No. 11 - Its Gran Canaria Magazine

36
GET TO KNOW GRAN CANARIA I CONOCE GRAN CANARIA Nº 11
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Music Capital
Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria
Anne-Sophie Mutter
By Cayetano Sánchez
Back in 1985, the world of classical music celebrated
with great enthusiasm the tercentenary of three
composers who were essential to the genre’s history:
Bach, Handel and Scarlatti. Meanwhile, the old
continent declared that year as the "European Year
of Music". Alongside all this musical conjunction, the
first Canary Islands Music Festival was launched; a
long-standing aspiration that brought an international
touch to the archipelago’s musical offerings,
as well as providing a cultural addition to the usual
sun and beach tourism. It was also the only festival
of its kind to be held in the winter season. Gran Canaria
is one of the main venues for this gathering of
classical sounds, which this year celebrates its 38th
edition.
Star Performers
Right from the festival’s early days, the island's
audiences, who were great classical music fans,
responded enthusiastically to the concerts programmed
between January and February. Soon
the demands of music-loving tourists who visited
the island on a regular basis began to grow, and
in time they were joined by others who came expressly
to enjoy world celebrities, together with the
island's fine climate. It is impossible to mention all
the stars and orchestras that have played on the
stages of Gran Canaria over the many decades, but
they include almost all the great figures of the musical
firmament from the end of the last century to
the present day. By way of a brief example, some of
them are conductors, such as Carlo Maria Giullini,
Sergiu Celibidache, Georg Solti, Ricardo Muti, Claudio
Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, John Eliot Gardiner,
Esa-Pekka Salonen, John Eliot Gardiner and many
others. The list of soloists is also endless: Alfredo
Kraus, Maria Joâo Pires, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Plácido
Domingo, Yo Ma, Vladimir Ashkenazy and many
others....
This brief selection serves to confirm the quality
and international prestige enjoyed by the Canary
Music Festival, which this year, and in the first two
months of 2022, will once again fill the island with
the beautiful sounds of the classics at the Auditorio
Alfredo Kraus, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria,
Given the limited space of this article to highlight
the great number of concerts and programmes,
please refer to the Festival website: https://www.
icdcultural.org/fimc
The Greats
As a testament to the 38th Festival that is now
upon us, once again mention goes to some of the
best-known names on this year’s programme. The
soloists include: Lang Lang (piano), Grigory Sokolov
(piano), Steven Isserlis (cello), Sergej Krylov (violin),
Javier Camarena (tenor), Philippe Jaroussky (countertenor),
Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin).
The orchestras include the London Philharmonic
Orchestra, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Gran Canaria
Philharmonic, Paris Chamber Orchestra, Lithuanian
Chamber Orchestra and Russian State Symphony
'Evgeny Svetlanov'. Among the conductors,
Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Jordi Savall, Vassily Petrenko,
Philippe Herreweghe, Gustavo Gimeno, Antonio
Méndez, Michael Boder and Karel Mark Chichon.
All these figures will undoubtedly be a great attraction
for a large number of fans, in this unique opportunity
to enjoy the finest music, and at a lower
cost than at other latitudes.
The Creative City
In order to understand just why Las Palmas de
Gran Canaria has become the venue for this Festival,
as well as many others that cater for a wide
range of musical styles, we need to look back in
history. Since the end of the 19th century, when the
remoteness of the island was more palpable due to
the lack of communications, prestigious European
opera companies of the time performed in the city
as part of the stopovers they made on their way to
theatres in Latin America, thus creating a legion of
aficionados. This coincided, in 1845, with the creation
of the Gran Canaria Philharmonic Society, the
oldest in Spain, which still exists today. French musician
Camille Saint-Saëns, a regular visitor to the
island in the early decades of the 20th century, was
one of the Society’s illustrious presidents.
These are just some of the arguments that have led
the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria City Council to request
that the city be included - in the music section
- in the Unesco Creative Cities Network; one of
the leading cultural platforms on the planet and a
fundamental tool for international cooperation between
cities that identify creativity as a strategic
factor for sustainable urban development.
For its part, the Spanish National Commission for
Cooperation with Unesco has expressed its official
support for the candidacy of Las Palmas de Gran
Canaria, considering its musical tradition and its capacity
to combine its local and insular heritage with
the influences of its visitors to be decisive factors.
The Unesco Creative Cities Network already includes
other Spanish cities such as Bilbao (in the
Design section), Valladolid and Terrassa (in Cinema),
Dénia and Burgos (in the Gastronomy section),
Barcelona and Granada (in Literature) and Seville
and Liria (in Music). In this latter category, that of
Music, Unesco has so far incorporated some thirty
cities from all over the world.
Cultural Values
Among the arguments for qualifying for this musical
category, it is worth mentioning that the city
hosts other major musical festivals, including WO-
MAD, Canarias Jazz & Más Festival, Festival CERO,
TEMUDAS (International Theatre, Music and Dance
Festival of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), Naifest, the
Canary Islands International Music Festival, SUM
Festival, Festival Mar Abierto. Mention should also
be made of Musicando, LPA International Jazz Day,
the Big Bang Vintage Festival and the Rutas Sonoras.
The quality of the city’s musical venues is also key,
such as the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium, Pérez Galdós
Theatre, Espacio Miller, Guiniguada Theatre, Cuyás
Theatre, José Antonio Ramos Auditorium (in Doramas
Park) and the Plaza de la Música. Also relevant
is its connection with the great classics, such as the
Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra, the Municipal
Symphonic Band and the Opera Season.
A video (https://youtu.be/PXMkO_Kazio) has been
put together to highlight other aspects that promote
the candidacy of Gran Canaria’s capital as it
seeks to shortly become one more City of Music in
the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. There is no
lack of merit.
Plácido Domingo
Womad