Two concerts, to be held tomorrow, Thursday and Friday, will put an end to the Córdoba Spring Festival, which has been held in the city since last April 19 and has already accumulated seven consecutive concerts with full capacity. The series, which combines classical music and heritage and is organized by the Department of Culture of the Córdoba City Council, will visit two other emblematic spaces of the city’s heritage this weekend: the Sala Orive and the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos.
The protagonists in the first of these scenarios will be the members of the British quintet London Winds, who will perform tomorrow, Thursday, starting at 8:30 p.m. in a proposal that will again be free until capacity is reached. Founded in 1988 by clarinetist Michael Collins, the group is recognized as one of the world’s leading chamber ensembles.
Throughout their career they have been regular guests at major British festivals and have made several recordings, including the complete wind music of György Ligeti for Sony Classical as part of their Ligeti Edition, which was nominated for a Grammy in 1999. The ensemble has also recorded the complete series of Richard Strauss’s Wind Symphonies for Hyperion, Beethoven’s Piano and Wind Quintet, and Spohr’s Septet for Decca.
London Winds is composed of Philippa Davies (flute), Gareth Hulse (oboe), Michael Collins (clarinet) Richard Watkins (horn) and Robin O’Neill (bassoon). In Córdoba, in their concert tomorrow in Orive, they will perform a repertoire that includes in its first part pieces by György Sándor Ligeti, by Samuel Barber and by Paul Hindemith, while after the break you can listen to the “Wind Quintet No. 1” by René Jean Désiré Francaix and the “17 Variations” by Jean Michel Damase.
Luxury guests for the Orchestra
The Córdoba Orchestra will star in the closing of the Córdoba Spring Festival, on Friday starting at 9:00 p.m. in the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos. It will be done under the direction of Isabel Rubio as guest director and with the cellist Guillermo Pastrana as a soloist. Rubio, of Murcian origin, is currently the head of the Jove Orquestra de les Comarques Gironines, an associate of the Vigo 430 Orchestra and the Granada Symphony Youth Orchestra, as well as resident assistant of the National Youth Orchestra of Spain. The winner of several international competitions, she was a finalist for Assistant Conducting of Kirill Petrenko and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 2021.
His spectacular career has meant that in recent years he has conducted the Spanish Radio Television Orchestra, the National Orchestra of Spain, the Teatro Real Orchestra, the Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra, the Valencia Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of the Region of Murcia, the Oviedo Filarmonía Orchestra or the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra.
Cellist Guillermo PastranaThe voice
Guillermo Pastrana is, for his part, one of the great talents of the current cello in Spain, which earned him the El Ojo Crítico Award from National Radio of Spain in 2014. He was born in Granada in 1983 and has been the winner of numerous national and international competitions and has performed recitals and concerts as a soloist in different cities and festivals.
Praised by critics, the public and the great professionals with whom he has collaborated in his career, all agree in highlighting his musicality, the quality of his sound, tuning and technical perfection, in addition to his charisma on stage. The closing concert program will include the Cello Concerto no. 1 in A minor, Op. 33 by Camille Saint-Saëns and the Scheherazade Op. 35 by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
The Córdoba Spring Festival, whose artistic direction falls to the general coordinator of Cultural Policies of the City Council and professor of Piano Juan Miguel Moreno Calderonhas had the collaboration of various institutions and organizations such as the Junta de Andalucía, the Provincial Council, the Cajasur Foundations, the Cathedral Chapter or the Dominican Fathers of San Agustín.
