An evening to thank Josep Pons for his 14 years of dedication and commitment to the Liceu.

"With Mahler, the term symphony loses its secular meaning, something that Beethoven had already begun, because for him a symphony is a whole in which everything is included, with its doubts, its obsessions, and its themes such as the soul or death."

Josep Pons

In 1906, Gustav Mahler described his Eighth Symphony as his most ambitious creation to date in both content and form. According to Mahler, the symphony was revealed to him as a blazing vision, with a unique structure: from beginning to end, everything is sung, with human voices as essential instruments. The work merges two distinct texts in different languages: the medieval hymn Veni creator spiritus and the final scene of Goethe’s Faust, which explores and expresses a shared idea of redemption through the grace of love.

The challenge of bringing the Eighth to life surpasses that of any other symphonic work. Josep Pons, after years at the helm of the orchestra and choir of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, brings this magnificent musical chapter to a close, having transformed these ensembles and left his own distinctive mark. This overwhelming Symphony of a Thousand, one of the greatest masterpieces of all time, will be a moving culmination of this love story. Thank you, Josep!

With the support of:

With funding from the Ministry of Culture, within the framework of Barcelona’s Cultural Capital initiative promoted by the Ministry of Culture and the Barcelona City Council.