· The first edition, commemorating the 125th anniversary of the birth of José Iturbi, reaches its halfway point with the screening of the documentary A propósito de Iturbi [About Iturbi], this afternoon, presented by its director Manuel Gil

· On Saturday, Zabaleta will perform Goyescas, in the programme Amparo Iturbi y Granados, to pay tribute to one of the most outstanding pianists of her generation, who had a close professional relationship with her brother

· Valencian Josu de Solaun, the only Spaniard to have won the Iturbi Prize, will bring the festival to a close on Sunday with violinist Franziska Pietsch and the Quartetto Indaco, in a festival of the highest artistic calibre

· Glòria Tello, councillor responsible for the Iturbi Prize, said that “we are grateful for the warm welcome from the public and the excitement surrounding the first edition of the Iturbi Festival”

Valencia, 25 September 2020

The Iturbi International Piano Festival, organised by the Provincial Council of Valencia, reaches its halfway point with the screening of the documentary A propósito de Iturbi [About Iturbi] this afternoon at the Centre Cultural la Beneficència, followed by concerts by pianists Marta Zabaleta on Saturday and Josu de Solaun, together with violinist Franziska Pietsch and the Quartetto Indaco, on Sunday, which will close this first edition commemorating the 125th anniversary of the birth of Valencian pianist José Iturbi.

Manuel Gil will present the documentary he directed in 2002, which brings to the Iturbi Festival different perspectives and facets of the life of the pianist, conductor and composer through valuable testimonies and interviews with family members, friends and his closest collaborators. The work covers the most important milestones in his long and successful artistic career, with contributions from personalities from the music world who had the opportunity to know him and witness his international success.

Zabaleta will perform the programme Amparo Iturbi y Granados, paying tribute to a great pianist who had a close personal and professional relationship with her brother in concerts and films. Amparo Iturbi, one of the most outstanding pianists of her generation, was introduced to Enrique Granados by the composer Eduardo López-Chavarri, who declared

her the best performer of his work Goyescas, a piece that the pianist will perform at the festival.

The pianist from Gipuzkoa has won important prizes in international competitions such as the Paloma O’Shea in Santander, Darmstadt, the Jaén Prize and the Pilar Bayonna in Zaragoza, and has collaborated with prestigious conductors and orchestras such as the English Chamber Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Euskadi Symphony Orchestra, the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, the Extremadura Symphony Orchestra, the Castile and Leon Symphony Orchestra, the Murcia Symphony Orchestra, the RTVE Symphony Orchestra, the Region of Madrid, Galicia, Malaga, Granada, Valencia and Reina Sofía Symphony Orchestras, among others. She has also been invited to important international festivals and concert halls, notably her debut at Carnegie Hall with Asier Polo, and has made recordings with renowned record labels.

Glòria Tello, councillor responsible for the Iturbi Prize, Councillor for Culture at Valencia City Council and President of the Palau de la Música, said that “We are grateful for the warm welcome from the public and the excitement surrounding the first edition of the Iturbi Festival”. Tello emphasised that “this wonderful result reaffirms our commitment to the project we have outlined for this new era, with the creation of an international musical event that we must promote and ensure its continuity in the future”.

For his part, Óscar Oliver, coordinator of the festival, said that “this musical event reflects the level of the Iturbi Prize, a biennial competition that will be held in 2021, the year in which we will celebrate our 40th anniversary, and to which we invite pianists from all over the world to register in a call for entries that ends on 31 October”.

De Solaun and Iturbi

Josu de Solaun, from Valencia, the only Spaniard to have won the Valencia International Piano Competition in 2006 and the George Enescu Competition in Bucharest in 2014, among other important awards such as the European Union Prize in 2009, will bring the festival to a close with a performance of the highest artistic quality. He will perform the programme El Premio Iturbi together with German violinist Franziska Pietsch and the Italian ensemble Quartetto Indaco.

De Solaun and Pietsch have forged a remarkable partnership since 2017 and have offered numerous recitals in Europe in an intense and “electrifying” artistic collaboration that will continue in the coming months, after the shutdown and postponements caused by the Covid-19 crisis. The artists have recorded two albums for the Audite label – Strauss & Shostakovich in 2019 and Fantasque in 2020 – featuring works by French composers Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and Francis Poulenc, which have been highly praised by critics.

In the last concert, the two performers will take to the stage with the Quartetto Indaco, a group invited to numerous festivals and musical institutions in Europe. Their artistic work, which covers the classical repertoire and contemporary music, has been recognised in various competitions and they have collaborated with internationally renowned musicians.

International projection

De Solaun is one of Spain’s most internationally renowned pianists. He has performed in numerous countries in America, Asia and Europe as a recitalist and soloist alongside prestigious ensembles such as the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, the Rudolf Barshai Chamber Orchestra in Moscow, the La Fenice Philharmonic Orchestra in Venice, RTVE, Bucharest Radio, the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra of Bucharest, the Monterey Symphony Orchestra of California, the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, the American Ballet Theatre Orchestra of New York, the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, and the philharmonic orchestras of Mexico City, Valencia, Galicia, Euskadi and Bilbao, among many others.

Concertmaster

Pietsch began studying the violin at the age of five, made her concert debut at the Komische Oper in Berlin at the age of eleven, and was already engaged as a soloist with leading orchestras in the former GDR. She has won prestigious awards such as the Bach-Wettbewerb Leipzig, the Concertino Praga and the Maria Canals Competition in Barcelona, and her extensive career has taken her to various countries in Europe, America and Asia. From 1998 to 2002, she was the first concertmaster of the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra; from 2006 to 2010, she was second soloist with the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra and performed with the Düsseldorf Opera, Frankfurt Opera and the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Previous performers at the first edition of the Iturbi Festival include Javier Perianes, the Cuarteto Quiroga and Gustavo Díaz-Jerez. Tickets for the concerts, which begin at 8:30 pm, are free of charge until full capacity is reached and can be obtained at the Centre Cultural la Beneficència and on the websites www.labeneficencia.es and www.entradesvalencia.com.