SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, 20 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) –
For several years, Carlos Núñez has investigated the more than 200 traditional Irish, Scottish and Welsh melodies, which were arranged by Beethoven in the early 19th century. As a result of this research, ‘Celtic Beethoven’ the first show that Carlos Núñez offers under the online demand format.
The circumstances imposed by the pandemic have encouraged the Galician musician to record this concert in an innovative format: a video in which he records various live performances in which he performs Beethoven’s pieces. In addition to his band, invited musicians and singers participate in the videoconcert, some of them online, such as the Irish violinist Maria Ryan, the Breton harpist Bleuenn Le Friec, the American James Dahlgren or the cellist Millán Abeledo.
The These pieces were recorded in unique spaces in Galicia, such as the Gran Hotel de La Toja; an avant-garde circular house located in front of the Cíes; the also avant-garde pavilion of the gardens of the Pazo de Cea; or the Colón Theater in A Coruña, that welcomes a Steinway piano, considered the best in Galicia. The video concert ‘Celtic Beethoven’ can be viewed online until April 17. For this, it is necessary to obtain an entry through the web bit.ly/CarlosNunez_CelticBeethoven at the price of 10 euros.
The author has given an interview to Europa Press:
Q: How do you feel about your first release in this innovative format?
R: Actually, I feel almost like a record coming out. Because although it is broadcast by streaming, in reality it is a fusion of what would be an album and a live show. We have recorded with the best media and the best technicians. In terms of sound, we have the quality of an album. And in the visual section, cinema quality.
Q: Why have you taken this step at this time?
R: Since I was 23 years old andIt is the first time I have spent the holiday of St. Patrick at home. It always coincided with me traveling or performing: in New York, at Carnegie Hall, with my teachers The Chieftains, at the Stade de France in Paris, in Dublin … And, somehow, I didn’t want to stop celebrating. What happens is that this time it will be the other way around. Instead of me going to play around the world, we are going to summon the world to come and listen to me in Galicia. That is why we have recorded in such special and privileged places.
Q: You say it’s a mix of album and concert, but isn’t there also some documentary?
R: Sure. There is also some documentary because in addition to showing unique places in Galicia, we have done the concert on a very specific theme: the Celtic music of Beethoven. In it, in addition to interpreting the pieces that Beethoven composed from Celtic music, he also interviewed some wise men, such as Barry Cooper, considered to be the person in the world who knows the most about Beethoven and that he connected with us from London.
Q: What did Beethoven bring to Celtic music?
R: Beethoven was the king of harmonies. Upon learning about Celtic music, he realized that they did not correspond to the schemes of classical music. It was about innovative schemes that he later applied in symphonies such as his ‘Seventh’. The incredible thing is that people are going to be able to see that there are things that sound like American music, things that we have seen later, in the twentieth century, in rock, in jazz … And we are talking about pieces from the early 19th century. That is to say, Beethoven went ahead, fused classical music and Celtic music, anticipating a hundred years to many things that we have known later.
Q: You said that in ‘Celtic Beethoven’ you propose a new way of interpreting these pieces, what do you mean?
A: The usual tendency is to caramelize these pieces, to make them too classic. However, they should not be played in a slow and boring way. It is very important that they keep their traditional rhythm. Therefore, for them to work they have to be performed by someone who knows classical music and also traditional Celtic music. As soon as you apply the tempo, the ornaments and the soul that these musics have, they are a cannonball. But it is true that they are very difficult pieces. They are a gift that Beethoven left us but they are also a challenge. Beethoven wrote for posterity and we are that posterity.
Q: Is this proposal to be viewed on demand online, is it a temporary project or a format that has come to stay?
R: I think we are inventing something new. What we are doing is a live show, all playing together, but recorded with the technique of a studio. As for if he’s here to stay, who knows where the shots will go in the future! But right now it is something that makes perfect sense.
P: And that allows you to enjoy a universal diffusion, to reach the whole world.
R: That is mind-boggling. Until now, we were the ones who had to go to all the countries. And now we make those who want come to visit us in Galicia. It is novel. Is different.
Q: Do you see the possibility of monetizing streams viable to the point that they can become profitable for artists?
R: With music, the same thing will happen that happened with the digitization of newspapers, film platforms or with the food that we order through the internet to take home. A new system will be created. Music belongs to the common of the trades. It is logical that this path also opens. In this case we were very curious to see what happened with this experience and many people are buying the tickets. Of course, this is never going to replace the experience of a live concert. Obviously not.
But also It is true that this format allows you to offer a series of luxuries and sophistications, such as recording a song with the best piano that exists in this country, another with a replica of a harp from the Portico de la Gloria that is I don’t know where, another with an Irish singer who connects from Dublin … That in a live concert would be impossible.
