Adriana González & Emma Stratton & OSVA & Pedro Pardo

“Victoria de los Ángeles’ art belongs to the highest level of musical interpretation. I feel proud to be Catalan, as she was,” said Pau Casals of the soprano. With the evocative title Pau i Victòria, we celebrate Casals on the 150th anniversary of his birth while also recalling his relationship with Victoria de los Ángeles and the concerts they performed together. The soprano gave some of her first concerts at the Palau de la Música Catalana thanks to Casals’ initiative, as his Workers’ Concert Association made music accessible to everyone before the Spanish Civil War. Later, during Casals’ lifelong exile, a profound admiration developed between the two musicians. We have recently discovered that, while Victoria repeatedly declined invitations from General Franco to perform at his festival in La Granja, she did accept Casals’ invitations to his festival in Prades, in the Conflent region, which took place on the same dates. Soprano Adriana González, pianist Emma Straton, and Pedro Pardo conducting evoke one of these concerts they shared.