The Tourism, Culture and Sports Ministry of the Canary Government will celebrate its 33rd International Music Festival of the Canary Islands from January 7th to February 6th in the whole archipelago, in an edition that faces new challenges and, above all, stands out for its far-reaching, both in number of concerts and venues as in scheduled styles and musical periods.
The 33rd edition of what is considered the most important musical event of the Canary Islands because of its size, is determined by a change of program model characterized by a greater variety and a wider repertoire, chamber and symphonic music, which covers all genres and eras ( from the sixteenth century to the present).
A program in which we have tried to give special importance to the works of Spanish and southamerican authors, two clearly differentiating features from other European festivals.
We seek the aim of giving special prominence to the wealth of styles of erudite music, Spanish and Latin American repertoire and the diffusion of our musical heritage, while taking into account the diversity of sensibilities and interests of the public of the eight canary islands.
Overall, the 2017 Festival will bring to numerous scenarios in the islands about 650 musicians from around the world and 78 works to be performed, counting with a large canary representation. «Thus, the next edition will count on 14 soloists, 3 chamber groups, 6 large formations and 8 works by canarian composers.
In this way, 89 concerts throughout the archipelago will be held: 17 in Gran Canaria, 16 in Tenerife, 11 in Fuerteventura, 10 in La Palma, 10 in Lanzarote, 7 in La Gomera, 6 in El Hierro and 4 La Graciosa. To these must be added 8 concert dates of the project ‘Follow the Music’, adding young performers of all islands to the Festival.
New air for an event that also wants to reach many towns of the non capital islands and adapt programming to the sociocultural reality of each territory.
Programm 2017
Tenerife and La Graciosa islands will make the first sounds of the 33rd edition. The Mahler Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of the young Czech conductor Jakub Hrusa and Frank-Peter Zimmermann as soloist, will open the Festival on Jan.7th at the Auditorio de Tenerife ‘Adán Martín’. They will perform works by Prokofiev, Dvorak and the canary composer Gustavo A. Trujillo, repeating program the next day at the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium in Gran Canaria.
Subsequently, a chamber group of musicians from the Mahler Chamber Orchestra will offer four concerts from Jan.10th to Jan. 14th in Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro. In the same time, we are working on closing two special concerts for deaf children, under the project ‘Feel the music’, which promote musicians of this orchestra and that will take place on the two main islands on dates yet to be determined.
On the same day, Jan. 7th, the Havanna String Quartet begins in Caleta de Sebo ( La Graciosa island) his island tour until January 16 with southamerican classic repertoire (Ginastera, Villa-Lobos, Brouwer), which also includes scores of the canary composer Juan Manuel Ruiz.
On Jan. 13th and 14th will take place one of the milestones of the next edition and possibly of the history of the Festival: the union of the two great symphonic orchestras of the archipelago. Philharmonic Orchestra of Gran Canaria and Tenerife Symphony Orchestra will be the two main character formations who will perform Schoenberg’s ‘Gurre-Lieder’, together with the Tenerife’s Opera Choir and the Slovak Philharmonic Choir. About 400 musicians will go on stage of the capital symphonic Auditoriums for this great event, the whole under the conductor Josep Pons.
The program continues on Jan. 14th and Jan. 16th with ‘Love and Death. Goyescas‘, a modern tribute show to the spanish composer E. Granados, to the famous spanish painter F. Goya and the painting work ‘Goyescas’, performed by pianist Rosa Torres-Pardo, soprano Isabel Rey, the video artist Hugo Alonso Ruiz and Manuel Gomez Ruiz, canary tenor.
Less conventional scenarios are added as new to this edition of the festival, like the historical Mata’s Castle in the capital of Gran Canaria and the cultural space El Tanque in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which will house another proposed merger of music and video art, plus dance and poetry: the venezuelan Patchwork Ensemble, led by musician Pedro Barboza. They also will perform in Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and in La Palma, from Jan. 15th to January 20th.
The worldwide renowned pianists Katia & Marielle Labèque, return to the islands to play Stravinsky and Bartok on Jan. 17th and January 18th in the two Auditoriums of Gran Canaria and Tenerife respectively.
The next meeting will be Accademia del Piacere, vanguard group of Spanish Early Music and one of the leaders in Europe, thanks to its conception of historical music as a living thing. They will perform from Jan. 18th to Jan. 21st in La Palma, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Tenerife.
The canary formation Ensemble Villa de La Orotava, specifically its wind octet, also will join the Festival 2017 with a classical repertoire (Haydn, Beethoven, Von Weber, Krommer) and will perform from La Graciosa to Gran Canaria, through all the islands, from Jan. 19th to Jan. 29th.
Jan. 20th and Jan. 22nd will be the turn of a regular formation at the Festival: the Philharmonic Orchestra of Gran Canaria. They will offer two concerts (Elgar, Debussy, Tchaikovsky) in Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura, under the baton of the Swisse conductor Michel Tabachnik.
Coming from Antwerp, Antwerp Duet, formed by Adilia Yip (marimba) and Daniel Belloví (clarinet). They also will perform through the eight islands, from Jan. 21st to Jan. 28th, starting in Gran Canaria and ending in El Hierro. They will display their expertise in performing contemporary repertoire and several scores of current Spanish composers.
Arts Duo, formed by the canary musicians Irina Peña (violin) and Ignacio Clemente (piano), will offer through five islands a tribute to French impressionism with works by Debussy and Ravel, and Falla’s nationalism. They will perform from Jan. 24th and to Jan.29th in Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, La Palma and Lanzarote.
The resident formation of Tenerife’s Auditorium, Quantum Ensemble, also will join the Festival with a program called ‘Zíngaros’ (Liszt, Bartok, Brahms). Their concerts will take place on stages in Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, La Palma and La Gomera, from Jan. 26th and Jan.30th. David Ballesteros (violin), Cristo Barrios (clarinet) and Gustavo Díaz-Jerez (piano), will join this time the violinist of the Trio Arbós, Cecilia Bercovich, and the solo cellist of the National Orchestra of Spain, Angel Luis Quintana.
Meanwhile, the Ensemble Mosaik from Berlin, a specialist in experimental music, will perform scores of the canary composer A. Martin Leandro from Jan. 26th to Jan. 31st in Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, La Palma and La Gomera. Back to ancient music, the British Academy of Ancient Music, group led by Pavlo Berznosiuk (concertmaster / director), will tour the European Baroque by Purcell, Vivaldi and Haendel in Gran Canaria and Tenerife on Jan. 28th and Jan. 29th, respectively.
The canary artist Juan Hidalgo, exponent of conceptual vanguards in Spain, will be honored around his figure at the 33rd Festival with the Symphony Orchestra of Tenerife including some of his works. Under the baton of maestro Arturo Tamayo, concerts will take place in Gran Canaria and Lanzarote on Feb.2nd and Feb.3rd.
The 33rd International Music Festival of the Canaries will bid farewell to the capital islands on Feb.3rd and Feb.4th in the Auditoriums Adán Martin and Alfredo Kraus, respectively. It will do so with a symbol of European music: the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, reference symphony orchestra in the city of Mozart, closely linked to its prestigious Festival. And being a must, they will perform a masterpiece of the Austrian genius, W.A. Mozart: the Requiem Mass in D minor, with the Salzburg Bach Choir under the baton of conductor Andreas Spering.
Another novelty in the 33rd Festival is the addition to the programming of the Town Band of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the Town Band of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Tenerife’s formation with Felipe Neri as conductor, will perform outdoors on Jan. 20th in Caleta de Sebo in La Graciosa, to continue touring until Jan. 24th to Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria. Meanwhile, the Band from Las Palmas G.C. will present Oscar Navarro as guest conductor and will be responsible for putting an end to the Festival, with four concerts in Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro, from Feb. 2nd until Feb. 6th.