Last Thursday (2 May) saw the release of a new album by ADDA Simfònica Alicante, the symphony orchestra of the Auditorium of the Provincial Council of Alicante (ADDA), with principal conductor Josep Vicent. Entitled Le divin poème and released on ARIA Classics, the album is a recording of Alexander Scriabin’s Symphony No. 3 in C minor (Op. 43), a work whose subtitle translates as “The Divine Poem”.Composed in Switzerland between 1904 and 1905, the symphony was given its premiere performance in the year of its completion at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris under the baton of the Hungarian conductor Arthur Nikisch.The current album is a live recording of a performance of the symphony at a concert on 2 February 2023, which was universally praised by critics and public alike.
The Spanish conductor also collaborates regularly with the famous theatrical group La Fura dels Baus, with whom he presented the show Pastoral for the Planet at last year’s Ljubljana Festival. ADDA Simfònica Alicante recently received Grammy and Latin Grammy nominations and three Premios de la Academia de la Música de España nominations for the album Ritmo: The Chick Corea Symphony Tribute, producted by Fernando Arias, the director of ARIA Classics.
ADDA Simfònica Alicante and Josep Vicent will pay homage to Chick Corea at the 72nd Ljubljana Festival with a concert at Križanke on 23 July (9.00 pm). The American jazz pianist and composer participated in the birth of jazz fusion in the late 1960s. He recorded his debut album Tones for Joan’s Bones in 1966 and began recording and touring with Miles Davis in the autumn of 1968. Chick Corea won 27 Grammy Awards from more than 70 nominations over the course of his career. The orchestra will be joined on stage by the Emilio Solla Trio, flamenco singer and saxophonist Antonio Lizana, trumpeter David Pastor and Cuban-American saxophonist and clarinettist Paquito D’Rivera. The last named was a founder member of the Cuban group Irakere. From the 1980s onwards he led several groups in the USA. He is the only artist ever to have won Grammy Awards in both the Classical and Latin Jazz categories. His last appearance at the Ljubljana Festival was 30 years ago.
The orchestra and conductor will also appear at Križanke the following evening, 24 July (9.00 pm), together with soloist Fabio Furia, an internationally renowned concert artist, composer and arranger and one the most important bandoneon players in Europe. This year he will also be among the teachers at the Ljubljana Festival Masterclasses 2024. Together, the musicians will present an evening of Spanish-tinged music. Like tango itself, Astor Piazzolla first found approval outside Argentina, although by the 1980s he was also widely acclaimed in his homeland. The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires is a mature work, composed in 1970. As an introduction to the work, we will hear a dance piece by contemporary Mexican composer Arturo Márquez. The concert will continue after the interval with Manuel de Falla’s Andalusian-inspired suite The Three-Cornered Hat and Maurice Ravel’s Boléro.
The Chick Corea Symphony Tribute Ritmo concert is part of the Package of Summer Rhythms, where a single ticket gives you access to four concerts (the other three being Arturo O’Farrill & Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Margareth Menezes and Zappa Day in Ljubljana) for just €99.
