The Gaudí Palace will host next Saturday, March 14, the traditional Easter Concert of the City of Astorga Choir “Excelsior”, which this year is part of the Gaudí Year program, with the collaboration of the Escarcha Choir. The musical event was presented this Monday morning at a press conference with the participation of the councilman of Culture, Tomás Valle, the president of the Excelsior Choir, María del Carmen Gómez Bajo, the director of the group from Astorga, Milagros Alonso Cepedano and the director of the Palace, Víctor Murias.
Also the Aula Magna of the Diocesan Seminary of Astorga will host this Friday at 8 pm the presentation of the book “Juan Bautista Grau Vallespinós, Gaudí’s bishop”, by Jairo Álvarez Fernández. The event is part of the commemorative events organized on the occasion of the centenary of the death of Antonio Gaudí in Astorga, an event that invites you to delve into the figures and circumstances that marked the presence of the architect in the city. Admission is free until full capacity is reached.
On Saturday, at 7 p.m., will be the concert, which proposes a musical and spiritual journey that dialogues with the architecture of the building designed by Antonio Gaudí, exploring the relationship between space, emotion and faith through a choral program of great stylistic richness. In addition, this year marks the 45th anniversary of the Asturias Choir and the Escarcha Choir celebrates its 30th anniversary.
During the presentation, director Milagros Alonso Cepedano explained that the program of the Excelsior Choir has been conceived as a “musical architecture” inspired by the different parts of the building. Through various pieces of sacred music, the repertoire proposes an itinerary that culminates in an atmosphere of meditation and contemplation.
The Escarcha Choir will perform a program combining contemporary choral music and spirituality. His pieces explore themes such as human fragility, shared pain and the search for inner peace, in dialogue with the material and symbolic strength of the Gaudí building.
The concert will also feature several joint performances by both ensembles. In them, styles ranging from baroque to contemporary choral language will coexist, with works by composers such as Antonio Vivaldi, Marco Frisina and Karl Jenkins, forming a musical journey that moves between the affirmation of faith, compassion in the face of human pain and spiritual transcendence.
“Our intention is to transform Gaudí’s architectural space into a temple of emotional resonance, where music acts as a bridge between matter – the stone – and the spirit – the sung emotion,” said the director during the presentation.
For his part, the director Víctor Murias was very pleased that the Palace could open its doors to host this concert. “Gaudí could be proud that this music resonates in his palace.” In addition, it was pointed out that the capacity in the chapel for this concert is very limited due to space constraints and therefore will not be able to accommodate all the audience we would like to.
