Second to last concert of an edition, by Muffati-Brussels Baroque Orchestra, until then immaculate and with one of the concerts that for some was almost the cherry on top of a magnificent cake. An evening entirely dedicated to the one who was everything, Johann Sebastian Bach, with a tasty and rich program, like a small great demonstration of the undisputed condition of the great capoper of music history. For example, with the first piece, the "Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major BWV 1050, which treasuresa first majestic and original movement, the impeccable combination of the different solo instruments, harpsichord, flute, and violin crowned by an innovative sixty-four-bar cadence by the harpsichord, which until that moment in history only served as a fundamental but not very ostentatious basso continuo. Only with this Allegro initially we had enough ingredients to enjoy thoroughly. It wasn't like that. Just when it had barely started, a gust of wind blew away Frank Theuns's sheet music and perhaps here the elements allied against any possibility of enjoyment. Hope was placed in the cadence, but not even that. Violaine Cochard, at the height of her performance, seemed to be chasing the notes as if it were an obstacle race to align them with those coming from the original; a task that was almost impossible without the adequate (over)dose of virtuosity. It is easy to imagine that it was not simple to sort out the mess.

Pollença, the festival, is experiencing a time of monographic tributes. It was the case with the Ébène Quartet's dedication to Ludwig van Beethoven. It will be the case with Les Muffati-Brussels Baroque Orchestra's tribute to Johann Sebastian Bach. And it was the case with the Freiburger Barokorchester's performance on Saturday, exclusively featuring pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Three composers who share a common denominator: they are unfathomable. One could dedicate infinite monographic concerts to any of them and they would never cease to be of maximum interest. The one we are concerned with is not an exception, but rather a small, great selection that demonstrates the versatility of someone who made music almost unintentionally. Thus, the chamber orchestra, with twenty-four musicians, conducted by Éva Borhl on violin, began the task with the overture of The gardener's trick, early work, simple, with a lot of rhythm and prioritizing melody, where a gem arises from almost nothing. It was a prelude that in some way became a declaration of principles of what the concert would be, in which, once again, the cloister of Sant Domingo presented an unbeatable appearance, or what is the same, a full house.

Continue the tradition. The Pollença Festival, more orchestral than ever this year, has once again incorporated the presence of the Balearic Islands Symphony Orchestra into its programming. It is the golden culmination of a always dense season, like a well-deserved gift of prestige. The occasion featured the direction of Patrick Hahn and the cellist Alban Gerhardt as soloist performing the "Cello Concerto in E minor Op. 85 by Edward Elgar. A mature work, his last orchestral piece, like a testament, that of an old and ill man who is figuring out the end of his existence and wants to explain his state with this intense and painful cry. Not a hint of enthusiasm from the initial lament of the solo instrument, which does nothing but foreshadow and confirm all that will follow, when the violas accompany him on this first, somber, and deep walk. A moderato adagio. Alban Gerhardt, a great protagonist, managed to draw out the immense melodic richness the composition holds from his instrument, with a very introspective reading that, in some way, brought fidelity to the spirit of the original. Patrick Hahn, the young Austrian conductor, on the one hand, and the Symphony, on the other, offered the essential balance and circumspection to achieve the ideal equilibrium of a score that concentrates beauty and sadness in equal measure. With a Prelude by Johann Sebastian Bach, Alban Gerhardt acted as if he had finished his performance.It wasn't like that. A detail that honors him, and it is not small. Significant. Alban Gerhardt joined the orchestra to perform the piece that crowned the function, the luminous Scheherazade op. 35 by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, based on some of the tales of The Arabian Nights, which the protagonist who gives title to the composition recounted to Sultan Shahriar to appease his anger. But that is another story. The composition is a whole display of delicacies with which some of the instruments show off their best virtues. Thus, Spahiu, Bleuse, Miralles, Arnal and Fortea —violin, cello, flute and oboe— displayed many of their skills in a small great wonder that, being so colorful, never ceases to shine, just as it happened in this second concert of the Festival de Pollença. A second concert that began with a Prelude of Tristan and Isolde, which, in a way, suffered from the ailment of references, but which in any case served as a good prologue to the piece by the British. A German, a British, and a Russian... offered us another good concert of the level and prestige of the event that concerns us and will concern us all month of August.

Vienna, February 1812, Carl Czerny, Beethoven's disciple, premiere in the imperial city on Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73 later baptized and recognized as Emperor, the last of these characteristics composed by the brilliant maestro from Bonn and the first that he was unable to premiere himself due to his deafness. Pollença, August 2025, Paul Lewis, accompanied by the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Víctor Pablo Pérez, began the closing concert of the 64th Pollença Festival. Johann Friedrich Rochlitz, director of the Allgemeine Musikalische Zeitung, wrote: "Without a doubt, one of the most original, inventive and effective concertos of all that has been written, although one of the most difficult to perform." We will add a small and sparse addendum. The tonality already announces its originality from the first fortissimo, in E flat major, by the orchestra, answered with the same bravery by a piano that seems to be playing a cadenza from beginning to end of this monumental first movement. A clear and imposing omen of what would come next with a solid and vigorous performance, virtuoso, of course, but without missing a single detail of the vast amount that an infinite palette treasures. The orchestra, with the always temperate conductor, was no extra in that story; in fact, after this introduction the orchestra showed all its virtues, power and effectiveness, with a ritornello of almost a hundred bars, until returning to the initial game, with a powerful chord and the corresponding pianistic reply, but now redirecting the narrative towards a second movement of a lyrical delicacy. Twenty minutes, twenty, of undeniable excellence and quality. From the second movement, in E flat minor, a whole series of sensations emerge, which immediately make us forget the exuberance of its predecessor, as if we were entering another universe, from an emotional orchestral introduction and an ethereal response from the soloist, who once again follows his cadenced path. Rondo finale, once again displaying the initial and heroic vigor of an impeccable and relentless score, performed by protagonists who displayed a perfect and harmonious conjunction that makes one think of the ideal symbiosis, with the squaring of the circle. Mamballetas and encore. Schubert, theAllegretto in C minor, undisputed heir to a tonality that Beethoven also mastered and that would deserve another article that is not this one.

Once again, the names of the stars of the fourth concert of the Pollença Festival led to a rave-worthy crowd; that is to say, a full house. There was a good reason: the soprano Sonya Yoncheva, accompanied by the Orchestre de la Opéra Royal de Versailles, conducted by Stefan Plewniak, are names and surnames of the same magnitude as the rest of the stars of the packed edition. On the other hand, the recital had an added value, namely the fact that it featured Baroque music, especially opera, from top to bottom. It is not typical, nor are any of the arias very well-known. Probably the only one that can be described as extremely famous is the aria Lascia ch'io pianga, from the opera Rinaldo, by Handel, the star of an evening that best describes as peculiar. Let's take it one step at a time. A star of the show, because of the twelve pieces announced in the program, eleven were by the German who left for England and conquered it. Structured in a very precise and even traditional way, with a Overture which gave way to one or two arias from the same opera. Conventional, but only up to this point, and peculiar because already, from theOverture Serse's opening, it was clear that the way of interpreting it was completely outside the Baroque canons, which require, or not, sensitivity and subtlety. Plewniak and the sixteen members of the group attacked with an energy and intensity that exceeded the customs of our hearing, but the canons are there, to be dynamited from within. On the other hand, Sonya Yoncheva faced theShadow never was, with some difficulty. It was a strange feeling. Everything was getting better, and when it came to Ah, mio co, schernito sei!, d'Alcina, Everything was in its place, not without a frenetic accompaniment that took some getting used to. It's a brave and risky choice. And so the last piece of the first part sounded, Thick Concerto in D major, Op. 6 No. 4 by Arcangelo Corelli, who was a violinist, composer, and conductor of Queen Christina of Sweden's orchestra.

They're coming back from the Salzburg Festival, last Thursday they enchanted the audience at the Pollença Festival, today, Friday, they're playing at the Jordi Savall in Santes Creus, then they'll be back at the Schubertiade in Vilabertran, and the Pierre Boulez in Berlin awaits them... A calendar that serves to contextualize and confirm their career and prestige. They are the Casals Quartet. That said, any surprise could only be negative, which, on the other hand, seems more than unlikely. As for the program they performed at the third concert of the 64th Pollença Festival, they gave a brief but exquisite tour of the quartets from their institution as a stable composition and formation until the 20th century.

"Bach will never grow old. The construction of his works is those ideal geometric figures where everything is in its place and there is never a superfluous line," said Fryderyk Chopin. Sir András Schiff, a luxury of many carats, the protagonist of the second concert of the Pollença Festival, began his talk by saying that Bach was the greatest composer of all time and his favorite. It's not very original, but no one has any other choice. Therefore, a good reason to start his performance with the'Aria of the Goldberg Variations. A measured, delicate, as if weightless reading, which made it clear that, once again, we were the fortunate spectators of a memorable evening, and that, furthermore, we had no idea what was coming next. Sir András doesn't like others writing his programs, which he explains much better with the addition of an enigmatic element. The truth is that two days earlier he had given a concert in Torroella de Montgrí and more or less repeated the composers, but I think he only repeated one of the pieces from our batch. Intermezzo by Brahms and the Bach encore. Let it be clear, therefore, that it is not difficult to predict what we will feel, it is simply impossible.

"Estate's Impetuous Tempo" says the note that Vivaldi wrote as a guideline for how the third movement of his famous summer should be interpreted Four seasons. This was the small but great gift, in return for the applause, that Janine Jansen and Gregory Ahss offered us with a small group of strings from the Camerata Salzburg, which only served to confirm that we were witnesses of a memorable evening, where excellence was always present for a single moment. From the very first agreements of the Ricercare at 6 of The Musical Offering, BWV 1079, by Johann Sebastian Bach, in a version for chamber orchestra by Shane Woodborne, the bar of the concert was set so high it was almost invisible. The reading could not have been more meticulous or more baroque, with more than thirty professors achieving textures of profound meticulousness, as light as they were neat. It was only the beginning of the first concert of the 64th Pollença Festival, with a cloister in Sant Domingo where there was not even room for a needle. A gala atmosphere, authentic, in the best sense of the word.

The Cloister of the Convent of Sant Domingo hosted the opening concert of the 64th Pollença Festival. This event enjoyed the support of the entire audience. The entire venue, which sold out days before the concert, enjoyed the extraordinary talent and repertoire of the great violist Janine Jansen and the wonderful Camerata Salzburg, conducted by violinist Gregory Ahss.