The renowned conductor and viol player Jordi Savall will lead Le Concert des Nations, La Capella Nacional de Catalunya, and a group of 7 top soloists in a performance of Das Paradies und die Peri by Robert Schumann. This little-known work will be presented as part of the Yocpa 2.0 Project (Youth Orchestra and Choir Professional Academies), using period instruments and based on historically informed performance practices.
Through this approach, Savall explores the profound depths of musical Romanticism, bringing back a forgotten work that, despite its beauty, has remained outside the usual repertoire. An interpretation that invites us to rediscover a piece by Schumann with the sound and passion of its time, performed by 100 musicians – both choir and orchestra – under the expert direction of Savall.
At the end of this academy, a three-concert tour will take place: on April 5th at the Palacio de Festivales in Cantabria, on May 8th at L’Auditori in Barcelona, and on May 12th at the Philharmonie in Paris.
PROGRAMME
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Paradise and the Peri (not a religious oratorio) / Das Paradise und die Peri, Robert Schumann
You probably know Robert Schumann for his lieder, but the German composer’s interest in literature also led him to write a large-scale work which, in its day, was an undoubted success. “It is the most ambitious project I have so far undertaken”, he wrote in a letter, continuing “it is not an opera, I believe it is well-nigh a new genre for the concert hall. It is an oratorio; not a religious oratorio, but a secular one.” Schumann sought to renew the genre: while bearing tradition in mind, he used a mythological text, developed within an agile and dramatic structure. He composed a profoundly Romantic masterpiece of inspiration and beauty in which the recitatives and arias are delicately threaded together and the orchestra is just as capable of growing in splendour when the character requires it as it is of returning to the intimacy of chamber music. Premiered in 1843 at Leipzig, it rapidly crossed borders to win the hearts of audiences everywhere, yet today the work is rarely performed and is unjustly forgotten.
The score takes its inspiration from the poem Paradise and the Peri, published in a volume entitled Lalla Rookh, by the Irish poet and musician Thomas Moore. It tells the story of the mythological Persian creature the Peri, an ethereal being banished from Paradise, who longs to redeem herself. To do this she must discover “the gift most dear to heaven”: the quest takes her on a journey to India, to a battlefield where she catches the last drop of blood of a hero who has died fighting for freedom. But this is not enough. She then journeys to Egypt, where she encounters a young man about to die of the plague. Instead of fleeing, his beloved decides to stay with him until the end. The Peri captures the girl’s last sigh at the moment of her sacrifice; but still that is not enough. Finally, she flies to Syria, where she finds a child praying and an old man who has led a life of sin and blasphemy. On hearing the child’s prayer, the old man is filled with remorse and starts to weep: the tear shed by the old man is what the Peri was seeking, and it finally opens the gates of heaven to let her in. This strikingly topical work transcends the centuries and national borders because it appeals to the deepest mainsprings of the human condition: justice, love and forgiveness.
Alba Nogueras
The YOCPA 2.0 project (Young Orchestra and Choir Professional Academies) is an initiative led by the Centre Internacional de Música Antiga Foundation (CIMA) and co-financed by the European Union. The project’s aim is to offer training and employment opportunities to new generations of musicians. The training takes place through academies that combine the pedagogical work of renowned professional musicians with the learning of emerging young talents.
As part of the practical training, these academies offer the opportunity to perform alongside the ensembles conducted by Jordi Savall, La Capella Nacional de Catalunya, and Le Concert des Nations in renowned venues across Europe. Additionally, participants have the chance to record CDs with the repertoires worked on during the academies.
In this specific case, the preparatory academy will take place from 31st March to 5th April, 2025, at the Palacio de Festivales in Cantabria, with the participation of a total of 100 musicians, including singers and instrumentalists. Of these, 50% will be women, and half of the participants will be young musicians under 39 years old.
The advanced academy will take place from 1st to 6th May, 2025, at the Collegiate Church of Sant Vicenç in Cardona, and will include the recording of a CD of the studied repertoire.
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