The good news was that the The Balearic Symphony returns to the Palma Auditorium Finally! to fully develop your subscription season. and the badthe disconcerting first parts of the two concerts that have taken place so far. In both cases, opening a program of works that the audience had to face knowing that atonality was not at all its main option. In any case, we are talking about two important works in their own right and that it is one of the functions of any orchestra to entertain in views engaged in the compositional agitation of the 20th and 21st centuries. SO, On October 31, it was the turn of violin concert by Alban Bergreleased in 1935 – all twelve tones – and also known by the subtitle In memory of an angel. After, On November 14, we received the violin concert by Victor Kissinewritten in 2012.
If the first was overwhelmingly atonal, he at least had the courage to allow us to observe, very closely, Sergei Dogadinone of the great emerging values of the moment. The second, however, was something else from the moment when the orchestra exercised a marriage between the tonal and the atonal, leaving it in the hands of the soloist. Gidon Kremer –a living legend- absolute immersion in atonality. Moreover, this second meeting had in itself a moving and endearing character, being an evening In memory.
On November 14, as soon as you entered the main hall of the auditorium, you knew that moments of good character were coming. Presiding over the stage, the image of Eduardo Bernabéu, solo clarinetist of the OSIB and the caption: In memory. He had died a week earlier, Friday the 8th, a victim of cancer. When I learned of his death, I immediately contacted the director of the Balearic Symphony, Cristina Martinez.
It seems that his last professional activity, linked to OSIB, involved him in the preparation of the Turandotthe posthumous opera of Pucciniwhich was to be performed at the Teatro Principal in Palma. He only participated in the reading of the score, but he no longer had the strength to be in the pit during the four performances between October 21 and 27.
Eduardo Bernabéu, 58 years old from Alicante, He has been linked to the OSIB since 1996 as principal clarinet. He completed his studies at the Oscar Esplà Higher Conservatory in Alicante with honors and the Extraordinary End of Year Prize. His professional activity here on the island, in addition to being head of the OSIB, took place at the Conservatory and brilliantly at the head of the Manacor Music Band, which during his ten years of leadership knew how to carry him at the highest level. in its category.
Before the start of the concert on November 14, a moving minute of silence was observed, with the audience rising like a spring. And what happened next was kind of a riddle because it was a riddle. Bernabéu has been selected for the role of soloist on three occasions and on one of them, in 2006, he had to play in the clarinet concert by John Corioglano composed in 1977commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and also premiered in Spain. Well, on the night of the 14th, the violin concert of Victor Kissine, the work expressly written for Gido Kremer – soloist that evening at the Auditorium – which was premiered on December 14 at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and which will be played a few days later at the Gewandhausorchester in Leipzig, moreover the city that hosted the most influential film school in Europe.
Eduardo Bernabéu on clarinet and Gidon Kresner on violin, linked by the OSIB, by chance, during their respective premieres in Spain. I have no doubt that the recently deceased principal clarinet of the OSIB was listening to the concert from above. and let the atheists hold on.
I have always said that the main wealth of the OSIB is its soloists and each of them without exception. It is for this reason that while waiting for departure I always look at the seats occupied by the soloists and they all seem to me to be beings of light. When I looked at Eduardo in his seat, I stayed for a moment without stopping looking at him. Indeed, he was a being of light.
