White plastic chairs that act as seats and strollers that can become an impromptu audience. The Madrid Book Fair 2024 is not the only big event that currently hosts El Retiro and is that a few meters from where the literary event takes place is the music that takes the limelight with free concerts that hosts, once again, the Retiro’s pavilion.
With Jan Cober as chief conductor, the Banda Sinfónica Municipal de Madrid (BSMM) -which turned 115 years old this past June 2, by the way- will be in charge of performing the music that will be played every Sunday at noon in the bandstand until September (with a single break during the month of August).
According to the Madrid City Council, the repertoire will be composed of “traditional and popular musical genres [such as zarzuela or pasodoble] and classical compositions by great figures in the history of music”.
Calendar of free concerts at the Retiro’s pavilion
June
- Day 9.
- Day 16
- Day 21 (Friday). Special concert at 9 p.m. on the occasion of International Music Day.
- Day 23
- Day 30
July
- Day 7
- Day 14
- Day 21
September
- Day 8
- Day 15
- Day 22
What repertoire will be played in the Retiro’s pavilion?
Among the repertoire that can be heard during these concerts (which varies depending on the day) are works such as Lagartijilla by José María Martín Domingo, The Preludes by Franz Listz, the Semiramide Overture by Gioachino Rossini, a version of Tell me a jazz story by Jean Calude Naude, a brass quintet and El tambor de granaderos (Preludio) by Ruperto Chapí.
Also joining the list are Franz von Suppé’s Caballería ligera , Federico Moreno Torroba’s Luisa Fernanda (Mazurca de las sombrillas) , Thomas Doss’ Spotlights , Ruperto Chapí’s La revoltosa (Preludio) and excerpts from Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco: Orchestra of Hebrew Slaves and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana , among others.