BALLET CONTEMPORANI DE CATALUNYA

Artistic direction: Miquel G. Font

Jordi Masó and Miquel Villalba, pianists

PROGRAMME

Els focs de Sant Joan, music by Robert Gerhard, choreography by Miquel G. Font.

Igor Stravinsky, The Rite of Spring, version for two pianos.

Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of the composer Robert Gerhard and the 125th anniversary of his birth, the Festival has retrieved the Valls-born composer's second ballet, which was never premiered. Gerhard was commissioned by the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo to compose a ballet based on Catalan folk dances and festivities. The ballet was initially entitled Els focs de Sant Joan, but the Civil War and Gerhard's exile in Paris forced a change of title, Soirées de Barcelone. However, with the outbreak of World War II, the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo went bankrupt and was forced to dissolve, and Gerhard's ballet was never performed. Miquel G. Font, choreographer of the Ballet Contemporani de Catalunya, and the pianist Miquel Villalba have retrieved the ballet for a double programme with Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring in a version for two pianos.