On 25 May at La Rioja Festival Pablo Sáinz-Villegas joins Cuarteto Casals for the premiere of …d’un aire by Francisco Coll, a 5-minute work for guitar and string quartet commissioned by the Festival, where Coll is Composer-in-Residence for the 2025 edition.
The piece is a reworking of Aire (2023) for solo guitar, which transforms the colours and resonance of the instrument with an unusual scordatura turning. Whilst the solo guitar part remains unchanged, Coll has added an evocative harmonic and textural backdrop from the quartet. The piece also sees Coll draw on a traditional Sephardic melody from the song "Yo m'enamorí d'un aire" – material he was also draw on in his piano piece Madre, composed for the 2023 Iturbi competition, as well as the trio …de voz aceitunada for guitar, viola, and flute. Sáinz-Villegas premiered Aire at the Elbphilharmonie in 2023 and in January 2025 gave numerous performances of the piece at the Festival Internacional de Música de Canarias.
Cuarteto Casals gave the world premiere of Coll’s Concerto Grosso ‘Invisible Zones’ for string quartet, harp and string orchestra in 2017 with the Orquesta Nacionales de España conducted by David Afkham; the same year they also premiered Coll’s Cantos, an introspective 5-minute work for string quartet commissioned by Cristóbal Soler and the Semana de Música Religiosa de Cuenca. The Quartet would subsequently perform the work at L'Auditori, on tour in South Korea, LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura, and in November 2023 at the Musikverein as part of Wien Modern.
The Festival also features a performance of Coll’s Aqua Cinerea from the ADDA Simfònica conducted by Josep Vincent on 24 May. Coll’s Op.1, the 10-minute piece offers a foretaste of an explosive and unsettling compositional imagination. Its treatment of musical line reflects his strong ongoing preoccupation with the great polyphonic composers of the renaissance, and encapsulates the tendency to extremes, fluidity of formal thinking, sudden moments of rhythmic excitement, and brooding sensuality that define Coll’s mature style.
Juan Barahona, pianist with Ensemble Rona, also presents Coll’s Three Pieces ‘After Turia’ as part of their concert on 21 May, alongside his duet for violin and cello Rizoma from Montserrat Egea and Patricia Cordero. The 13-minute piano work draws on material from Coll’s guitar concerto Turia, which the composer will conduct on 3 April with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias – where he is engaged as Artistic Partner – and Jacob Kellermann as soloist.