A stamp of approval for the OJA

In 1994, the Orquesta Joven de Andalucía -OJA (Youth Orchestra of Andalusia)- made its first public appearance in the courtyard of the Hospital de Santiago in Úbeda (Jaen). Thirty years later, the Andalusian Programme for Young Interpreters is a consolidated reality which has boosted the artistic careers of generations of Andalusian musicians who, today, are international references of their different instruments.

Alejandro Posada leads the OJA in a luscious, ambitious, brilliant and high impact double programme which is a full session in itself: Ludwig van Beethoven’s Concerto for violin and The Rite of Spring, the orchestral piece for ballet with which Igor Stravinsky revolutionized the music of the 20th century. In Beethoven, violinist Javier Comesaña (Alcalá de Guadaíra, Sevilla, 1999) collaborates for the first time with the Orquesta Joven de Andalucía and makes his debut with this concerto, making it a double attraction.

Stravinsky composed a piece which celebrated the storyline of ancient primitive rituals celebrating the arrival of spring that included the presence of sacrificial victims. It cut in on the music of its time with a veritable storm of novelties and experiments in tonality, metrics, rhythm, accentuation, and dissonances. It is percussive and violent, doing away with the omnipresence of string instruments to evoke a savage, dissonant, and primitive world. There are superimposing melodic lines where the harmony moves away from classic tonality and, at times, there is a piercing rhythm of brutality and disorder. The work signified a definite rupture with the past which left its mark on the music of the 20th century. The OJA, is a youth orchestra that always impresses in its concerts with a precocious quality of sound. It takes on the challenge of such an intense score such as this with ambition, assurance, and audacity. Energy and elegance tend to be characteristics of the orchestra’s impassioned interpretations.

Concert to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Orquesta Joven de Andalucia.

@María Marí-Pérez