The capital is already prepared to host Holy Week in all its splendor. The program of events that the City Council has devised will allow the most devout to experience this festivity with brilliance from the days before Friday of Dolores and until Easter Sunday. From March 24 to April 9, the streets, churches and emblematic places of the city will host a wide cultural offer that is not limited to traditional processions and that this year has focused on religious music.
What to do in Madrid this weekend
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The 16th edition of the cycle Organ Music of San Ginés opened the festival program on Friday March 24 with a concert by the German organist Samuel Kummer in the church on Calle Arenal. This Monday the performances continued with Jesús F. Ruiz, organist of the Basilica of Jesús de Medinaceli. On Thursday, March 30, Roberto Fresco, organist at the Cathedral of Santa María la Real de la Almudena in Madrid, will perform emblematic pieces such as Toccata and Fugue in D de Johann Sebastian Bach.
Bernhard Marx, organist of the Johanneskirche in Freiburg and the Abbey of St. Blasien in Germany, will put the finishing touch to the concerts on Monday, April 3. Under the title New repertoires, new generations, the cycle will include the representation of great works of the Baroque, Romanticism and the 20th century. Also performing, referring to the title of this edition, pieces by young composers such as Kummer or Christiaan Winter. All the concerts in the cycle are free to enter until full capacity is reached and will take place at 6:30 p.m.
Also on Thursday, March 30, the concert of the Municipal Symphonic Band will take place at the Cathedral of Santa María la Real de la Almudena at 8:00 p.m. The musical group will perform Mozart’s Requiem Mass directed by Jan Cober.
During the most emblematic processions, all eyes will be raised to the balconies, from which saetas will be played by flamenco singers and dedicated to the images that will parade through the streets of Madrid. On Good Friday (April 7) at 8:30 p.m., in the procession of Jesús de Medinaceli, Kiki Morente will sing to the Christ upon his arrival to meet the Virgen de la Soledad.
The next day, Holy Saturday (April 8) at 6:00 p.m., it will be Lela Soto’s turn in the Soledad procession, accompanying the encounter of this virgin with the Reclining Christ. This same day, at 7:00 p.m., the Plaza Mayor will be the scene of Arrows from the balconieswith the artists Fernanda Peña, Ángeles Toledano, Diego Amador Jr. and El Berenjeno.
The final point will be one of the most anticipated moments of Holy Week in Madrid, the traditional tamborrada in the Plaza Mayor. It will be on Resurrection Sunday (April 9) at 1:00 p.m., by the La Real, Very Illustrious and Ancient Brotherhood of the Slavery of Jesus the Nazarene and Conversion of Santa Magdalena de Zaragoza. The drummers will begin their tour in the Plaza Conde de Miranda and will cross the Plaza de la Villa until they reach the Plaza Mayor.
In addition to enjoying the processions, music and mysticism of Holy Week, visiting Madrid during this time of year is also an invitation to taste the typical gastronomy of these dates. Torrija is an essential dish and the best in the capital can be found in the Mifer workshop, a pastry shop with almost 53 years of life, located on Calle Virgen del Coro, opposite the Mercado de Ventas. This year in Madrid, Holy Week is heard and savored.
