Casablancas, finalist at the XV Music Awards

Posted by Cristina Martí on February 27, 2011  |  Leave a comment

Benet Casablancas has been selected as a finalist at the XV Music Awards in the ‘Best Classical Music Composer’ category with his work ‘Alter Klang. Impromptu for orchestra after Paul Klee”.

A recording of the piece is included in the monographic CD ‘Benet Casablancas. Orchestral Works’, released on the Anemos/Inaem label and performed by the Orquesta Nacional de España under the baton of its chief conductor Josep Pons, with Bertram Kornacher overseeing the musical production.

The album, beautifully presented and with documented sleeve notes by Yvan Nommick, also includes ‘Three Epigrams’ for orchestra and the world premiere of the composer’s latest work, ‘Darkness visible. Nocturne for orchestra’.

Written as a commission for the Orquesta Nacional de España, which premiered the piece in January 2007 at the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid in February 2007, ‘Alter Klang’ has enjoyed notable success, having been played on repeated occasions in Spain and abroad (Holland, Belgium, Sweden) by orchestras such as the Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, the Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, the NJO from The Netherlands, the Orchestre National de Belgique and the Malmö Simfoni Orkester. And in March 2012 it will be performed in Barcelona by the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya.

Alter Klang by Benet Casablancas in Holland, Belgium and Sweden

Posted by Leticia Martin on January 9, 2009  |  2 Comments

The Dutch youth orchestra, Nationaal Jeugd Orkest, conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw, has chosen the work Alter Klang by Benet Casablancas for its January concert tour, which takes it to the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht in Holland and Antwerp in Belgium. This work consolidates Benet Casablancas’ place among the most internationally acclaimed Spanish composers.

Alter Klang (Antique harmonies) refers back to a well-known painting with the same name by Paul Klee. The composer brings a broad spectrum of sustained rhetorical resources and synesthesiae into play, which emerged in the adaptation of the pictorial language to music.

Composed in a sole movement for large orchestra it has received chamber music treatment on various occasions. It is dedicated to Josep Pons, who conducted the premiere at the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid in 2007. This same conductor will perform it in Malmö (Sweden) with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra in April.

Alter Klang

New Epigrams in ISCM World Music Days 2008

Posted by Leticia Martin on October 28, 2008  |  Leave a comment

Benet Casablancas‘ “New Epigrams” for chamber orchestra has been included in the programme for “ISCM World Music Days 2008″, being held this year in Vilnius (Lithuania). The piece, Spain’s sole representative at this year’s Festival, is being performed on October 27 by the Cantus Ensemble of Croatia at the Town Hall in the Lithuanian capital. The international jury, charged with making their selection from among over 350 scores submitted by the ISCM’s national sections, includes figures of the stature of Peter Eötvös, Jonathan Harvey, Luca Francesconi, Onute Narbutaire and Helena Tulve. New Epigrams has been performed previously in London (London Sinfonietta Perspective CD), Strasbourg (Festival Musica), Amsterdam (Holland Festival), Düsseldorf (Biennale “Ohren Musik aus Europa”), St. Petersburg (Hermitage State Orchestra), La Tour-de- Trême (Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne), Oberlin (Ohio, USA), Vienna (Portrait Benet Casablancas, Musikverein) as well as in several Spanish cities (Barcelona, Madrid, Alicante, Sabadell and Valencia).
Alter Klang “Impromptu per a orquestra”, was commissioned by the Spanish National Orchestra in 2007, and is published by Tritó Edicions. In 2009 the piece will be performed in Holland, Belgium and Sweden.

World premiere by Benet Casablancas in Madrid

Posted by Marcel Soleda on February 15, 2007  |  Leave a comment

Conducted by principle conductor Josep Pons, the Orquesta Nacional de España (ONE) performs Alter Klang, a piece the orchestra commissioned from Mr Benet Casablancas, at the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid on 16, 17 and 18 February