Sonatas under the Spanish Sun; Classical Music in the Canaries
12-07-2007
CANARY ISLANDS Spain December 6, 2007 – Like your Brahms with some balmy weather? Then head for
Spain’s Canaries this winter. Sonatas
and symphonies will fill the air of eight of the Canary Islands from January 10
through March 1, 2008 when the 24th Annual Music Festival of the
Canaries – one of Europe’s only
classical music festivals in the winter – kicks off on January 10.
The first concert will take place at the spectacular Alfredo Kraus Auditorium in
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria with a
program of Beethoven’s Concert No. 3 for piano and orchestra, directed by Pedro Halffter and performed
by the Gran Canaria Philharmonic
Orchestra with the Children’s Choir of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Gran
Canaria (OFGC). The festival will end on March 1 with the final concert in
Santa Cruz de
Tenerife featuring the Orchestra of Cadaqués
with Sir Neville Marriner conducting Mozart’s Concerto No. 23 and his Symphony
No. 38.
During the eight-week festival, there will be 65 performances – 21 each in Las
Palmas de Gran Canaria on Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife on Tenerife –
and 22 performances on the smaller islands of Lanzarote, La Palma, Fuerteventura, La
Gomera and El Hierro.
Even the tiny La Graciosa – the
smallest of the islands – will host a concert, a performance of Beethoven’s
Quartets on January 12.
Mezzo soprano Cecilia Bartoli, a four-time Grammy winner, will perform on
January 31 and February 2, and the world-renowned Riccardo Muti will conduct the
London Philarmonia Orchestra in four performances, February 25-28. Led by Sir
Neville Marriner, the Orchestra of Cadaqués will perform on February 27 and 29
with the Women’s Choir of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Gran Canaria and
well-known Spanish soprano Ainhoa Arteta. Other top orchestras from several
European countries will perform including: The Netherlands Symphony Orchestra,
directed by Yakov Kreizberg (January 17-20); the Budapest Festival Orchestra,
with Ivan Fischer conducting (January 24-27); the Swedish Radio Symphony
Orchestra, led by Daniel Harding (January 28 - February 2), and the Finnish
Radio Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Sakari Oramo (February 12-15).
Year round sunny weather with average temperatures in the 70’s has been drawing
visitors to the Canary Islands since the
1960s. Lying just 62 miles off the African coast in the Atlantic, these volcanic islands offer beautiful beaches,
every water sport imaginable and a variety of striking landscapes. The
chain’s largest, Tenerife is
crowned by the majestic dormant volcano of Mount Teide, Spain’s highest peak at 12,195
feet. Surrounding peaks are carpeted with thick forests. Tenerife has miles of beaches to the south where many of
the resort hotels can be found and small unspoiled villages surrounded by
vineyards and banana plantations in the green north. Backed by mountains
and shaded by palms, Santa Cruz is an important regional deepwater port and
boasts many historic buildings including a church dating from 1500,
archaeological and fine arts museums and the bustling food market/bazaar Mercado
de Nuesta Señora de África. In Puerto de la Cruz there is a wine museum, the
Orotava
Botanical Garden and Loro
Parque, a subtropical garden with over 1000 parrots and the world’s largest
penguin zoo. The island offers plenty of shopping, sports and nightlife
options
Gran Canaria has one of the
archipelago’s most beautiful stretches of beach – some five miles long –
backed by towering sand dunes and an oasis of palms at its southern end.
At night this area of Maspalomas becomes “party central.” To the north,
the busy port of Las Palmas has a two-mile long beach lined with
hotels, restaurants, bars. Tourists flock here for the duty-free shopping
and the lovely atmospheric Barrio Vegueta, while hikers head for the rural
interior with its steep highland reaching almost 6,500 feet. With scenery
as diverse as the desert-like terrain in the south, impressive canyons in the
west, pine groves on the central plateaus and strange volcanic monoliths on the
summits, it’s no wonder the island is described as a continent in
miniature.
Least populated of the islands, Fuerteventura has endless
strands of white sand, towering dunes and clear blue waters perfect for
windsurfing. Tourism is relatively new here and the interior is
undeveloped. The futuristic landscape of Lanzarote with its hardened lava and dark
dunes suggests a scene from a science fiction movie. The entire island is
a UNESCO biosphere reserve and conservation and controlled development make it
an attractive vacation choice. Called the “Green Island,” La
Palma was prosperous before tourism. Now
visitors come for its lush foliage, black sand beaches and the huge crater
national park in its interior. The capital, Santa Cruz is a beautifully preserved Spanish
colonial city with elegant 16th century buildings. La Gomera‘s rugged mountains – its forest
was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site – attract hikers who want to get away
from it all. The smallest and least visited, El Hierro also draws travelers of a
solitary bent with deserted black sand beaches and a quiet pine forest. About a
mile north of Lanzarote lies La
Graciosa with streets of unpaved sand and some of the best beaches in
the island group.
While the Music Festival of the
Canaries began in 1985 on the tercentenary of Bach, Haydn and
Scarlatti, the Canary Islands have a long
history of music appreciation. The Philharmonic Society of Las Palmas was founded 150 years
ago. Later in the early 1900s, European opera companies stopped at the
Canary Islands on their way to South America,
and these early classical music performances created an important musical
tradition.
For complete information about the festival including dates, programs and
venues, go to: www.festivaldecanarias.com.
All performances start at 8:30 PM. Tickets range from about $17.70
to $140, or 12 to 95 euros. To book tickets, go to: www.generaltickets.com/cajacanarias/index.cfm.
And for further information about Spain, contact your travel provider or the
Tourist Office of Spain in New York
(212-265-8822); Miami (305-358-1992); Chicago (312-642-1992) or Los Angeles (323-658-7195) or go to www.spain.info.
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