23rd September 2022

On September 15th, Juanjo Mena marked the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month conducting the orchestra of Madrid’s Teatro Real in their Carnegie Hall debut. The program featured Spanish composers including Falla and Albéniz, as well as zarzuelas with soloists Javier Perianes and Sabina Puértolas. The gala performance, which was attended by Queen Sofía of Spain, was enthusiastically received by the press and the audience.

Francisco Salazar from Opera Wire wrote, “Madrid’s opera house brings passion and elegance to triumphant Carnegie Hall debut…Mena drew the audience in with the mysterious opening which turned into a ravishing and joyous dance…The music was played with rhythmic precision and virtuosity…In all this was an unforgettable evening with a major takeaway.”

Harry Rolnick from ConcertoNet wrote, “After 120 years, New York has finally caught up with one of the most exhilarating orchestras in the world.”

Juanjo Mena volverá al Royal Albert Hall el lunes 18 de julio a dirigir a la BBC Philharmonic en los internacionales BBC Proms. La velada comenzará con la orquestación de Webern del «Ricercar a 6” de Bach, seguido por el Concierto para Viola de James MacMillan con Lawrence Power como solista, y para quien fue escrita esta pieza. El concierto culminará con la Sexta Sinfonía de Bruckner que Mena grabó con la BBC Philharmonic y que obtuvo fantásticas críticas. “La interpretación de la BBC Philharmonic es apasionada – claramente Mena inspira a sus músicos.” (David McConnell, The Classical Review)

Se puede ver más información y comprar entradas aquí.

June 2022

Juanjo Mena will lead the Orchestra of the Teatro Real (Royal Opera), Madrid, in their Carnegie Hall debut on 15 September 2022, after they were named Best Opera Company in 2021 by the International Opera Awards. The concert highlights well-known works orchestral works, as well as works for piano and orchestra, and songs from zarzuela composed by Falla and Albéniz, amongst others. Soloists will include pianist Javier Perianes and soprano Sabina Puértolas.
Juanjo Mena recently debuted at the Teatro Real, leading critically acclaimed performances of Arthur Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher alongside Debussy’s La damoiselle élue, a new co-production with the Frankfurt Opera by Alex Ollé of La Fura dels Baus, which featured Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard in the title role.

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June 2022

Juanjo Mena will make his debut at the Teatro Real in Madrid from 7th June, conducting eight performances of Arthur Honegger’s dramatic oratorio Jeanne d’Arc au Bûcher (Joan of Arc at the Stake). The new co-production with the Frankfurt Opera, by Alex Ollé of La Fura dels Baus features the Oscar-winning actress Marion Cotillard in the title role, as well as a stellar cast of soloists, and the orchestra and chorus of the Teatro Real. Claude Debussy’s cantata La damoiselle élue (The Blessed Damozel), with libretto by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, opens the programme.

Full information can be found here.

March 2022

Juanjo Mena has enjoyed glowing reviews following his concerts with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra on 11th and 13th March. The repertoire featured Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez with Pablo Sáinz Villegas, Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and Lutoslawski’s Concerto for Orchestra.

“Guest maestro Juanjo Mena also demonstrated an uncanny ability to nudge the audience as well as the orchestra. He kicked off the evening in earnest with a spectacular take on Prokofiev’s “Classical Symphony.” […] Mena and the orchestra were marvelous. Unhurried, precise, explosively exciting — the orchestra brought its “A” game on Friday.”

– Jeremy Reynolds, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Image © Edward DeArmitt/Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Noviembre de 2021
“The National Symphony Orchestra was led by the Spanish conductor Juanjo Mena, who struck precisely the right balance of body and soul in a program bookended by Schumann and Brahms […] the former chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic made a memorable mark. He’s got a way with conjuring and releasing pressure, and can just as easily construct towering columns of sound as scatter them into clouds. […] Mena’s nimbleness was a large part of what gave the overture to Schumann’s 1848 “Manfred” the humanity required to hear the composer’s heart in the chest of the Byronic hero. It was one of the best openers I’ve heard all season. [In Brahms’ Third Symphony] Mena and the orchestra managed its triumphant tuttis as carefully as its many intimacies — the way the first movement quite literally peaces out; the design of the woodwinds that so beautifully illuminates the andante and accentuates the aching grace of the third movement.”
– Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post

Noviembre de 2021
Este disco es un doble CD dedicado a obras concertantes de Joaquín Rodrigo (1901-1999), de quien este año se cumple el 120 aniversario de su nacimiento. Un disco que abarca más de cuatro décadas de actividad creativa del maestro Joaquín Rodrigo, desde el temprano Tríptic de Mossèn Cinto, ciclo de canciones compuesto en 1935 hasta el tardío Concierto como un divertimento para violonchelo y orquesta de 1981. En el disco, intervienen como solistas el violonchelista Asier Polo (Concierto como un divertimento y Concierto in modo galante), Laura Salcedo, solista de violines segundos de la OCNE (Concierto de estío), la arpista francesa Marie-Pierre Langlamet (Concierto serenata, Sones en La Giralda) y la soprano Raquel Lojendio (Tríptic de Mossèn Cinto).

El CD está disponible aquí.

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