JOSEP-RAMON OLIVÉ Y FRANCISCO POYATO

A recital of French mélodie at the Arriaga, for 2025. The idea of dedicating it to Maurice Ravel is as tempting as it is natural. Especially so in the year we will commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of the brilliant composer born in Ziburu, Iparralde, on March 7, 1875. In this tribute recital, apart from pieces by Ravel, the artists will also include works by composers contemporary to him, for whom the mélodie occupies an essential place in their oeuvre.

The program will include the Venezuelan Reynaldo Hahn de Echenagucia, also of Basque descent like Ravel, with whom he also shared a desk at the Paris Conservatory. Also featured will be the lover of Northern Catalonia and Mediterranean music, Déodat de Severac, a member of les Apaches, a club of musical friendships that also included Viñas, Caplet, Falla, and Stravinsky. Or Lili Boulanger, who like Ravel, studied with Gabriel Fauré. Lili, from a family of musicians, was a composer of a prolific work of unusual depth for her young age or perhaps because of it – she died at the age of 24, after a life marked by illness. Lili shared with Ravel an interest in folk and oriental music.

We will conclude the recital with Poulenc, the greatest writer of mélodie of the 20th century. A work about the event that marked humanity in this period