some of which is closely associated with his films. During the concert he declared his love for the Catalan capital, saying: “Barcelona is the best city in the world“.

This was the film director’s second performance at the iconic Modernista concert hall, Palau de la Música. He was appearing on the Millennium Festival programme, in which he held a distinguished place a few years ago as a clarinettist in the New Orleans Jazz Band.

With a calling card of modest remarks, like “I’m nothing more than an amateur clarinettist“, “if I weren’t famous, nobody would come to my concerts“, “people come more to see me than to hear me“, Allen made another appearance before his Barcelona public, fans both of his films and performances.

The Modernista Palau had a put up a notice two days before the concert informing the public that all tickets had sold out for concert featuring the film director, a jazz musician, as he himself admits, with a passion for New Orleans music.

Allen learnt to play the sax soprano when he was thirteen or fourteen, but he later chose the clarinet as he’d always loved New Orleans jazz, especially Sidney Bechet.

While acknowledging that he listens to other kinds of music in his free time, including opera, classical music and modern jazz, and that he also loves songs from Broadway musicals, he reaffirmed his preference for New Orleans music. Source: www.bcn.es

Web de Woody Allen & His New Orleans Jazz Band

Roxy Music at Sonar Barcelona

British band Roxy Music will be performing at the next Sonar, thirty years after they last played in the city. Other groups joining the line-up are New Young Pony Club, Cabo San Roque and Aufgang. Find your hotel in Barcelona.
 

Dance pioneers with the song “Angel Eyes”, they made synthesisers fashionable, were the precursors of punk and new wave and the standard-bearers of glamour on stage. Roxy Music is a band ahead of their time, which is why they are going to play at Sonar.

Sonar, the advanced music and multimedia art festival, takes place in Barcelona every year during three days in June. Sonar’s diverse artistic offer splits between the Sonar by Day activities and Sonar by Night, together with some simultaneous gigs like the performances at L’Auditori.

Together with Roxy Music, Sonar 2010 will also feature The Chemical Brothers, Delorean or The Pinker Tones among others.

Núñez i Navarro Hotels offers you nine hotels in Barcelona, centrally located, next to Sonar by Day venues and well connected to Sonar by Night premises.

More inf@: Sonar 2010 website

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