20200311_MUN_ConcertContemporaryArpAliciaGriffiths
Harps fill the Museum's exhibition rooms with a concert by Alicia Griffiths from Navarre.
Four pieces for contemporary harp will be performed, the last one a world premiere by composer Ekhi Ocaña based on Petrarca's verses.
The exhibition halls of the Museo Universidad de Navarra will be filled with harps this Friday by the Navarre-born Alicia Griffiths. The concert, which is part of the cycle Cartographies of Musicproposes a meeting with contemporary music in which up to seven performers, audience and composer will experiment with the Museum's architecture as another acoustic and musical element. Two performances are scheduled, at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., and tickets cost 10 euros.
It will be an intimate meeting , in which three exhibition halls will be visited and that seeks, Griffiths explains, "that the public feels close to the harps and discovers its world of sonorous possibilities. I think they will be surprised to discover this lesser-known facet of the harp, which here will not be so much the ideal of romantic or angelic instrument that the public, connoisseur or not, has in mind. It will be a contemporary, lively, contrasting and very rich facet that interacts and complements the space and architecture of the Museum.
In this sense, the harpist emphasizes that "the rooms of the Museum become extensions of the harp's sound box, another part of the instrument. We play with this element when choosing the rooms for each work to be performed, and for the one Ekhi Ocaña has written for the occasion".
ABSOLUTE PREMIERE
Specifically, the public will first hear three solo harp works by different composers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (William Mathias, Carlos Salzedo and Wolfgang Buchenberg). As a finale, there will be the world premiere of Triumphus Aeternitatisby Ekhi Ocaña, a work for harp septet based on two verses by Petrarch. "I have worked very closely with him in the composition process, helping him to get the best out of the harp, multiplied by seven, and to shape his musical idea with the best suitability and variety of resources for the instrument. It has been a very nice and enriching process", explains the harpist. The performers, besides Griffiths, are Hegoa Intxauspe, Nina Bahmann, Edurne Aizpún, Ana Olaso, Raquel Ortega and Ainara Moreno.
The result is a work that "plays with many resources and textures and, without wanting to reveal too much, also creates a contemplative experience, because of its celestial inspiration, two verses by Petrarca: Se fu beato chi la vide in terra and Or che fia dunque a rivederla in cielo?