Kent Nagano dedicated the National Orchestra and Choirs of Spain’s morning concert at Madrid’s National Auditorium to the victims of the Urda railway accident. Speaking in Spanish, the conductor also remembered composer Marisa Manchado, a close friend of the National Orchestra, before the audience observed a minute of silence.
The programme centred on works shaped by more than one creative hand. José Luis Turina’s orchestration of Claude Debussy’s The Sunken Cathedral opened the concert, followed by Debussy’s The Sea and Manuel de Falla’s Atlàntida in the version revised by Ernesto Halffter and adapted by Nagano.
Turina expanded Debussy’s piano prelude for a large orchestra featuring three each of the woodwind instruments, extensive percussion, harp, celesta and piano. The piano remained central to the work’s atmosphere, generating the opening mist before the sound broadened into a symphonic texture and returned to the keyboard as the imagined cathedral disappeared beneath the water. Nagano maintained a steady tempo and highlighted the submerged interplay of strings, marimba and low harp.
The Sea was the morning’s strongest performance. Nagano brought an analytical but fluid approach to Debussy’s orchestration, with the National Orchestra displaying particular strength in the cello section and in solos by concertmaster Valerie Steenken, English horn player José María Ferrero de la Asunción and trumpeter Manuel Blanco. The performance also restored the fanfares Debussy removed in 1909 and Ernest Ansermet later reinstated.
Falla’s Atlàntida followed the interval, in a programme marking the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Nagano chose the Lucerne version, associated with Jesús López Cobos, while omitting the Second Part, which contains much of the work’s most turbulent material and is considered less closely connected to Falla. The resulting performance comprised the Prologue, the First Part and the Third Part, lasting 47 minutes.
The reduced selection placed greater emphasis on the work’s spiritual dimension. Núria Rial stood out among the soloists, singing Isabel’s Dream with an ethereal, non-operatic line. José Antonio López offered a noble Corifeo, while Maite Beaumont gave a strong account of Pirene’s aria, the last music Falla wrote, although the performance did not fully convey its anguish. The National Choir and Barcelona Ars Nova were praised for their compact and nuanced sound, particularly in La Salve en el mar and La noche suprema.
The afternoon concert, which opened the Impacta series, continued the programme’s theme of works completed or adapted by other musicians. Camerata Salzburg performed Haydn’s Nelson Mass in the version attributed to Johann Nepomuk Fuchs, in which the organ part is distributed among winds and horns. The orchestra, using modern instruments alongside natural trumpets and historical timpani, appeared with Vox Luminis for the ensemble’s first collaboration.
Gwendoline Blondeel was a prominent presence in the mass, projecting the soprano line with particular brilliance in the Kyrie, Credo and Benedictus. Sebastian Myrus brought a noble tone to the Qui tollis, while the Benedictus and Kyrie emerged as the performance’s strongest sections. Marie Henriette Reinhold contributed effectively to the Agnus Dei, and the Dona nobis pacem ended with a sense of victory rather than solemnity.
Mozart’s Requiem was performed in the version completed by Franz Xaver Süßmayr, including the brief Amen following the Lacrimosa. The Recordare was the most successful section, with the corni di bassetto set against the cellos and the four soloists forming a closely integrated ensemble. Vox Luminis also showed its strengths in the Ofertory’s wide leaps and the fugue of Quam olim.
However, the 34-member Vox Luminis XL differed from the ensemble heard in its earlier Renaissance and Bach performances. New singers and prominent soprano high notes sometimes disturbed the balance with the lower voices. Lionel Meunier directed from within the bass section, while violinist Gregory Ahss led the strings and stood to give general entries. Although there were no noticeable lapses, the performance lacked the overall cohesion a single conductor might have provided in music of this scale.
The concert ended with a tribute to the Urda victims. Baritone Víctor Cruz announced Mozart’s Ave verum corpus as an encore, describing it as music to be sung sotto voce, “as if it were a whisper, something that embraces you.” With the orchestra playing very softly and the soprano section finally fully integrated, Vox Luminis recovered its distinctive blend. After the opening minute of silence, the audience observed another 30 seconds at the end before applauding.
Sources: El País Cultura.