"la Caixa" Foundation presents the participatory concert of Handel's Messiah at 8 pm on December 15 and 16 at the Palau de la Música Catalana.
”la Caixa” has organised concerts of Handel's oratorio since the 1980s, and the event is by now a tradition in Barcelona, where it has been presented a "participatory" performance since 1995 with the goal of encouraging the social practice of singing and paying tribute to the work of choral associations.
This twenty-first mass performance in Barcelona of Handel's Messiah, one of the most important and iconic works in musical history, sets a new record for participation, with a total of 388 non-professional singers taking part in each of the two concerts organised by ”la Caixa”.
After three months intense preparation, these amateur singers will perform some of the choral parts in Handel's well-known oratorio, accompanied by the Cadaqués Orchestra and the Chamber Choir of the Palau de la Música Catalana and the soloists Eleanor Dennis (soprano) Carlos Mena (countertenor), David Butt Philip (tenor) and David Soar (bass), led by the young British conductor Joolz Gale.
Since 1995, more than 42,000 people have lent their voices at the concerts organised, performing before a total audience of over 392,000. This time, moreover, ”la Caixa” Foundation is organising participatory concerts in eight cities, featuring more than 2,800 amateur singers.
This educational and participatory project, promoted by ”la Caixa”, is completed by the presentation, at 12.30 pm on Sunday, December 13, of the family concert Let's Sing The Messiah, organised in cooperation with the Orfeó Català - Palau de la Música Catalana Foundation. This concert will give 211 children and young people the chance to discover and perform some of the most iconic passages in the oratorio, accompanied by the Vallès Symphony Orchestra.
For the first time, the participatory concert of The Messiah will be broadcast live, in high definition, by medici.tv, an international digital platform specialising in classical music. Besides this global live broadcast - medici.tv has audiences in 182 countries - the concert will also be available on demand for the next three months. Users can also watch the event live from the ”la Caixa” Foundation website and Press Room.