The Iturbi Piano Festival, organised by the Provincial Council of Valencia, will conclude this weekend with two concerts at the Palau de la Música by Joaquín Achúcarro and the Orquesta de Valencia, who will perform under the baton of Álvaro Albiach on Friday 21 June at 7:30 pm, and the pianist Nelson Goerner, who will close this third edition on Saturday 22 June at the same time. Tickets are free and can now be booked on the Palau de la Música website.

These two performances will bring to a close a musical event that has brought together great figures of the stature of Claudio Martínez Mehner, Iván ‘Melón’ Lewis, Juan Floristán and Akiko Ebi in the Teatro Principal, whose performances were warmly received by a devoted audience who gave long applause to the interpretations of these renowned pianists with outstanding international careers who perform in the best auditoriums and halls around the world, alongside prestigious orchestras and ensembles. In addition, ‘Melón’ Lewis gave a repertoire of jazz and improvisation in the Casas de Cultura of Torrent and Alzira.

In the final stretch of the festival, the Palau de la Música will host a concert by Achúcarro, Artistic Director and Chairman of the Jury of the Iturbi Prize, together with the auditorium’s standing orchestra. The programme will include the Concerto for piano and orchestra number 24 in C minor, K 491 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and will continue with the Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra by César Franck, to conclude with the Symphony number 1 in F minor, opus 10 by Dimitri Shostakovich.

The Basque concert pianist, winner of the National Music Prize, the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts and the Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit, has had an exceptional and uninterrupted international career, having toured 61 countries and performed in recitals and as soloist in halls all over the world with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, New York, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles, La Scala, London Philharmonic and Symphony, Sydney, BBC, French National, Yomiuri, Tokyo Philharmonic and Metropolitan, RIAS Berlin…. and all the Spanish orchestras.

Achúcarro, who has played with more than 400 conductors including Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Andrew Davis, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Simon Rattle and Jaap van Zweden was named UNESCO Artist for Peace in Paris in recognition of “his extraordinary artistic achievements”. He will star in a concert, in collaboration with the Palau de la Música, which will pay tribute to José Mª García de Paredes, the Sevillian architect who built the Valencian auditorium and others in Granada, Madrid, Cuenca and Murcia, on the centenary of his birth.

Händel, Schumann and Liszt

One day later, on Saturday 22 June and in the same venue, the Argentinian pianist Nelson Goerner will bring the Iturbi Piano Festival to a close with a demanding programme that will include the Chaconne in G major with 21 variations HWV 435 by George Friedrich Händeland Davidsbündlertänze (Dances of the Brotherhood of David) opus 6 by Robert Schumann; ending with the Ballade No. 2 in B minor, S.171 by Franz Liszt.

Considered one of the most outstanding pianists of his generation, Goerner has performed with orchestras of international stature such as the London Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Philharmonia and NHK Symphony, as well as those of Hamburg, Malmö and Antwerp and the New Japan Philharmonic, among many others.

The musician, who won first prize in the Franz Liszt Competition in Buenos Aires in 1986, has collaborated with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Philippe Herreweghe, Neeme Järvi, Sir Mark Elder, Paavo Järvi, Jonathan Nott, Fabio Luisi and Esa-Pekka Salonen, and has been invited to renowned festivals such as Salzburg, La Roque d’Anthéron, Tsinandali, Edinburgh, Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein and the BBC Proms.

The project promoted by the Department of Culture of the Provincial Council of Valencia works along three strategic lines: to programme great performers through the Iturbi Piano Festival; to pave the way for the talent of young pianists from all over the world and promote their artistic career through the Iturbi Prize, the Valencia International Piano Competition, and the Recital Series; and to highlight the figure, prestige and memory of the brother and sister José and Amparo Iturbi.

Recital Series and the Iturbi Prize

In addition to the festival, over the course of these weeks, piano music has reached, through the Recital Series, various towns in the province such as Puerto de Sagunto, Torrent, Alzira, Ontinyent, Chelva, Xàtiva, Utiel, Valencia and Oliva, where the pianists who won the last edition of the Iturbi Prize – the Italian Elia Cecino (first prize), and the Americans Anthony Ratinov (second) and Rachel Breen (third) – have performed. The cycle will end with concerts to be held in Parma (Italy) on 4 July, and in Toulouse (France) on 5 July, with performances by Cecino and Breen, respectively.

The Iturbi Prize, which keeps registration open until 25 November for the Valencia International Piano Competition, to be held from 4 to 14 June 2025, is a member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions, an association based in Geneva that brings together competitions from countries on all five continents, including the most prestigious international music competitions in the world. It is also a member of the Alink-Argerich Foundation, which brings together most of the international piano competitions worldwide.