We have often discussed what makes a festival special. There are many answers, each with their own unique qualities. One element is the scenarios. Granada has them. The Palace of Carlos V is the most iconic, and it is also the site of many great occasions. Nothing is more disappointing than an orchestra performing something that you don’t enjoy or are sharing with others. Artists are the third ingredient that transforms a musical series into a festival like that in Granada. It was a reconciliation to see Sir John Eliot Gardiner seated in the last row at the stalls last night, while another person didn’t know him, watching alone an elderly man in black waiting for the lights out to turn on to take his place at the podium. Lordship can be something you have or it can be something you don’t. The genius is the same. The English teacher is able to have both.
If that maestro takes the baton with the same vigor that he directed the Leonore II Overture’ of Beethoven’s first night of Beethovenian works, it is worth dedicating yourself to telling the story of how artists of color can transmit with a glance, with a gesture. Maria Joao Pires is a great example of how someone can overcome a cold that kept her in bed for many days and come to Granada to play the ‘Piano Concerto No. The genius of Bonn, 3 in C minor, was performed by Krystian Zimerman, who we also heard at the festival in 2020, the year that vertigo.
The emotional heat rose immediately in the stalls after Pires’s orchestral introduction to number 3. According to them, the most important concern of the Portuguese interpreter during the afternoon was her inability to percuss with enough force after days of prostration so that the melody could reach the end of the playgroung. It did, it was amazing.
The Festival director Antonio Moral spoke out about her extraordinary circumstances. The crowd greeted Pires with warm applause. The London Symphony Orchestra also received Pires. Yesterday was the 38th anniversary of their first appearance in Spain. The interpretation by Stravinsky’s ‘The Firebird’ was the highlight of yesterday’s celebrations. The Palacio Carlos V was filled with people who paid 110 euros for a place in the stalls. These concerts are among the most expensive in the cycle. They were able to enjoy an artist who never loses his wits no matter what health conditions. This was perhaps due to the complexity of complex scales.
Gardiner waiting in the stalls for the start to the concert. / FERMIN RODRIGUEZ
The success of the first concert that the LSO presented in this festival was largely due to the baton that gentleman held while he waited for the concert to begin and his ability to ensure that the orchestra ‘protected’ the soloist. As we have said, Beethoven was what we heard last evening. It was a very well-played Beethoven. Pires’s entrance in the opening Allegro con brio’ with C minor scales, as well as her tenuous flexibility in attacking the dialogue about the ‘Largo and the exit with ‘Rondo’. Everything sounded just right, Molto allegro final. After the break, we were glad to have the ‘Fourth Symphony” performed.