The Concert
The “Concert for Peace and Human Rights 2017”
The Orquestra Simfònica del Gran Teatre del Liceu, under the baton of Josep Pons and with the collaboration of the soprano Erin Wall and the mezzo-soprano Huiling Zhu, will star in the traditional Concert for Peace and Human Rights, whose fourth edition will take place next 9th. december, in Geneva.
The event, organized by ONUART Foundation and produced bu MEDIAPRO, will once again demand peace among the peoples and pay tribute to the victims of the recent terrorist attacks in Europe.
The program: the musical excellence of Beethoven, Strauss and Händel
The event will start with the music of Georg Friedrich Händel, a citizen of the world. A German trained in Italy, who knew fame in England, where he premiered “Obra man fù” opening aria of Serse opera, in 1738. The chines mezzo-soprano Huiling Zhu will perform this piece, one of the best-known and most adapted melodies of the composer, which deals with the harmony between nature and man.
We also find humanity in Lieder by Richard Strauss, his last composition in 1948, at the age of 84 years. Four last songs that could be understood as his musical testament. “Vier lenze Lieder” (the last four songs) with poems of Herman Hesse –Frühling (Spring), September (September), Beim Schlafengehen (Going to sleep)- and a fourth poem by Joseph von Eichendorff –Im Abendrot (The Twilight)- they deal with death and destiny. Although Strauss could never attend the premiere of these songs, they became, from the first moment, one of the most sensitive and sublime passages of his music. The canadian soprano Erin Wall will be in charge of giving voice to these songs, under the dome of Miquel Barceló.
But probably, who better understood this universal language addressed to the whole humanity, was Ludwig van Beethoven who, with the song of joy of his “Ninth Symphony”, invited us to join men and women in a song of hope. His “Seventh Symphony in A Major”, which we can hear in this unique concert of the Orquestra Simfònica del Liceu with its musical director, also pints to this idea. An apotheosis of dance, like Wagner defined. A song to the whole humanity, to join with the force of music, the only art capable of joining borders, breaking walls and reaching the senses and the feelings of the human condition.
