Music, the only ingredient to transmit hope. Chronicle of the Christmas Concert at the UAB
There is a paradox. Music is everywhere, it is part of our being and our daily routine. We have the capacity to listen to it all the time, but in few moments we realise that it is there. We adopt a passive listening attitude and music disappears from the forefront of our lives. Sometimes, we don't realise that music is the only ingredient to transmit emotions and create bridges between cultures, people or even moments. On 19 December, the UAB Choir, the Chamber Choir the and Orchestra offered a song of hope for an hour. The stage became a symphonic refuge in which hypnotic voices and harmonised instruments emanated their own light to a hundred people who also believed that music was the only inevitable additive to achieve the intended recipe: a Christmas concert that would awake the absolute attention of our inner self to admire this art.
According to the director of the UAB Choir and Chamber Choir Poire Vallvé, the repertoire of songs that were perfomed "aims to be a message of hope, a bridge between cultures, a bridge that leaves behind the times of turbulent waters and heads towards light, hope and peace"
The concert entitled A Bridge of Hope offered a repertoire of ten musical pieces, including popular songs, Gregorian chants, contemporary madrigals, Christmas carols and lullabies. The Choir, the Chamber Choir and the Orchestra of the UAB were conducted by Poire Vallvé, who, with his constant corporal impetus and rhythmic flair, managed to show off and amalgamate the members of the different musical groups into a single entity.
First of all, sopranos, altos, tenors and basses created a choral bubble that managed to reproduce the hopeful message of the first eight pieces of music that were chosen, which introduced different styles and recalled past eras.
The selection began with two hymns to light by Thomas Tallis and ended the first part of the concert with a carol by Pau Casals, which recounted the joy of nature at the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Both choirs also performed arrangements of the Advent hymns Maria durch ein Dornwald ging and Veni veni Emmanuel, the latter conducted by the former director of the UAB Choir, Joaquim Miranda. With a subtle handling of the baton, Vallvé moved from a block of liturgical and madrigal music to another with world-renowned hits from the 1970s, such as Paul Simon's Bridge over troubled water and Freddie Mercury's Bohemian Rhapsody. The moments of piano and the choral start fused the chords and the sounds emitted in a captivating moment.
The Orchestra took the main stage in the second part of the concert. With the performance of George Gershwin's Lullaby, the string and wind instruments intermingled their rhythms with each other. Flutes, clarinets or oboes claimed the foreground with their vibrant sounds. Double basses and cellos accompanied them with their low registers, and violins and violas imposed their allegro power.
The last piece of the concert was a joint interpretation by the Choir and Orchestra of the Ukrainian carol Shchedrik, with an arrangement by the conductor of the Orchestra, Jesús Badia, to whom they dedicated the concert because he was unable to conduct his musical group for the first time. A short song that enraptured the audience. At every moment of the concert, the music was the only ingredient necessary to transmit emotions.