Simon Rattle laments Liverpool loss

Carmen says:

OMG. Not even sure where to begin with this comment!

Spain has 26 full time professional symphony orchestras and 3 major opera houses. Top level, with Spanish musicians like Berlin’s Joaquin Riquelme in the pic above, rapidly moving into the best orchestras worldwide: Berlin, NYPhil, Paris, Concertgebouw, etc.

Spanish maestri Fruhbeck de Burgos & Jesus Lopez Cobos set the stage for the next generation of great Spanish conductors which includes Pablo Heras Casado & Juanjo Mena.

Spain’s symphonic scene is sophisticated and well-supported financially both publicly and privately. It’s very accesible to all and it’s a fundamental part of Spanish culture.

For the record, Franco was not a music lover. Spanish orchestras have thrived despite him. Franco was pretty much the reason Raphael Fruhbeck de Burgos left Spain to establish an international career. Long interesting story there.

When Franco died, combined with new EU arts funding a few yrs. later in Spain, the Spanish orchestral scene took off like wildfire! It’s been increasing & improving exponentially since then. Now Spanish orchs. are on a par with the best in Europe.

Regarding Spain’s band tradition – the true Spanish band tradition is from the south of Spain, from the region of Valencia, where children are given band instruments practically when they learn to walk and band music is an integral part of life in every pueblo. These wind players go on to become some of the best in the world. The musicians in the military band vid you shared are probably from Valencia.