The Russians, for this occasion—and in this case, three of them—come from Málaga, led by José María Moreno, in an exchange program with two orchestras of similar structure. That is to say, last Thursday, the Málaga Philharmonic Orchestra, of which Moreno is the principal conductor, was the star of the sixth concert of the season at the Auditorium on the seafront promenade; next April, Pablo Mielgo and the Symphony Orchestra will return the favor by performing the Fifth Symphony and Opening No. 3 of Leonora by Beethoven. As for the concert in question, which filled the stalls and a good part of the amphitheater of the Auditorium, it began with pianist Alexei Volodin performing the Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30Sergei Rahmaninoff's "The Last Circus" is undoubtedly one of the most emblematic pieces of his oeuvre, having become an icon for the most daring virtuosos who attempt to perform it. This piece traveled unperformed on the ship that carried the composer to the United States, the country where he eventually sought refuge years later, fleeing the revolution. A magnificent pianist himself, he premiered the piece in New York, though he performed it with a simpler and shorter cadenza than the one played by Volodin. At the end of the first movement, he played the titanic version, marked in the score as... "I mean", which requires all a collection of attributes available only to the privileged. The pivotal moment of a movement, Allegro mi no tantowhere everything that will follow is foreshadowed. A pinnacle for the pianist and a demonstration of subtle nuances by different instruments—horn, clarinet, flute, and oboe, then acting as soloists. Rahmaninoff, often accused of being antediluvian by the followers of his contemporaries—Bartók, Stravinsky, and company—was challenged by movements like the second, in which all the colors of bygone eras shine. The nemesis of the third movement, filled with a varied series of extremely difficult musical instruments, in sober conjunction with the orchestra, to round out and solidify a whole in which nothing is lacking, and crowned with a resounding piano finale, brought the audience to its feet.

"Half genius, half madman," Hans von Bülow said of Anton Bruckner. "Half god, half madman," Gustav Mahler quipped. In any case, only the first part of the story has reached us, and yet, quite deservedly, history has placed the beatific Bruckner in his rightful place, for his incredible ability to make music, starting with his admired Schubert and Wagner, until he achieved his own unique and indelible style. From the former, he absorbed his melodic dexterity, and from the latter, his immeasurable monumentality. The combination of these two skills, and not forgetting that he was an organist and, therefore, capable of manipulating all the mechanisms of an orchestra as if it were a single instrument, has made him one of the few members of this privileged group who never disappoints.

There were many notable and relevant moments in the opening concert of the season of the Illes Balears Symphony Orchestra, but, to begin with, I would like to highlight what corresponds to Prelude to the après-midi of a faun, of Claude Debussy. The first piece played in the second half and of which Pierre Boulez said that "The flute of Faun by Debussy breathed new life into the art of music." Josep Miralles, the group's solo flute, was in charge of showing off his best attributes in the interpretation of these supernatural moments, which suggest the sensual evocations of the main faun. somos, Mielgo and the Symphony Orchestra displayed this primordial moment that the group is experiencing, and the Frenchman's piece, which at the time marked a revolution, was a good thermometer to confirm it. There are many instruments that at one moment or another become protagonists in this translation of the poem, soloist, the oboe, of course, and even the antique cymbals, to achieve a chromatic universe that, moreover, is unlike any other of the compositions of one of the great avant-garde artists in the history of music. crushed the new world of the arts, with one of the capers of musical impressionism. The bullfighter's prayer It is a small but no small work, with all the ingredients of Spanish music and the impressionist envelope that had so unnerved him. Originally conceived for four llaüts, which is difficult to imagine how they might have sounded, it was later converted to a string quartet and finally to the version that began the evening, for string orchestra. From one of his companions in Parisian musical adventures, Manuel de Falla, who drew from the same sources, Davide Cabassi on piano played the three Nights in the Gardens of Spain, the one of the Generalife, the Distant Dance and those of The mountains of Córdoba, where we can find the most obvious references in Debussy and Ravel,Perfumes of the Night of the first and the Prelude to Night of the second. Intense, tempered and meticulous, was the soloist's interpretation, with these masterful dialogues with the orchestra, creating textures of sublime richness and ending with a finale of a fineness extraordinary, with the "extinguished sound", as the score notes.

Special, very special, was the fourth day of the Symphonic Summers, that year after year The parade ground at Bellver Castle was packed to the rafters. This was because it was the concert with which his colleagues paid musical tribute to Eduardo Bernabéu, the late friend and solo clarinetist of the Balearic Islands Symphony Orchestra. This circumstance led to an even larger attendance than usual. The concert began with theOpening of The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart, while the tribute began right after, with the performance of Clarinet Concerto K. 622 in A major, Also by Mozart. This was the last complete piece written by the genius from Salzburg, which, like all those where the clarinet was the great protagonist, was dedicated to his friend and lodge companion, the virtuoso of the instrument, Anton Stadler, also known as "the miracle of Bohemia." He was the one who, together with Theodor Lotz, made the so-called bass clarinet, longer, of four added notes, thus completing up to four octaves. And it was with this model that Joan Enric Lluna displayed the talent and the multiple possibilities of such an important instrument in an orchestra, yet so relegated as a protagonist. In the first movement, we find it as a miscellany, which allows us to enjoy its entire varied and splendorous range of colors. Luna showed it to us with a precision and purity that even surprised us with such evident potential. The primordial moment came with the simple and wonderful Adage, of an emotion that could not have made the moment more beautiful. Luna acknowledged the applause with the interpretation of Capriccio, also for Mozart, also for Slater, also for Bernabéu.