Premiere of a symphony by the Navarrese composer González Acilu at the MUN, in collaboration with Fundación Baluarte.

Born in Alsasua, the maestro Agustín González Acilu (1929 - 2023) has been one of the most outstanding contemporary composers of our country. So much so that he was twice awarded the National Music Prize. As a tribute, the Museo Universidad de Navarra and Baluarte Foundation present the world premiere of his third symphony, with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra (OSN) and Borja Quintas at the baton.

The cycle Cartografías de la música hosts In memoriam, a concert scheduled for Friday, March 15 at 7.30 pm. Tickets are still available on the website and at the box office. Previously, at 6 p.m., the Navarrese composer and disciple of González Acilu Teresa Catalán and the architect Rafael Moneo, who designed the MUN, will hold a meeting, open to the public by invitation only, until full capacity is reached. In this conversation, attendees will be able to discover Acilu's contributions to contemporary music, as well as his artistic and vital keys, told by two figures who were close to the master.

Catalán says that the Navarrese composer maintained throughout his career "great rigor and coherence, prioritizing the creative interest that he struggled to achieve since his origins". Regarding the program planned for this Friday's concert, he explains that the works that comprise it, together with Acilu's own symphony, "speak of the composer to whom tribute is being paid", as they are composed by figures with whom he maintained a close relationship throughout his life: Julio Gómez was one of the composers who most influenced his musical training, in his classes at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid; Fernando Remacha encouraged him and made possible his training abroad; and she herself, "the person who has maintained the longest teaching relationship with the maestro in the specialty of Composition".

For his part, conductor Borja Quintas confesses that for him it is "an honor to be able to face a challenge such as the world premiere of Agustín González Acilu's Symphony No. 3 ", and qualifies it as "one of the most important musical events of this century in Spain".

He notes that Acilu finds in the "large orchestral staff an ideal medium" that allows him to take advantage of "personal timbral resources" to achieve "a construction that is robust and refined at the same time, with an implacable formal coherence". "With his characteristic compositional language - Quintas continues - Acilu once again achieves an extraordinary balance of all the musical parameters".

It is not, however, the first time that the MUN pays tribute to the figure of this musician. As the director of Performing Arts and Music, Teresa Lasheras , recalls , the MUN already dedicated a special event to the maestro in 2016. In it, the composer talked with Rafael Moneo, friend and generation mate, and chamber music was performed, also with a premiere.

On this occasion, the tribute is part of the tenth edition of the cycle Cartografías de la música. In memoriam, moreover, arises from the collaboration between the Museo Universidad de Navarra and Fundación Baluarte - Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra. For Lasheras, "the collaboration with Fundación Baluarte now allows us to pay attention to Acilu's symphonic music production and to focus on his contributions to musical composition and to the artistic scene of the Spanish 20th century, with the help of his colleague and friend Rafael Moneo and his disciple and friend Teresa Catalán".

For his part, Rubén Jauquicoa, director of the Baluarte Foundation and managing director of the OSN, also highlights the collaboration between entities that share "the commitment to energize and enhance the cultural life of Navarra". He emphasizes the commitment "with the recovery, preservation and dissemination of the musical heritage", especially with the one linked to Navarra. And it points out that through the edition of the Symphony No. 3 of the maestro Acilu, "the work is made available to the current citizenship and future generations".

Jauquicoa adds the importance of providing this event with a "formative character", from which the students of the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Navarra, who will play with the OSN, will also benefit, "so that they can begin to enter the professional field with a first-class repertoire".