The Paris Chamber Orchestra, one of the leading groups in Europe, arrives this week in Lanzarote, as part of the tour organized by the Canary Islands Music Festival, accompanied by Antonio Méndez, one of the Spanish directors "most requested, consolidated and interesting of his generation", according to the organizers. Together, they will perform a repertoire integrated by three well-known symphonies by Haydn, Mozart and Schubert, in a program that represents the transition from classicism to romanticism.
The concert will be this Saturday the 29th, at 8:00 p.m., in Los Jameos del Agua. Tickets are available on the website of this space, as well as on the Music Festival website.
With more than four decades of history, the Paris Chamber Orchestra is already considered "one of the leading groups in Europe". After a profound renovation in recent years, it now welcomes a new generation of French musicians, thus becoming one of the youngest permanent ensembles and the first truly egalitarian orchestra in that country. It usually performs throughout Paris with concerts at the Philharmonie, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the Théâtre du Châtelet, as well as in venues closer to the general public, while undertaking international tours.
With its musical director, the internationally renowned pianist Lars Vogt - who has extended his connection with the group until 2025 - he reinforces his decidedly chamber music positioning. Adapted to a Mozart-type formation, the orchestra reconsiders the reading of classical works and has more than sixty recordings to its credit. It collaborates with renowned conductors and soloists, with whom it pursues the development of the repertoire and defends an original approach to chamber music.
In addition, it leads more than a hundred cultural actions each season and is the protagonist of performances committed to the city, developing a civic proposal aimed at all audiences, including those in precarious situations or social exclusion. Its performances conceived in favor of the beneficiaries of emergency accommodation centers in Paris or the inmates of penitentiary centers are some examples of its solidarity philosophy.
Antonio Méndez and the repertoire
He attends the Canary Islands Music Festival under the direction of Antonio Méndez, with whom the Mallorcan debuted on April 18, 2018 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, which marks his return to the stages of the Islands after closing his stage as head of the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra.
The repertoire for this concert includes Haydn's 'Symphony No. 85', also called 'The Queen', which belongs to the first set of six symphonies written on commission to be presented in the city of Paris, which had long admired his work.
It will be followed by Mozart's 'Sinfonia Concertante', a work surrounded by deep mysteries. There is no doubt about its charm, its melody or its broad appeal, but there is no solution to the problem of when or for whom it was written, or even if it is truly by Mozart.
The program closes with Schubert's 'Symphony No. 5', written only a few months after No. 4, which is often described as a work that pays homage to the classical masters Mozart and Haydn.